Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to L W Poole.
Most U.S. companies have found themselves under immense pressure to reduce their costs, improve their quality, and reduce the cycle time of manufacturing current products and getting new products to market. Cycle time reduction is still fertile ground for gains in competitiveness, and this article describes the process that Eastman Kodak Company has used to achieve significant improvement, 50 percent or more in some areas.
Each year at budget time, the standard question asked of the materiel management group is "Why do you have so many people?" Our answer had been that we do not have enough people. With more people, we could lower total cost and manage inventories better. The inevitable standoff occurs with each side feeling that the other does not understand the need for materiel management services. In early 1993, we decided to be prepared to answer the famous question of Dr. W. Edwards Deming, "How do you know?" We wanted to show people we really did know our business and thus initiated a project to benchmark planning, purchasing, and scheduling services of other companies. This article shares not only the results of the benchmarking efforts, but also the techniques for getting started.