Organize your day.

‘IF YOU FAIL TO PLAN, YOU ARE PLANNING TO FAIL’

 ‘If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail’…. is a famous quote by Benjamin Franklin.

What i will mention below is not rocket science and you can see in other 100 blogs.. the idea is to repeat is that i see failures every day.. from those who fail to plan ahead

According to Wikipedia ; Planning (also called forethought) is the process of thinking about and organizing the activities required to achieve a desired goal. Planning involves the creation and maintenance of a plan. As such, planning is a fundamental property of intelligent behavior. This thought process is essential to the creation and refinement of a plan, or integration of it with other plans; that is, it combines forecasting of developments with the preparation of scenarios of how to react to them. An important, albeit often ignored aspect of planning, is the relationship it holds with forecasting. Forecasting can be described as predicting what the future will look like, whereas planning predicts what the future should look like.^[1] The counterpart to planning is spontaneous order.

Also According to leaders and development icons "Planning" means setting performance expectations and goals for groups and individuals to channel their efforts toward achieving organizational objectives. It also includes the measures that will be used to determine whether expectations and goals are being met. Involving employees in the planning process helps them understand the goals of the organization, what needs to be done, why it needs to be done, and how well it should be done.

STEP 1 (10 Minutes) Plan for Day Ahead. 

Exactly Before Sleeping , sit down with a blank piece of paper and decide what will make next day successful. 

• What are the actions that if you did will make you on top of your work "for this day". 
• What can you truly accomplish ? 
• What will make your goals nearer and allow you to leave at the end of the day feeling productive & successful? 

1. Take your calendar - or PC calendar -and schedule those things into time slots
2. Place the hardest and most important items at the beginning of the day. - While you are on your Peak - " Recommended read " Eat your Frog"
3. Naturally Some items will not fit your "24 hours" , Go and  reprioritize your list. - recommended Read "ABCDE ToDo List"

STEP 2 ( 3 minutes every hour) "Check" . 

Recommended Read - PDCA Cycle- 

• Set your phone, or computer to ring every hour. When it rings, look at your list and ask yourself if you spent your last hour effectively . 
• Manage your day hour by hour. Don't let the hours manage you. " famous quote"

Last Step  Check-Act :

• Hold your list of the day... What was finished ? Where did you excel ? Why did you get distracted? What will be passed to  tomorrow To-Do and why ? What will be delegated or Eliminated  ?

Once you have this Done with "Routine"  you will find your self more productive and have more capacity to plan and focus 

The Shewhart Cycle -Part 2-

The Shewhart Cycle -Part 2-

 PDCA – Plan, Do, Check, Act

Also Presented  as  “The Deming Wheel” or “The Shewhart Cycle”

Continuous improvement

The PDCA is an example of continuous improvement, however there are other implementations of this idea. For example Kaizen is another approach adopted by Japanese manufacturers.

One of the significant aspects of continuous improvement systems is aiming higher next time so that at the review stage higher targets are set so that the business continues to improve.

This is an essential part of the standard ISO 14000 and it is what differentiates environmental management systems from quality systems.

Sources of information for continuous improvement

To realise continual improvements, a business should not only know what deficiencies exist, but understand why they exist.

This can be achieved is by analysing the root cause(s) of environmental management system deficiencies.

Some useful sources of information for continuous improvement could include:

·         experience gained from corrective and preventive actions

·         external benchmarking against best practices

·         intended or proposed changes applicable to legal requirements and other requirements to which the business subscribes

·         results of environmental management system and compliance audits

·         results of monitoring of key characteristics of operations

·         results of progress towards achieving objectives and targets, and

·         views of interested parties, including employees, customers and suppliers.

Examples of continuous improvement

Improvements can be made either within or outside the process of setting and reviewing environmental objectives and targets. Some examples of improvement include:

·         establishing a process for evaluating new materials to promote the use of less harmful materials

·         improving a business's process for identifying applicable legal requirements so that new compliance requirements are identified in a more timely fashion

·         introducing wastewater treatment processes to allow water reuse

·         redesigning delivery routes to reduce fossil fuel consumption by transportation companies

·         setting objectives and targets to implement fuel substitution in operations and reduce particulate emissions.

The PDCA cycle also helps to understand when one might wish to employee different quality tools.  The visual below is used with permission of Jerry Svendor of Westshore Community College, Michigan.

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THE TACTICAL OBJECTIVES IN A SUPPLY CHAIN

The global objective of a Supply Chain is customers’ satisfaction.  At the same time, individual components of the Supply Chain aim at maximizing their shareholder value by maximizing the Return on Investment (ROI) of their investors. ROI is the ratio of profit to capital employed over one year. This strategic objective can be translated into several short- and medium-term objectives at the tactical level.

  The main tactical level objectives in a Supply Chain are:

•         Minimizing the time required for converting orders into cash.

•         Minimizing the total Work-In-Process (WIP) in the Supply Chain.

•         Improving pipeline visibility, that is the visibility of each one of the activities of the Supply Chain by each one of the partners.

•         Improving visibility of demand by each one of the partners.

•         Improving quality.

•         Reducing costs.

•         Improving services.

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A SUPPLY CHAIN

Financial evaluation

Costs to take into account in the evaluation are the costs per unit (of product, or service). This cost per unit should be compared with the price paid by customers to enjoy the product or the service. 

Operational evaluation

Three main parameters should be measured to evaluate this aspect. These parameters are:

-          The availability.

-          The adequacy to customers’ expectations.

-          Customers’ service

Customers’ service

Adequacy to customers’ expectations

•         The question to be answered here is the following: are the products or services being provided closer to customers’ requirements than those of the competitors? The comparison of the "closeness" of products or services to customer expectation is more difficult to measure.

 The following measures should be made:

•         How many phone calls are necessary, on the average, to reach an employee? The result should be as close as possible to one.

•         How many employees should the customer get in touch with, in order to obtain the information he/she is looking for? The result should also be as close as possible to one.

•         How long does it take to obtain an appointment?

•         How long does it take to replace the product in case of breakdown, or to replace the provider of the service if necessary?

•         What is the average delivery delay? This aspect is important to gain new customers and keep them. As a consequence, this delay should be equal to zero.

•         What is the percentage of first time satisfied orders, i.e., orders that are correct in quantity and quality?

•         What is the percentage of invoices that are not accurate?

•         What is the time required, on average, to complete an incomplete delivery?

•         What is the time required, on average, to correct an invoice that is not accurate?

•         Do the Supply Chain offer training if necessary?

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WAMDA Team

                                                                                                       Walaa Maher ....Sep 12

Intermodal Freight Terminals

 1. DEFINITION OF THE SUBJECT

Intermodal Freight Terminals (IFT) or transfer points are places equipped for the transhipment and storage of Intermodal Transport Units (ITU). 

They connect at least two transport modes, which usually are road and rail, although waterborne (sea and inland waterways) and air transport can also be integrated. It is possible to find terminal companies and bodies handling both freight transport (eg. freight forwarders, shippers, transport operators, customs) and accompanying services (eg. storage, maintenance and repair): in this case IFT are also referred to as logistic centres or freight villages.

Terminals represent the nodal points of the intermodal transport network and their efficiency significantly affects the entire intermodal freight transport chain. Efficient intermodal transport requires infrastructure planners and managers across Europe to co-operate in establishing coherent networks of efficient transfer points, which are the weakest links in the current intermodal transport system and a major generator of friction costs.

These costs are generated through many factors. First of all, there is a lack of a coherent network of modes and interconnections between the modes in a number of high density corridors in Europe. There is also inadequate access by rail, road or waterborne transport to existing transfer points, which can hamper the integration of these modes and transfer between modes.

Another factor is the lack or inadequacy of Interoperability between modes and loading units. In fact, dealing with a variety of loading unit dimensions and different standards for transport means and infrastructure (often regulated differently by country and by mode) lowers the levels of interoperability between different modes, and produces congestion and inefficiencies at terminals. 

Finally, present-day terminals, which are usually marked by a combination of heavy engineering and manual processes, are not managed efficiently with appropriate ICT technologies.

The absence of a systematic network for data interchange along the entire intermodal transport chain is a source of high costs and service deficiencies. Existing modal-based information transmission systems require users to re-enter similar data at each interface, possibly according to different messages or EDI standards. The implementation of generalised systems for electronic communication between the different partners in the intermodal chain would mean that there was the opportunity to change operations at short notice along the journey. The absence of systems enabling tracking and tracing during the whole journey across modes, does not allow for a quick detection of errors and false routings.

2. RESEARCH NEEDS

Research projects carried out before the Fifth Framework Programme (FP5) have addressed many issues relating to the improvement of the efficiency of intermodal terminals.

Some have focused on general aspects of the intermodal network and on tools or solutions for the effective integration of modes in the door-to-door transport chain. Others have looked at some on the improvement of technical operations and the information flows. 

The results have made it clear that it is necessary not only to further investigate and find solutions for issues already addressed, but also to direct research efforts towards new challenging issues. First of all, it is essential to guarantee permanent concerted activities in the field of intermodal terminals in order to create and maximise synergy among intermodal transport RTD projects carried out at European and national level.

There is also a need for improving intermodal transport operations and the quality of the services offered, concentrating on the use of information technologies for terminal management purposes, focusing on the quality of inland terminals and investigating the opportunities for the integration of intermodal terminals in seaports and inland ports as well as the enhancement of port operations. It is also necessary to develop and assess harmonised security and safety procedures for freight intermodal transport operations, since theft and damage to ITUs either inside terminals or

during transport, reduces the attractiveness of intermodal transport.

Research efforts are needed to continue to improve harmonisation and interoperability between transport modes, transport equipment and loading units. Technical specifications for transport means are often regulated differently by country and by mode. The incompatibility of the transport equipment for road, rail, short sea and inland waterway traffic raises transfer and handling costs and necessitates cumbersome transhipment techniques. Furthermore new solutions are needed for the optimisation and rationalisation of transfer procedures and techniques. There is a particular need to integrate horizontal transhipment technologies in the intermodal door to door chain, because their technical features make them more suitable and economically convenient than the vertical ones for low traffic fl ows and small terminal operations.

With the enlargement of the EU and the corresponding development of the Trans- European Transport Networks (TENT) towards Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs), it has also emerged that there is the need for research on the interoperability of the transport networks at the terminal at border crossings within the EU and towards CEECs in order to overcome technical and operational barriers. It is also necessary to assess the availability of intermodal transport means and suitable infrastructures. 

Finally, it is vital to continue the development of integrated information systems and ICT technologies in order to make better use of existing capacity and infrastructures, through a more efficient organisation and management of the terminal operations.

Yara Hatem

3PL Define the Meaning of Cost Saving & Better Service

 To the non-experienced eye 3PL is just an expression that recently has dominated the organizations, but what lots of people don’t know about the Third party provider is that it’s an essential strategy to follow for various organizations.

Simply, The use of third party logistics, or 3PL, means a substantial cost savings to companies who would ordinarily have to lease or otherwise contract these services.

A third-party logistics(3PL) provider or “third party’’ logistics services to companies for part, or sometimes all of their supply chain management function.

3PL typically specialized in integrated operation, warehousing and transportation services that can be scaled and customized to customer needs.

Many companies are deviating from having their own warehouses and transportation services to that of contracting with various services providers such as UPS (United Parcel Service).

For many companies, contracting with services providers is easier and cheaper than doing the work themselves. After all, they don't have to worry about storage, transportation, or distribution of the material. With a phone call to the 3PL company, they arrange for the material to be shipped to their customer or they pre-arrange a schedule for a specified amount of product to be released to the customer on certain days of the week or month. They don't even have to call a trucking company, since most of 3PL have their own fleet of trucks for transportation of goods.

The $100 billion 3PL market has experienced dramatic growth of approximately 15% per year over the last decade and shows no signs of slowing down. statistics shows that 42% of shippers are currently planning to switch to 3PL; 17% because of cost, 25% because of services (saving time and money) Many experts within the industry have observed that only 10% of logistics services are currently outsourced in the U.S. and believe that the U.S. will transition to a model more similar to that of European countries, where approximately 40% of logistics services are outsourced to 3PL service providers. 3PL service providers will propel growth into the future.

More companies are choosing to contract services with 3PL Company, so they don't have to concern themselves with the warehouse, distribution, and transportation activities. Delegating these functions to someone else gives the company more opportunity to concentrate on their core activities. It's a function that companies is a firm that provide outsourced tend to find time consuming and often boring from a paperwork standpoint, so if they can leave all that up to a third party, that improves their efficiency. Depending on the terms of the contract, sometimes the 3PL company also handles billing and collecting payments from company’s customers for the products it ships. This frees time that your accounting department can use to take care of other financial matters.

Freeing the company of continually hiring warehouse workers, replacing fleets of trucks, and paying bills for shipments to customers will allow them to operate more economically, as they will be able to operate with less staff.

..................... Sep-12