Posted by business901 on July 26, 2010
The Business901 podcast featured Amir Schragenheim, President of Inherent Simplicity, a software firm specializing in TOC software for Production & Distribution environments. Inherent Simplicity is the exclusive software supplier for Production & Distribution software to Goldratt Consulting, Eli Goldratt’s consulting firm, in their Viable Vision strategic projects.
Mr. Schragenheim is a regular speaker at the TOCICO conferences, and is a TOCICO certified expert in: Supply Chain Logistics, Finance & Measures, Project Management, and Business Strategy. Before Inherent Simplicity, Mr. Schragenheim worked as a chief analyst for Attunity Ltd., where he was in charge of defining the technical requirements of a software tool to handle business processes.
Symphony, Inherent Simplicity’s software product is the leading and most comprehensive platform for implementing procurement, operations and distribution TOC solutions. Equipped with Inherent Simplicity's turnkey solutions, Symphony is capable of leveraging TOC know how to reduce lead time, optimize inventory levels and more, all with a determined goal in sight, leading your supply chain towards an unprecedented level of service, ultimately, amplifying your profitability.
Related Information:
Theory of Constraints Roundup
Transforming your Supply Chain to a Lean Fulfillment Stream eBook
Lean Six Sigma applied to Supply Chain
Application of Lean Six Sigma to the Supply Chain
Applying Value Stream Concepts
Posted by business901 on July 20, 2010
On the Business901 Podcast I had the pleasure this week interviewing Eric Landes. Eric is an Agile Project Manager who has been using Kanban for software development since 2007. He has worked with Scrum, XP and other agile methods for over the past 5 years, and has been managing software projects for over 10 years. Eric has his own blog, Corporate Coder which can be found at http://EricLandes.com. He is also a frequent contributor to http://developer.com.
Eric first caught my eye when I was reviewing the conference speakers and the workshops being hosted by the Lean Software and Systems Conference held last April in Atlanta. I had noticed that he was presenting a real life scenario of how an Operations Group’s Kanban adoption failed to improve cycle times. The session ended up in a 5 Why session and a Q & A to discuss other situations that had not produced results. I thought it was an excellent way to stimulate discussion and to learn more about Kanban versus the typical “this is what we did” approach.
This approach also told me a lot about the person. Someone that is comfortable with their failures represents someone that has a lot of self-confidence and most of the time knowledge. My instincts were not proven wrong. The podcast was down to earth with little if any lets change the culture rhetoric we so often hear. Our discussion started with Agile drilling down to Scrum and finally the last twenty minutes on Kanban and what he has learned implementing it. This is someone that knows what to do with a sticky note!
Related Posts:
Kanban at Xerox Corporation
The differences in Lean and Agile
Kanban, could we call this podcast anything else?
Business901 Kanban Search
Kanban too simple To be Effective?
Posted by business901 on July 13, 2010
I had 2 experts, Michael Curry and Rob Piersielak of the Xerox Corporation on the Business901 podcast to discuss Kanban. With so much being written about Kanban in software development and in my own writings on the Marketing Kanban, I felt that giving my readers and listeners a perspective on the traditional form of Kanban would be interesting. We stayed on track through the podcast but wandered off for a moment to discuss Lean and Standard Work practices at Xerox. 
To Xerox, a KanBan is a designated area on the production floor where employees stage material that is scheduled for consumption. Once the area empty, a signal is sent to the “supplier” to replenish the Kanban area with the designated quantity. During the podcast we discussed Internal, Local and Global Kanban.
Michael P. Curry is a Materials Manager for Worldwide Manufacturing Operations at Xerox Corporation. He leads an organization responsible for configuration, planning and purchasing in support of printer products built at Xerox in Webster, NY. He has 15 years of management experience with Xerox in positions such as Operations, Procurement and Materials/Logistics. Curry earned his BS from SUNY at Fredonia, NY and his MBA in International Business from St. John Fisher College, in Rochester, NY. He holds a Green Belt Certification in Lean Six Sigma and is a member of the Institute for Supply Chain Management.
Rob Piersielak was born in Rochester, NY. He received his BS in Industrial Engineering from Alfred University, and his M.S. in Engineering and Global Operations Management from Clarkson University. He is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, and is currently a Master Black Belt candidate. Over his 20 year career at Xerox Corporation, Mr. Piersielak has had numerous positions throughout the supply chain, all focused on process improvement and design. He lead projects redesigning manufacturing plants and warehouses in seven different countries, was part of the Global Just In Time Manufacturing Deployment team, and also lead the manufacturing team in rapid Time to Market product delivery project that delivered benchmark TTM results for Xerox. He is currently responsible for worldwide Supply / Demand and Order Fulfillment for the company’s flagship product, the iGen press, and is also responsible for Webster Manufacturing Materials Logistics Operations.
