manufacturing

Some thoughts on Industrializing Analytics

January 31, 2012

Some time back I wrote a post called “It’s time to industrialize analytics“. In an ongoing twitter conversation (I am @jamet123) I referenced it and provoked some interesting responses that seem worth addressing in more than 140 characters. The conversation was between @JAdP, @deanabb, @merv, @ajbowles and myself and they are all worth following.
We spent some time [...]

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First Look – Starview

December 13, 2011

Starview Inc. have just launched their new platform – Business Analytics and Optimization Platform (BAOP). Growing out of a long standing consulting practice, the company sees an opportunity for a platform aimed at the continuous optimization of decision-making. They are focused on Telco, Finance, Energy and Manufacturing (especially Semiconductor) and they have a vertically-oriented strategy, [...]

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First Look – Activant DynaChange rules

April 13, 2011

I saw an interesting press announcement the other day about Activant’s new business rules functionality. Activant (who recently agreed to be acquired and merged with Epicor) is an ERP provider focused on distribution and retail – 60% of revenues come from retail and 40% from distribution. Activant as a whole has 15,000 customers concentrated in [...]

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SAS – An executive overview

October 27, 2009

I am spending some time as a guest of SAS this week and we got started today with Jim Goodnight, CEO of SAS. He began by describing SAS Institute’s 33 years of continuous revenue growth as well as similarly growing reinvestment in R&D. SAS has not laid anyone off this year, for which kudos, and [...]

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Enhancing BPM with Business Rules and Analytics at Air Products

October 7, 2009

Charlie Lewis of Air Products described how they have been using workflow and business rules (FICO Blaze Advisor). Air Products is a Fortune 300 company that primarily supplies industrial gases in a variety of markets. Charlie begun by describing the communication and work challenges of a diverse company across many countries where different groups have [...]

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First Look – River Logic Enterprise Optimizer

July 16, 2009

River Logic’s Enterprise Optimizer is what is increasingly known as an “Integrated Business Planning” solution. Enterprise Optimizer is designed to manage cross-functional decisions at strategic, tactical, and policy levels considering all the elements and consequences of those decisions. The models you build allow you to see the financial and operational impact of those decisions and [...]

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Recommendation Engines- not as Complicated as You Think

July 15, 2009

Some time ago I saw this interesting little post -Recommendation Engine Secrets We Don’t Want You to Know: It’s not as Complicated as We’d Have You Think – that made the point that:
Most recommendation engines use one of a handful of methods that are well understood
And they are correct, of course. Recommendation engines involve some [...]

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First Look – myDials 3.0

June 8, 2009

myDials is a company focused on optimizing operational performance by delivering timely, relevant, actionable performance metrics, contextual information, guidance and “every person” analytics. On June 8th they announced myDials 3.0. myDials is focused on helping all employees focus on the monitor/analyze/adjust cycle that helps ensure that operations remain in synch with company strategies and plans. [...]

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Here’s how Decision Management and Six Sigma go together

June 4, 2009

I wrote a pair of articles for BR Community on Decision Management and Six Sigma:

Six Sigma and Decision Management — Introduction
Six Sigma and Decision Management — An Example

Enjoy.

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Decision management can improve warranty claims and customer experience

March 27, 2009

Warranty Week (Computer Warranty Trends, 26 March 2009) had an interesting article this week about the rising rate of warranty claims in computer companies:
While other industries are seeing claim rates rise and accrual rates fall, warranty providers in the computer industry are seeing claims rise slightly and accruals rise a lot

This prompted me to write [...]

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Driving harmonization for competitive advantage

March 12, 2009

Kevin Hogan of Accenture talked about how implementing a warranty system can drive harmonization and competitive advantage.  His focus was on a recent case where they helped a company implement an SAP-based Warranty solution. The case is a global heavy equipment manufacturer with about a focus on Europe and North America. They were running 4 [...]

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Driving customer loyalty in a disaggregated industry

March 12, 2009

Steve Zannos of NEW Customer Service Companies presented on customer loyalty in an industry with lots of third parties involved. NEW provides service support to companies who sell products and works with 30,000 independent service agents – everything from single technicians to large depots to national networks. They try to drive customer loyalty through this [...]

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Designing and implementing a web-based warranty system

March 12, 2009

Frank Kozlowski of Kohler presentedf on a web-based warranty system. When they set out to develop the system their goals were to move to a start-of-the-art, easy to use system that was web-based so dealers could enter claims directly anywhere in the world (they have 12,000 dealers). They wanted to reduce their cycle time from [...]

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Quality and warranty cost reduction strategies

March 12, 2009

Jim Johnson of IBM gave IBM’s point of view on quality lifecycle management. Jim works in Global Services and works with auto and truck manufacturers. IBM’s research shows:

That warranty reserves accrue at between 1% and 3% of sales and this is continuing to increase.
Detection to correction cycles average over 100 days and can exceed 220
Electronics [...]

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Looking upstream for warranty cost savings

March 12, 2009

Kjell Hammerstrom of Sun presented on warranty costs. Product management teams specify warranty term duration and terms of warranties on products while procurment teams negotiate warranty terms with equipment manufacturers (many of Sun’s products are built by a manufacturer like Qunta, Mitac, Celestica). However the process was not collaborative – products would be released with [...]

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Designing performance measurements to identify and reduce warranty waste

March 12, 2009

Doug Maddox discussed how Chrysler has worked on warranty waste and performance measures to help prevent and eliminate it. In the past, Chrysler had relied on Expense per Unit Repaired to monitor dealers but this was easily manipulated (high cost repairs could be hidden) and it drove adverse behaviors because dealers would refuse to perform [...]

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Warranty Management – New rules to apply

March 11, 2009

Rob Pritchard of Infosys presented on the power of business rules in warranty. His focus is on agility – most warranty systems are inflexible and hard to change. Organizations cannot make changes to warranty policy to respond to competitors, can’t create what-if scenarios, can’t tighten claims control or pre-valid claims or repairs. These problems come [...]

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Harnessing and Coordinating Warranty Best Practices in a Global Enterprise

March 11, 2009

Terry Adams of Ingersoll Rand, the parent company of Trane, presented on harnessing and coordinating warranty best practices. IR includes Trance, Thermo King, Schlage, Steelcraft and others for about $17B worldwide. All these acquisitions have experience and systems so Ingersoll Rand has a vision of a Business Operating System to drive common [...]

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Measuring and improving an effective and efficient warranty process

March 11, 2009

John Hagen of Trane presented on measuring and improving an effective and efficient warranty process. Trane produces Commercial HVAC systems of every size. Warranty is tricky because they make everything so specific to customers.
Trane started a new quality initiative in 2004 because they felt that there were some low hanging fruit. They had warranty reserves [...]

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An update on the warranty industry

March 11, 2009

Eric Arnum, editor of Warranty Week, gave an overview of the industry as a whole. Clearly the recession is taking its toll. Starting with new home builders it has spread to RV makers, auto makers, various retailers, GE and others. Warranty is important in many of these company’s challenges and some, like Hyundai, are trying [...]

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