By all accounts, APICS '96 was a standout among APICS conferences. A survey of more than 600 attendees revealed that for more than four out of five (82 percent) the conference met or exceeded their expectations. Ninety-one percent said they would attend the 1997 APICS International Conference and Exhibition in Washington, D.C.

Informal discussions with APICS members during the 1996 APICS International Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans revealed similar widespread enthusiasm for the educational program. Sessions offered ran the gamut of production and resource concerns, from accurate inventories to the Zen of the Internet. The better attended of the 150-plus sessions, many of which drew more than 500 attendees, can be classified as centering on one of three areas: planning and scheduling, inventory and resource improvement.


Planning and scheduling
Among the first sessions held at the conference was a presentation by James G. Correll, CFPIM, which focused on one of the conference's most popular topics -- finite capacity scheduling. Correll stressed that the success of the finite scheduling process depends only to a small degree on what software is selected. "You can't just install finite scheduling software, flip the switch, and expect it to provide good schedules for you," he said. Rather, the critical success factor in implementing finite scheduling lies in investing in your people and making sure they gain the knowledge and develop the ability to utilize the process to its full potential.

Correll stressed three points as key to the effective use of finite scheduling:

• Understanding how finite scheduling works
• A high level of data accuracy to generate valid information
• Understanding how to manage and make decisions based on finite scheduling information to achieve on-time delivery and improve productivity and throughput.

Joseph Shedlawski, CPIM, focused on value-added forecasting in his take on planning and scheduling issues. Shedlawski examined the importance of accuracy in remaining competitive. The biggest forecasting pitfalls he identified were: forecasting the wrong things by forecasting everything; individual decision-making; second guessing; overreaction; conflicting purposes; sudden, unpredictable change; failure to recognize all sources of demand; and lack of timely monitoring.

The optimal method of forecasting, according to Shedlawski, involves the determining of what to forecast; the modularizing of options bills; assigning of responsibility; measuring the forecast; monitoring the forecast method; honoring, but not worshipping, the time fence; not just predicting but affecting; and sales and operational planning.

"Scheduling to Keep Your Customers Happy" was the session presented by John R. Dougherty, CFPIM. Dougherty stressed the importance of maintaining focus in this era of streamlining, restructuring and three-letter acronyms. This means that short-term fixes and the latest program, process or acronym will not be enough to get the job done.

Dougherty also contends that suppliers must work more creatively to meet customer demands. The first step in this creative process should be to ensure that every employee understands and applies the use of approaches, tools and techniques that already exist in the company's body of knowledge. To cement his point, Dougherty said, "World-class companies don't pursue the rare breakthrough at the expense of ensuring that they're getting the most from what is already available."

Keeping with the theme of avoiding planning and scheduling fads, Jack Gips, CFPIM, delivered a session focused on maintaining shop floor control progressiveness. Gips contends that shop floor control has historically been a weak link in manufacturing systems because shop floor planning has been based on customer needs and forecasts, with little regard to manufacturing considerations and the measurements to which manufacturing reacts. To counteract this, Gips recommends that companies be more analytical in determining which tools to use in improving their shop floor control practices.

The theory of constraints (TOC) proved to be one of the hotter enterprisewide planning and scheduling trends in evidence at the APICS International Conference and Exhibition. Dierdre Bradbury Jacobs' (Avraham Y. Goldratt Institute) lectured on using the TOC to bring a project in on time, focused on how the TOC addresses the handling of resource dependencies, and the placement of time buffers to cover statistical fluctuations. And Thomas B. McMullen Jr. (founding chairman of the APICS Constraints Management SIG) examined TOC and how its philosophies, practices, decision processes, measurements, logistics and systems architectures all work together to provide an infrastructure for agile manufacturing.


Inventory
As more manufacturing processes necessitate better inventory data and management, the call for a back-to-basics approach is reaching a fever pitch. Thomas F. Ribar, CFPIM, delineated this fact in his session: "Just Get It Right! Measure It and Fix It ... The Only Sure Route to 98 Percent Inventory Record Integrity." Ribar debunked the belief that inventory is an independent variable in the manufacturing equation. "Inventory is really a dependent variable. It is the result of everything that is done or not done in a manufacturing organization," he said.

Ribar went on to outline the nine basic steps involved in attaining a 95 percent inventory accuracy and maintaining it: 1) create the team and educate; 2) formalize responsibility and accountability; 3) identify points of control; 4) define how transactions are processed; 5) design the control points and provide the tools; 6) formalize the process with policies and procedures; 7) train and focus the teams; 8) cycle count for problem identification and resolution; and 9) measure and publicize performance to drive improvement.

Up-to-the-minute materials awareness also took center stage in "Inventory Accuracy in 60 Days," presented by George J. Miller, CFPIM. Miller delineated five phases in achieving inventory accuracy: 1) realizing there is a problem; 2) agreeing on a solution approach; 3) solving problems; 4) correcting records; and 5) ongoing cycle counting/maintenance.

Countering evident inventory tracking processes, Miller said, "Inventory accuracy doesn't really improve by counting things. It only improves when basic systems, procedures and training improve. Identifying issues and resolving them so that they never occur again is the key to achieving accuracy goals."

On the topic of integrating vendor-managed inventory (VMI) into supply chain decision-making, Mary Lou Fox, CPIM, spoke of how VMI leverages advanced technology and trading-partner relationships to enable the flow of information and inventory throughout the entire supply chain. VMI provides visibility into demand at the trading-partner level to improve the flow of products, eliminate inefficiencies, and lower costs. By incorporating demand and distribution planning, VMI provides integrated, enterprisewide answers to problems in the supply chain. Benefits from VMI include improved customer service, reduced demand uncertainty, reduced inventory and reduced costs. Some of the larger companies currently implementing VMI include Johnson & Johnson, Black & Decker, and Schering-Plough.

By first looking to the past, Ken Stork, CFPIM, offered his views on the future role of materials management. His presentation began with a 30-year-old prediction of the future of materials management, and then segued into how advances since that time have laid the groundwork for the conventional wisdom predominant in inventory management today, and a very different reality from that predicted decades ago.

Resource improvement
Restructuring an organization to fulfill current demands of customers was explored by Richard J. Schonberger, Ph.D. (Schonberger & Associates, Inc.). He noted that while the customer mind-set is strongest in frontline operations and gaining strength in support functions, too often the strategic hierarchy is left out, which leaves them to continue following the advice of Wall Street. To correct this, forward-thinking companies are beginning to refocus their organizations around a set of customer-focused principles attractive to all parties. Schonberger continued by explaining why customer-focused management principles are superior to other management modes and delineated the steps for adopting customer-focused principles.

"Breaking Down Silos and Building Teamwork" served as the framework for a session conducted by Terry Lunn, CFPIM, CIRM. Becoming connected to the customer serves as the focal point in achieving the proper teamwork environment for a competitive organization, said Lunn. "When we become connected to the customer, both the external and the internal customer, we do that by focusing on customer needs, not just on what enhances our special functional area. And when that occurs, people understand that their organization must make quantum leaps forward in higher quality, quicker deliveries and better performance."

Ron Pannesi, Ph.D., CPIM, presented the following 10 tips for restructuring yourself to remain viable to the organizations of the future:

• Raise your emotional quotient: Know your emotions, manage them, motivate yourself, and stay in tune with others' emotions.
• Seek out team opportunities: Involving yourself here is crucial, since it is the organization form of the future.
• Learn to coach, not manage: You will be judged on your ability to develop workers in your own image.
• Become cross-functional: The person who understands all the functions of an organization is best positioned to serve the firm.
• Skill up: Acquire experience in specific activities.
• Increase information technology literacy: With the proliferation of the Internet and computer technology, your future is integrally tied to IT.
• Be flexible/embrace change: Look for new opportunities to improve your worth to the firm.
• Set goals and measure achievements: For each of the points mentioned above, you should have time goals set.
• Focus on the long term: Remember that you are a work in progress.
• Be happy: Enjoy the ride.

But that's not all
The ever-expanding Internet and its promise for manufacturing was tackled in a basic overview of the technology by Steven A. Melnyk, Ph.D., CPIM. Other topics covered in sessions included agile manufacturing, available-to-promise, configuration management, quick response manufacturing, environmentally friendly manufacturing, Just-in-Time, benchmarking and many others.

-- David Greenfield, Associate Editor

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