• [PRO Tips] What is lean manufacturing (lean production)?
    Nov 24 2024

    Lean manufacturing, also known as lean production, or lean, is a practice that organizations from numerous fields can enable. Some well-known companies that use lean include Toyota, Intel, John Deere and Nike. The approach is based on the Toyota Production System and is still used by that company, as well as myriad others. Companies that use enterprise resource planning (ERP) can also benefit from using a lean production system.

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    13 mins
  • [PRO Tips] What is a Balanced Scorecard ?
    Nov 20 2024

    A balanced scorecard (BSC) is defined as a management system that provides feedback on both internal business processes and external outcomes to continuously improve strategic performance and results. By bringing together measures around internal processes and external outcomes, a balanced scorecard supports continuous improvement at the level of strategic performance and results.

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    11 mins
  • [PRO Tips] Porter's Five Forces Explained and How to Use the Model
    Nov 17 2024

    Michael Porter's five-force strategic analysis model, introduced in a 1979 article published in the Harvard Business Review, remains a fundamental tool for strategic analysts plotting the competitive landscape of an industry.


    In a bid to mirror the complexity real strategists would face while keeping their strategic analysis manageable, Porter set out five forces at play in a given industry: internal competition, the potential for new entrants, the negotiating power of suppliers, the negotiating power of customers, and the ability of customers to find substitutes. Below, we take you through each of Porter's five forces, detail the significant critiques of his approach, and show how to apply the model to specific markets.

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    19 mins
  • [PRO Tips] What Is Total Quality Management (TQM), and Why Is It Important?
    Nov 13 2024

    Total quality management (TQM) is the continual process of detecting and reducing or eliminating errors in manufacturing. It streamlines supply chain management, improves the customer experience, and ensures that employees are up to speed with training.


    Total quality management aims to hold all parties involved in the production process accountable for the overall quality of the final product or service.

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    14 mins
  • [PRO Tips] Benchmarking
    Nov 10 2024

    Benchmarking is used to measure performance using a specific indicator (cost per unit of measure, productivity per unit of measure, cycle time of x per unit of measure or defects per unit of measure) resulting in a metric of performance that is then compared to others.

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    14 mins
  • [PRO Tips] What is Blue Ocean Strategy
    Nov 6 2024

    They assert that these strategic moves create a leap in value for the company, its buyers, and its employees while unlocking new demand and making the competition irrelevant.

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    9 mins
  • [PRO Tips] How is the Value proposition works?
    Nov 3 2024

    In marketing, a company’s value proposition is the full mix of benefits or economic value which it promises to deliver to the current and future customers (i.e., a market segment) who will buy their products and/or services. It is part of a company's overall marketing strategy which differentiates its brand and fully positions it in the market. A value proposition can apply to an entire organization, parts thereof, customer accounts, or products and services.

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    13 mins
  • [PRO Tips] What is Six Sigma? Explore Its Importance and Benefits
    Oct 30 2024

    The term "Six Sigma" refers to a statistical measure of how far a process deviates from perfection. A process that operates at six sigma has a failure rate of only 0.00034%, which means it produces virtually no defects. Six Sigma was developed by Motorola in the 1980s, and it has since been adopted by many other companies around the world, including General Electric, Toyota, and Amazon. It is used in industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, finance, and service industries to improve customer satisfaction, reduce costs, and increase profits.

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    11 mins