Change happens. Every business environment requires continuously changing strategies, processes, tools and skills. Implementing a Continuous Improvement program is one way a company can harness their response to change and create competitive advantage. As companies launch Continuous Improvement programs, they need to have a plan. Effective programs require the following 5 elements leading to successful and sustainable …Read More

At Group50, we have brought back to life an old form of Value Stream Mapping called the Brown Paper Exercise. Long before computers were invented, the only way to do Value Stream Mapping was on paper.  Utilizing paper allows you to be produce maps that are not limited to the size of a computer monitor or projection screen. It is interactive, fun and can be done via a hybrid model of in-person and virtual.

Group50’s Brown Paper Exercise is an important tool that we use every day as part of our Value Stream Mapping process.  It provides an engaging, non threatening way for …Read More

In the next few weeks, companies with under 500 employees will start receiving payments from the Paycheck Protection Act and all companies will continue to make important decisions on how to structure themselves to deal with the current downturn and prepare themselves for the future (Here is one view of the future …Read More

The most successful way to look at unneeded business processes and their costs to the business is through a Value Stream Mapping (VSM) project. VSM provides a clear view of how various business processes are related to each other and assesses the need for those processes and how efficient they really are.

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Situation Analysis

A $400M per year consumer products company was experiencing problems with their Sales, Inventory, Operations Planning ( SIOP or S&OP ) process. Lead times for product were excessive and the supply chain wasn’t responsive enough to serve the needs of its markets. Inventory had swelled 25% to over $70M. This was due to their business processes not being able to …Read More

Purchasing Best Practices were important to two supply chain optimization projects we recently completed for a University and a $400M manufacturer of consumer products. All companies purchase goods and services and have various organization structures, business processes and technology backbones for handling it.  In both projects, these were significantly different from each other. Irrespective …Read More

February 11, 2019 – (Upland, CA) – Group50, a privately-held, full-service supply chain consultancy founded in 2004 is pleased to recap its 2018 results and announce the addition of Lara Abrams to its team of executives.  …Read More

Most organizations do Leadership Succession Planning at some level of effectiveness. Very little has been written about the need for incorporating technology succession planning and while technology leadership is part of the standard succession planning model, little is done about succession planning and skills development for subject matter experts, their supporting teams and successive upgrades and new technologies. Teams …Read More

Kaizen is part of a Continuous Improvement strategy where stakeholders (customers, suppliers, employees and contract workers) at every level work together to implement process improvements at the business level and on the shop floor.  These improvements may be …Read More

I was recently asked by an executive about how he should manage the division he just took over as its president. I told him to “Manage it like you are going to sell it – Optimize enterprise value and mitigate multiple risk”.  The executive gave a strange look and asked why that mattered.

Many leaders think that their only measure of success is the P&L–the amount of operating profit the company generated. Those who believe that are missing …Read More