Christine Barnhart

Stay up to date on all the latest conversations, interviews, and episodes we released this week here at Supply Chain Now! We started this week off with an episode of Dial P for Procurement with host Kelly Barner. She is accompanied by Bull Demartino Chief Product Officer and Constantine Limberakis the Senior Director of Product & Solutions Marketing for Riskmethods. During this show, the real meaning of creating a demand for new risk management gets discussed. In Monday’s episode of This Week In Business History, Kelly Barner shares the very interesting story of Clarence Birdseye, inventor and innovator of the frozen foods industry. Kelly talks about the initial challenges that Birdseye had to endure to become the legacy it is today. On Tuesday, we published an episode of Supply Chain Now with host Scott Luton and special co host Kelly Barner. This episode features Bob Gay, Rebate & Incentive Program Specialist for Advance Auto Parts. Scott Weir, the former Vice President of Purchasing for Thos. Sommerville Co, and Oisín Cooke the solutions consultant at Enable. They all put an emphasis of rebates and how they can be an effective way to reward and incentivize specific buying patterns and behaviors. On…

Lean manufacturing is all about reducing waste and increasing efficiency. Manufacturers have been implementing lean practices for decades and have stood the test of time. Now, with technological advancements, lean methodologies can be more transformative than ever before. “Integrating automation into lean manufacturing is a powerful strategy. Unlike traditional automation, which often aims to increase production capacity without considering real needs, lean automation focuses on the smart and selective application of technologies to meet specific continuous improvement goals and eliminate inefficiencies,” the Kaizen Institute said. “Digital transformation provides an unprecedented opportunity for implementing lean,” it continued. “When applied within lean, tools like the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and data analytics can revolutionize how organizations detect and eliminate waste.” What is Lean Manufacturing? In “The Machine That Changed The World,” published in 1990, lean production is hailed as “Toyota’s secret weapon in the global car wars.” The Toyota Production System was developed following World War II from “a series of simple innovations … to provide both continuity in process flow and a wide variety in product offerings,” according to the Lean Enterprise Institute. In “Lean Thinking,” a 1996 follow-up to “The Machine That Changed The World,” authors James…