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An Overview of Lean Manufacturing Concepts
- Lean video
"Master Production Scheduling
Instructor's Guide" - Education material to support your inside
education programs
"The Right Choice" Book
on software evaluation and selection
Evaluation points for ERP software
"Performance
Measurement and Assessment" - Performance
measurement, KPIs and vital signs video
"Five Principles of Production and Supply Chain Management" -
Book by Bill Belt
"S&OP Handbook" - Starter
kit for S&OP from John Civerolo and Don Rice
Seminars and Workshops
Coaching
and Consulting
Software Research to support
evaluation and selection
Assessment and Certification Services
Professional Associates
Articles
Current Books and Material From Gray
Research - Full list, special offers and ordering page
Earlier Books From Chris Gray
Other Books I Can Recommend
Software Supplier Lists
Biographical sketch
Contact Information:
1 603 778-9211
cgr...@grayresearch.com
New Book From My Associate Bill Belt

Five Basic Principles of Production and
Supply Chain Management.
The basics of industrial and supply-chain excellence
in less than 200 pages ! This book offers a step-by-step presentation of
the best practices of modern manufacturing and logistic management,
which have been moving beneath the surface, like tectonic plates, over
the last few years. Thanks to their proven operational effectiveness,
they have emerged as an interlocking group of “five basics”: - Voice of
the Customer for innovation and development - production activities with
and without added value - postponement or mass customization and modular
thinking - dependent and independent customer demand - the two levels of
the supply chain: strategic and operational
The integration of these best practices gives Lean
Supply Chain Management, which can help any company maximize its added
value and the productivity of its people to innovate and to better serve
the customer.
Based on the author’s long experience as a
practitioner, educator, consultant and implementer, this book is an
ideal learning tool. It contains several levels of text (summaries,
examples, detailed explanations, questionnaires for measuring current
practice…) to facilitate the acquisition of these key concepts and
practices by any individual or company.
For more information or to order the book.
Shipping Now!
Two new video education courses featuring Chris Gray:

An Overview of Lean Manufacturing Concepts
If you are implementing lean manufacturing, trying to improve materials
flows using TPS methods, replacing push with pull systems, then this
course can help.
This class contains important concepts you need for implementing lean
materials management methods.
For a preview of the new Lean session,
click here, and then click "Launch"
on the start page.

Performance Measurement and Assessment
There are two questions that any business tries to
answer—How are we doing? And, are we doing the right things? If you've
determined that performance is not as good as you would like, how do you
assess the individual root causes and how do you improve underlying
business performance?
How do you design a self-assessment program so that
you can go out and look at your individual business processes—such as
resource planning, sales and operations, and forecasting processes? How
do you develop an assessment program that allows you to look at those
processes and decide if you are doing the right things?
This course answers those questions and more in a
three-and-a-half hour presentation on the concepts of designing a
performance measurement system and self-assessment program for your
business.
Books
Sales & Operations Planning Best Practices
Sales and Operations Planning Standard System with Reference
Software
Lean Standard System with Reference Software
The Right Choice
Courseware
Self-administered Education: Your instructors, our material
S&OP Courseware (Instructor's Guide, Visuals)
Master Scheduling Courseware (Instructor's Guide, Visuals)
Video Education Material
Advanced Master Production Scheduling - Dealing With Products and
Options - shipping now.

If you have products made from options (features and options, modules,
etc.) and you want to implement the most effective master scheduling
techniques- then this is the course for you.
Available on data DVD, use it to train your master schedulers, to
supplement you other internal training programs, and as refresher
education for your key people.
This four hour course contains all the important concepts you need for
implementing and operating a "two level master
scheduling" process.
International
Affiliates and Resellers
Although we welcome your order
in our shopping cart, you may save
substantially on shipping charges
by ordering from one of our international affiliates or resellers in
your region. All Gray Research and Worldwide Excellence Partners
books are available from these sources:
Asia:
Transprocure Corporation
Australia:
Phil Heenan
Europe:
Delos Partnership
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I'm Chris Gray, President of Gray Research,
and a Senior Partner with Partners for Excellence.
I help manufacturing companies who are frustrated with their manufacturing
and customer service performance - who want to get better on-time delivery
performance with less inventory, who want to improve teamwork and
communication across their organization, who want to lower their costs and
their cost structure by managing their resources more effectively, who
want to make more money today but not at the expense of the future - and
who want to implement changes so that the improvement is
institutionalized, not a one-time event!
I'm proud to say that I've
been helping companies make their manufacturing operations leaner and
better coordinated for the better part of three decades.
I help companies implement and operate more
effective demand driven supply networks using resource planning (better sales forecasting and demand management,
improved planning, capacity management, and financial projections) and lean
manufacturing techniques (flow and pull in
the plant and with suppliers). In many cases,
the improvements that my clients are able to make require no new software at
all.
The Best Performance Requires Both Resource Planning and Lean Execution
I believe that resource planning and lean manufacturing systems work best when they work
together. They do different - and very necessary - things, and you need them both.
Resource planning is a set of forward planning tools to help people balance future
demand and supply, to predict capacity problems with enough time to do something about them, to create a load leveled
master schedule, and to project supplier requirements well in advance. Some of these planning tools - aggregate sales
and operations planning, rough cut capacity planning, supplier scheduling logic - do this better than any alternative.
Lean manufacturing's objective is to create the physical environment that will allow
material to flow - from raw material to finished product to the customer. In doing this, Lean eliminates waste and
wasteful practices, reduces costs and cuts lead times - while synchronizing all production and purchasing activities.
Its primary components are standard work, visual management, heijunka (leveling), takt time, one-piece flow,
EPE I, and the pull (kanban) system.
Lean is strong on workplace management; resource
planning is strong on decision-making
for the future. Lean requires workplace and value-stream transformation; resource
planning can deal with the status
quo. Lean scheduling and pull systems cannot work unless certain important prerequisites are met;
resource planning
will help you deal with nearly any kind of manufacturing environment - one of a kind handcrafted production,
traditional mass or batch production, or one-piece lean flow - as you make the physical transformation necessary to
achieve maximum flow and maximum results.
Click here
for a summary of how to use S&OP and Lean together.
Getting the results you want from your planning and scheduling systems
I can help you understand whether your
existing systems can give you the results you want. You may know of me from
some of the work I've done
in the area of manufacturing software - it's no exaggeration to say that
I've helped more people resolve manufacturing software issues than any
other individual in the field. Along with Darryl Landvater, I
defined the standards for resource planning software: The MRPII
Standard System. I continue to consult and do workshops for
management teams trying to understand what kinds of software functionality
is required to support both planning and lean execution. If your
organization needs help in understanding what functions are key in
planning and execution software and which are not important at all, you
may need my help.
I've also rolled up my sleeves and worked
with hundreds of management teams over the last 3
decades - helping them improve communications between manufacturing,
marketing, and finance; create teamwork across the entire
organization; drive down inventory and increase customer service;
improve supplier delivery performance; and slash lead-times across the
value-stream - by helping them implement new system solutions.
I'm an authority on sales and operations
planning and resource planning; on rough cut capacity planning, master scheduling and sales forecasting;
on the management challenges of integrating effective planning
processes with pull systems for execution; as well as the software requirements for both
resource planning and lean manufacturing (kanban/demand pull/Toyota Production System).
I do sales and operations planning
(S&OP) workshops and seminars; resource planning and lean manufacturing education seminars and workshops;
sales and operations planning consulting;
consulting on resource planning (S&OP, forecasting and demand
management, master scheduling) and lean manufacturing (lean execution systems like the kanban
component of the Toyota Production System); performance assessment and Class A Certification;
sales
and operations planning software; and software selection services to companies trying to
create a lean enterprise.
If you are interested
in improved performance and making more money, and you want maximum
performance from your enterprise and plant level execution systems, I'd like to
work with you.
Review the materials
here, and then give me a call or send me an email:
1 603 778-9211,
cgr...@grayresearch.com
Having advice from someone who's been
successful is the best insurance that you are on the right track.
About this web
site:
This web site provides
products, services and information to help anyone who wants to:
Make
things better, faster, and at lower cost.
Hold
less inventory.
Give
better customer service.
Make
more money.
Have
fewer surprises.
Effective planning and
lean execution are a reality for companies around the world who are trying to implement demand driven supply
networks.
This is where you can get basic information about how to make them
reality in your operations.
If you need specific
help - briefing your executive management, training your
people in the most recent concepts in manufacturing management, implementing
new planning or pull execution systems, selecting planning
or lean execution software that's appropriate for your processes - call me. I can help you get the results that you want.
1 603 778-9211
cgr...@grayresearch.com
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New
Books
My
latest book Lean Standard System (with reference software, shown
above, is the second in a series. If you are wondering how software
can support Lean Manufacturing, you need this book.
Read a description of the book and
comments from some of its early
reviewers.
You'll
benefit from this book if you are evaluating commercial lean software or
writing/enhancing your own.
For
more information or to order
Lean Standard System on-line.

The
Right Choice (my 1987 book on software evaluation) now revised
and updated.
You'll
benefit from this book if you are evaluating and selecting manufacturing
or supply chain application software.
For
more information or to order The Right Choice on-line.
Available
Now
My
2007 book Sales and Operations Planning
Standard System (with reference software). Special
pricing when ordered with Sales & Operations Planning Best
Practices.
You'll
benefit from this book if you are evaluating commercial S&OP
software or writing/enhancing your own.
For
more information or to order
S&OP Standard System on-line.
Have you seen my 2006 book on S&OP best practices?
Sales and Operations Planning - Best Practices from Chris Gray
and John Dougherty.

Now available in hardcover and paperback.
For more information or to order S&OP Best Practices online.
Special pricing when ordered with Sales and Operations Planning
Standard System.
You'll benefit from this book if you are planning to implement or
upgrade S&OP in your own company.
Also Available:
Handbook
S&OP Handbook by John Civerolo and Don Rice
Tools and techniques to simplify the implementation or improvement of a
Sales & Operations Planning process in your company. Samples, examples,
specific step-by-step instructions, and internal audit data are provided
to help your company start or improve your S&OP process.
S&OP Checklist: What you need to do to organize and
implement for a successful S&OP process in your company. Two parts
-
how to implement, and
what to implement. This checklist outlines my basic approach to
implementing sales and operations planning. (FREE)

Gray
Research recommends:

The International Institute of Forecasters is the preeminent organization
for scholars and practitioners in the field of forecasting. The IIF is
dedicated to stimulating the generation, distribution, and use of
knowledge on forecasting in a wide range of fields.
For more information about membership, publications, and conferences:
http://www.forecasters.org/
For a free copy of Foresight,
the quarterly journal of the IIF, click
here
or on the Foresight logo above.
and is proud to be associated with:

Partners
for Excellence
Partners for Excellence is my
joint venture with John Dougherty, John Civerolo and Do Rice, and in which
I am a Senior Partner.
For a free subscription to our periodic email
newsletter: click
here.
and
In North America and Europe

World-Wide
Excellence Partners
WWXP
is a global confederation of independent
manufacturing and supply-chain experts devoted to sharing knowledge and
experiences on proven, profitable management processes, and on emerging
technologies.
including
In
Australia
Phil Heenan
In France
Bill Belt Excellence
1 603 778-9211 or
email: cgr...@grayresearch.com
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