It’s Only Common Sense: AI Makes Preparation Easier and Excuses Harder
Happy’s Tech Talk #50: Start Your Digitalization Strategy With Automation
The Chemical Connection: A Few Things That Still Scare Me
I had the opportunity to sit down with operations and supply chain expert Fane Friberg recently to talk about how a company can only be as good as its supply base, and how driving supplier improvement directly impacts product improvement.
Steve Williams: Hi, Fane. Thanks for taking the time to sit down with me and talk about a subject near and dear to both our hearts—supplier development. You have been a senior operations and supply chain executive for some of the biggest companies in our industry, including Plexus, GE Oil & Gas, Avnet, GE Aircraft and Goodrich, as well as turning around a number of smaller manufacturing organizations. I understand you have recently started your own company, Cephas. Can you tell me a little about it?
Fane Friberg: Cephas is a supply chain consulting group that strives to optimize the value proposition for the companies it engages with. It’s a slant on the theory of constraints (ToC), introduced by Eliyahu M. Goldratt in his 1984 book, The Goal. What is it today that needs attention to resolve pain points, rocesses, and challenges, and then to design solutions that address exactly those things.
To have a standard platform that drives a competitive advantage, the manufacturing operations team (inclusive of those suppliers that provide business value) must have a proven methodology to realize profound impact and sustainable results. This includes:
- Analytics
- Alerts
- Advice
- Action
Editor's Note: This article was originally published in the August 2015 issue of The PCB Magazine.
