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Conference 7.286::digital

Title:The Digital way of working
Moderator:QUARK::LIONELON
Created:Fri Feb 14 1986
Last Modified:Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:5321
Total number of notes:139771

3745.0. "Step Back To Basics" by --UnknownUser-- () Thu Mar 16 1995 15:20

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3745.1Have better things to do these days...POBOX::CORSONHigher, and a bit more to the rightThu Mar 16 1995 15:359
    
    Said it just three seconds ago in 3744.1 and a long time ago in 3480.0
    
    I, for one, am getting tired to barking at the moon.
    
    Your turn...
    
    
    		the Greyhawk
3745.2Not willing to watch the clouds go by...MKOTS3::DQUINNThu Mar 16 1995 15:4017
    You read mine, I'll read yours ! 3744
    
    After Hiroshima, Japan was forced to go "back to basics". Before that
    they were arrogant, proud, and unwilling to bend. They were being
    driven in a top down fashion in a "Serve the emperor" fashion. 
    As a shareholder I would not prefer to go back to a core AXP technology
    and serve two or three emerging markets, would you ?  We must have
    the brevity to recognize and identify our key FOCUS and then implement
    the business systems that keep us moving toward the goal.  In short,
    you know what the problem is - write up a set of criteria that will
    help solve the problem. Involve your peers and kick down your managers 
    (and their) doors to get it implemented. Make it measurable and go for 
    constant improvement.
    
      
    
    
3745.4Vendor Management = the KeywordJGODCL::HEIJSENWil Heijsen, Euro_MCS_Service_Logistics_HW_ECO_coord.Fri Mar 17 1995 03:3420
    As we let more en more of our internal manufacturing go to vendors, we
    will see worse leadtimes on subassemblies/spares (we see this NOW, here in
    European Central Logistics), needed to build a system.
    Next to this we have almost a culture of letting leadtimes towards customers
    slip, things will go very much for the wourse if we don't keep our vendors
    tight to the agreed schedules and, more important, live up to the
    expectations we set internally as well! 
    Another thing is Service. If it works after being installed, fine,
    else.... If we have no control on the quality in the whole sense in
    terms of vendor management (spares, minimal shipable revisions of
    revision sensitive spares ( a nightmare)), many new won customers will
    see Digital no longer as a serious A-brand vendor, on their next buy.
    As product life cycles have been shortened from say 8-15 years back in
    the early '80-'s, we now face product life cycles of 3-8 years.
    Sooo, things need to be *Quickly* improved here.
    I wonder how our succesfull competitors like Compaq or Hewlett &
    Packard and IBM deal with these similar issues. Any experience with
    these companies amoung us?
    
    Wil
3745.5AXPBIZ::OLSONDoug Olson, ISVETS Palo AltoThu Mar 23 1995 14:3719
    > As we let more en more of our internal manufacturing go to vendors, we
    > will see worse leadtimes on subassemblies/spares 
    
    Why?  Can't delivery times be part of the performance requirements of
    these contracts?  Incentive-based contracts with penalties for delays?
    This is a contract management issue; we outsource because it *can* be
    more effective, and we have to manage correctly to make it so.
    
    > I wonder how our succesfull competitors like Compaq or Hewlett &
    > Packard and IBM deal with these similar issues. Any experience with
    > these companies amoung us?
    
    A friend of mine, used to work as a manufacturing engineer for both
    large VAXes and later for workstations, now works as a line manager for
    a large outsourcing manufacturer here in Silicon Valley.  He is
    competing for and winning product-line build business from Apple and
    HP.  You can bet HP manages him on speed and quality as well as cost.
    
    DougO