Welcome Module

• Getting Started

  • read: Introduction & Overview

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    Welcome!

    This week you'll have the unique opportunity to learn with peers across multiple companies to explore the key elements of manufacturing as a strategic variable. This program is designed to help you share best practices, leverage and crowdsource new ideas, and drive better business results in your organizations. Please don’t share private information about your company but use the opportunity to discuss openly your challenges, concerns, and possible solutions.

    Program Overview

    CorpU sprints challenge you to question your assumptions and envision new possibilities to improve supply chain performance. Share the things you do that work well in your organization, as well as approaches that need improvement. Draw out the wisdom from the experienced and capable people in your cohort.

    Throughout this sprint, you will investigate a variety of examples, techniques, recommendations, and strategies for improving your organization's work and collaboration with manufacturing.

  • Read: Meet Your Experts

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    Throughout the CorpU Supply Chain sprints, you will directly benefit from the real-world experience, research, and skill brought to you by our subject matter experts of The Smeal College of Business at the Pennsylvania State University.

    First, meet Steve Tracey, the faculty member featured in the expert videos you'll watch each day.

    Steve Tracey: Steve Tracey is the current executive director for the Center for Supply Chain Research® (CSCR®) and Penn State Executive Programs, and Professor of Practice in Supply Chain Management within Smeal College of Business. In his CSCR® leadership role, Steve is responsible for the vision of one of Smeal’s premier research centers as an ambassador and spokesperson for supply chain activities at Penn State. Through collaboration with the nationally top-ranked Department of Supply Chain and Information Systems faculty within Smeal and CSCR® Corporate Sponsors, Steve promotes meaningful and progressive supply chain research for industry-specific application and defines research strategy and programs.

    As Executive Director of Penn State Executive Programs, Steve leads an elite team of internationally recognized faculty, researchers, consultants, authors and thought leaders offering individuals and organizations deep expertise, relevant content, and effective learning models across multiple areas of focus with particular emphasis on leadership and strategy, general management, and supply chain. He heads business development for national and global client organizations providing program design and delivery of customized learning solutions with measurable results that align with strategic business goals while addressing the challenges and opportunities within the client’s unique business context.

    As a Professor or Practice within Smeal, Steve delivers curriculum reflecting his extensive background in operations and finance to Penn State Smeal College of Business undergraduate and graduate students. He also connects with broad industry and public-sector audiences through his teaching in Penn State Executive Programs and representing CSCR® at industry events and conferences. Steve has a diverse global background directing operations with full P&L responsibilities in more than 14 countries and is considered a commodity market expert in the Textile industry. Prior to joining Penn State Smeal, Steve was the senior vice-president of Global Supply Chain at Standard Textile Company, the world’s largest marketer and manufacturer of institutional textiles.

    And another expert from Penn State, Chris Craighead, will join us on the webinar Live Event on the final day of the course.

     

    Chris Craighead: Dr. Christopher W. Craighead is the Dove Professor of Supply Chain Management at the Haslam College of Business, University of Tennessee. His primary research interests lie in the area of strategic sourcing and supply management, with a focus on global supply chain disruptions/risk and resilience. Chris has articles published in Journal of Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, Decision Sciences, Journal of Business Logistics, Journal of Supply Chain Management and others.

    Professor Craighead has been the recipient of several research fellowships, competitive research grants, and awards for teaching excellence at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. He has been a frequent speaker to managerial audiences and has participated in a number of executive programs (open enrollment and custom).

    Chris serves as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Supply Chain Management and Journal of Business Logistics and also serves on the Editorial Review Board of Production and Operations Management. He has been the recipient of multiple awards for reviewing and editing excellence including Best Associate Editor Awards at Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Supply Chain Management and Decision Sciences. 

     

  • Write: Introduce Yourself

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    One significant benefit of learning in a community is the ability to establish and develop relationships with your colleagues. The information you share in your profile will help others get to know who you are, what role you play, and how incredible diversity is a key to your organization's success.

    Share a little about yourself to help the rest of your team get to know you. Keep in mind that your profile information will be available at a glance to fellow participants throughout this sprint. The introductions in the next activity are designed to help you break the ice, meet your peers, and practice with the discussion functionality of the learning platform.

  • Discuss: Meet Your Cohort

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    It’s time to meet your colleagues on this journey, so take a few minutes to begin a brief discussion with them by making your first post.

    Share your name, how long you've been with your organization, and the role you play. Please also include one goal you're planning to accomplish as a result of this learning journey. After you've told us something about yourself, read the other posts and then send a reply to someone with a question or comment, to get the dialogue flowing!

Manufacturing as a Strategic Variable

• Plant-Level Considerations

  • Read: Creating Value in Manufacturing

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    Creating more efficient processes, new innovations, higher quality products, or better collaboration within the organization are all ways to add value within manufacturing. This is easy to say, of course, but how does one actually go about accomplishing any of these goals? In this sprint you will investigate a variety of examples, techniques, recommendations, and strategies for improving your organization's work and collaboration with manufacturing, including:

    • Innovation within manufacturing and the changing role of manufacturing in the global economy
    • Organizational improvements to develop a competitive advantage within manufacturing
    • Collaborate with manufacturing to deliver higher quality in the future
      
    • Discuss and connect the core concepts to your organization's business challenge
    • Uncover potential sources of value creation and competitive advantage for the future

    Throughout this sprint we will give you several examples of organizations that have built a competitive advantage through their manufacturing. As you read these examples, consider your own company. How could your organization gain a competitive advantage through its manufacturing?

  • Watch: Your Sprint Simulation

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    As a way to help illustrate and apply some of the core concepts from this sprint, you will take on the role of Chief Supply Chain Officer at a fictitious company, the Blue Monster Cookie Company (BMCC).  At the end of the short video scene in the following activity, you will face a managerial decision and must commit to a course of action and submit your decision in the discussion forum.

    As you watch this video, try to put yourself in the shoes of the Chief Supply Chain Officer at BMCC. What initial questions or concerns do you have about the company's supply chain? How have changes in your organization introduced new pain points within the supply chain function similar to what BMCC is experiencing?

  • Watch: The Price of Raw Materials

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    Your Differentiator

    At the Blue Monster Cookie Company, a large part of your product differentiation is the quality ingredients you use to make the cookies. What happens if a critical source of your raw materials is threatened? As you watch this video, consider how you will lead the company through this next challenge.

  • Discuss: Your Decision

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    What will you do?

    Take the next few minutes to discuss your course of action with your cohort, and be sure to read and respond to the submissions of your colleagues. 

  • Watch: Competitive Advantage Through Manufacturing

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    The Manufacturing Process

    In many ways, the product you produce determines (at least in part) the manufacturing process you will ultimately use. In this video, Steve Tracey discusses both the constraints and the opportunities that exist within the reality of contemporary manufacturing. As you watch this video, consider the questions you have about your own organization's manufacturing process. What process improvements or innovations could you bring to your firm?

  • Read: A New Era of Global Manufacturing

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    The following article from the Harvard Business Review, "Get Ready for the New Era of Global Manufacturing" by James Manyika, Katy George, and Louis Rassey from the McKinsey Global Institute, discusses new opportunities and innovation within global manufacturing.

    Take the next several minutes to read this article and evaluate the authors' argument. In the next activity, you will have the opportunity to discuss how global manufacturing could affect your organization.

  • Read: Case Example: Factories of the Future

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    Below is a short case example of a company that derives a competitive advantage in some aspect of its manufacturing. 

    Factories of the Future

    Cheaper, more capable, and more flexible technologies are accelerating the growth of fully automated production facilities. The key challenge for companies will be deciding how best to harness their power.

    At one Fanuc plant in Oshino, Japan, industrial robots produce industrial robots, supervised by a staff of only four workers per shift. In a Philips plant producing electric razors in the Netherlands, robots outnumber the nine production workers by more than 14 to 1. Camera maker Canon began phasing out human labor at several of its factories in 2013.

    This “lights out” production concept—where manufacturing activities and material flows are handled entirely automatically—is becoming an increasingly common attribute of modern manufacturing. In part, the new wave of automation will be driven by the same things that first brought robotics and automation into the workplace: to free human workers from dirty, dull, or dangerous jobs; to improve quality by eliminating errors and reducing variability; and to cut manufacturing costs by replacing increasingly expensive people with ever-cheaper machines. Today’s most advanced automation systems have additional capabilities, enabling their use in environments that have not been suitable for automation up to now and allowing the capture of entirely new sources of value in manufacturing.

    Falling robot prices

    As robot production has increased, costs have gone down. Over the past 30 years, the average robot price has fallen by half in real terms, and even further relative to labor costs (Exhibit 1). As demand from emerging economies encourages the production of robots to shift to lower-cost regions, they are likely to become cheaper still.

     

     

    Accessible talent

    People with the skills required to design, install, operate, and maintain robotic production systems are becoming more widely available, too. Robotics engineers were once rare and expensive specialists. Today, these subjects are widely taught in schools and colleges around the world, either in dedicated courses or as part of more general education on manufacturing technologies or engineering design for manufacture. The availability of software, such as simulation packages and offline programming systems that can test robotic applications, has reduced engineering time and risk. It’s also made the task of programming robots easier and cheaper.

    Source: McKinsey & Company: Automation, Robotics, and the Factory of the Future by Jonathan Tilley, published September 2017

     

  • Discuss: The Future of Manufacturing at Your Organization

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    Robotics aren't the only way that the global face of manufacturing is changing. If you type "Manufacturing Trends" into a search engine, you will get over 150,000 hits in less than .5 seconds. Some common topics among these hits are:

    • The Internet of Things - IoT
    • Additive manufacturing / 3D Printing
    • Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and 360° Technologies
    • Nanotechnology
    • Robotics/drones

    Thinking about the McKinsey article on Global Manufacturing, the Factory of the Future case example and the list above, take the next several minutes to answer the following questions:

    How will these shifts impact your organization's supply chain? What are the day-to-day implications of these changes in your department?

     

  • Read: Game Changing Technologies

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    If you would like to learn more about emerging technologies and how they could impact your supply chain, take a few minutes to read the attached article, which contains the latest research from CSCR®.

• Firm-Level Considerations

  • Watch: Innovation in Manufacturing

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    How did Steve Tracey and his colleagues help his company grow from a valuation of $100 million to a valuation of $1 billion? Take a moment to watch the following video, where he discusses the value of manufacturing and the potential for innovation within this link of the supply chain. How could your organization gain a competitive advantage through its manufacturing process?

  • Read: Light-Footed Operations: The Virtues of Agility in Volatile Times

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    As the global supply chain becomes more complex, leaders need to develop flexible and adaptive systems to cope with a rapidly shifting landscape..  

    In this article by Thomas Ebel, Kerstin Kubik, and Martin Losch at McKinsey, the authors argue that it is essential to develop agility within the systems of your organization's supply chain. Ebel, Kubik, and Losch note that agile systems:

    • Create and maintain an agile external supply base that can quickly scale up or down depending on demand
    • Use site flexibility to adapt local capacities at minimal costs
    • Develop network flexibility to rebalance operations quickly and easily
    • Use information transparency and planning to keep the end-to-end supply chain synchronized with demand at any given time 
    • Maintain the correct condition for agility in segmentation and performance measurement

    As you read this article, consider the manufacturing operations within your industry. How would the authors' recommendations impact your manufacturing operations? 

  • Read: Case Example: Rapid Manufacturing

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    Zara's Rapid Manufacturing Processes

    Zara is a “fast-fashion” Spanish clothing and accessories retailer that was founded in 1975. Since its inception, the firm's strategy has focused on rapidly changing consumer trends. In order to fulfill these demands, Zara developed a highly responsive supply chain that enables the delivery of new fashions as soon as trends emerge.

    Zara differentiates itself from other competing retailers by being vertically integrated; the company owns 14 highly automated Spanish factories where robots work around the clock cutting and dyeing fabrics and creating the foundations of their final products. Zara has also partnered with more than 300 shops to handle the finishing work, which transforms unfinished goods into what is seen in the stores. By following this dynamic approach, Zara can quickly ramp up manufacturing if a product is a fast seller and get more into their stores in a matter of days.

    Zara delivers new products twice each week to its 1,670 stores around the world, equating to more than 10,000 new signs each year. It takes the company only 10 to 15 days to go from the design stage to the sales floor. Because of this streamlined model, Zara is not forced to be ahead of the curve. Rather, they operate on the curve, evaluating trends first, then following these trends as they peak. Zara often beats the high-fashion houses to market, offering very similar products for a fraction of the price. 

     

  • Discuss: Implications for Action

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    Take the next 10 minutes to discuss your organization's manufacturing in light of the content from today's lesson regarding agility in manufacturing. Use the question below to guide your conversation:

    What is one shift you would like to see in your organization's manufacturing processes in the next year and what impact would that shift have? 

    Once you post your response, read and respond to at least one of your colleagues' posts.

• Collaborating with Manufacturing

  • Watch: Key Considerations for Collaborating With Manufacturing

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    How do you collaborate with your colleagues in manufacturing to create additional value for your customers?

    In this video, Steve Tracey outlines three important frames you can use to help anchor your conversations with leaders in manufacturing. He also gives examples of how companies recognized for excellence in supply chain management utilized these frames to focus their efforts. As you watch, consider the leadership actions and the frame(s) you will use to spark conversation about how to improve the products and services at your organization.

  • Read: Rethinking Quality

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    Having zero errors—being flawless—should be the one overriding objective for quality in the pharmaceutical industry. However, many pharma companies today continue to work on resolving issues and process deviations rather than emphasizing what it takes to build products and processes that are robust. How can we build better products and processes from the start?

    The following article, "Flawless: From Measuring Failure to Building Quality Robustness in Pharma" by Andrew Gonce, Lorenzo Poitano, Paul Rutten, and Vanya Telpis at McKinsey, introduces five themes that an organization must account for in order to develop flawless products in the pharma industry. These themes are:

    • Quality vision and strategy: Companies must outline a clear vision for quality improvement using powerful examples to show why it is meaningful to all employees.

    • Building blocks of quality: Supply chains are wildly intricate and interconnected. Consequently, the firm must build quality throughout the entire value chain in order to develop flawless products.

    • Quality enablers: Winning in quality requires good execution and a robust culture of quality. Culture is the fundamental ingredient in achieving good-quality performance and enabling further improvement and change. 

    • Transforming quality from good to great: Overhauling quality is not just for companies in crisis. Companies that currently claim good quality should not become complacent but push for higher levels of performance and greater risk preparedness.

    Take a moment to read the following article and consider manufacturing within your organization and industry. What will it take to improve the quality of your products? Which of McKinsey's recommendations resonates most with you? Why?

  • Reflect: Implications

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    You have covered a lot of ground in this sprint, including: innovation in the manufacturing process, light-footed operations, considerations for collaborating with manufacturing leaders, and quality in manufacturing. Take a few minutes to collect your thoughts and bring all of this together in your mind. Use the questions below to guide your reflection.

    1. How can you communicate and collaborate with manufacturing in your current role?
    2. What insight or perspective would you like to share with manufacturing?

  • Read: Case Example: The Gigafactory

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    Tesla's Open-Source Patents and Close Control of the Supply Chain

    Founded in 2003 in Silicon Valley by a group of engineers, Tesla is an automotive company that designs and manufactures luxury electric cars. These cars offer high performance: instant torque, high power, and zero emissions.

    One way Tesla differentiates itself from its competitors is its commitment to innovation within the industry. In June 2014, Tesla opened all of its patents to the public because of the company's dedication to the advancement of electric vehicles. This move may allow the company to rapidly assess and improve its technology and find new engineering talent in the process.

    In order to adjust to customer demand, supplier issues, and supply chain disruptions, Tesla decided to take almost complete ownership of their supply chain. One large initiative that launched in 2017 is the Tesla Gigafactory in Storey County, Nevada, where Tesla is manufacturing and supplying their own lithium ion batteries for their Model 3 car. This factory is being built modularly, allowing Tesla to add additional manufacturing capabilities as demand for, and production of, their cars increase.

     

  • Discuss: Collaboration at Your Organization

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    In a post to your colleagues, share one thing you would like to learn from manufacturing at your organization to improve your work.  Make sure to state your reasoning for your selection.

• Your Strategic Advantage

  • Read: Looking Forward

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    As we look at manufacturing as a strategic advantage, it is critical to take into consideration different trends in manufacturing.  When thinking about the future of manufacturing, there are several exciting processes emerging.

    Additive Manufacturing

    Additive Manufacturing (AM), is often referred to as 3-D printing.  This is the process of making a product layer by layer instead of using traditional methods, and has become one of the most revolutionary technology applications in manufacturing.  AM was once only used for prototyping, but is increasingly being used for spare parts, small series production, and tooling.  For manufacturing with metals, the ability to use existing materials such as steel, aluminum, or super-alloys, such as Inconel, has significantly eased the process of adopting AM.

    

    Meanwhile, the number of materials that AM can handle is constantly expanding.  Applications are now available in industries ranging from aerospace to automobiles, from consumer goods (including food) to health care (where artificial human tissue can be produced using AM.

    Additive Advantages

    Compared with traditional production methods, AM offers enormous benefits, including less hard tooling and assembly.  In the long run, AM can completely change the way products are designed and built, as well as distributed, sold, and serviced.

    Source:  McKinsey & Company; Additive Manufacturing:  A Long-term Game Changer for Manufacturers, by Jorg Bromberger and Richard Kelly, published September 2017

    Industry 4.0

    A closer look at what's behind Industry 4.0 reveals some powerful emerging currents with strong potential to change the way factories work.  

    Industry 4.0 is driven by four disruptions:

    • Rise in data volumes, computational power, and connectivity
    • The emergence of analytics and business-intelligence capabilities
    • New forms of human-machine interaction such as touch interfaces and augmented-reality systems
    • Improvements in transferring digital instructions to the physical work, such as advanced robotics and additive manufacturing

    Consider an example of each disruptive trend:

    Big data: An African gold mine found ways to capture more data from its sensors. New data showed some unsuspected fluctuations in oxygen levels during leaching, a key process. Fixing this increased yield by 3.7 percent, worth up to $20 million annually.

    Advanced analytics: Stronger analysis can dramatically improve product development. One automaker uses data from its online configurator together with purchasing data to identify options that customers are willing to pay a premium for. With this knowledge, it reduced the options on one model to just 13,000—three orders of magnitude fewer than its competitor, which offered 27,000,000. Development time and production costs fell dramatically; most companies can improve gross margin by 30 percent within 24 months.

     

    Human-machine interfaces: Logistics company Knapp AG developed a picking technology using augmented reality. Pickers wear a headset that presents vital information on a see-through display, helping them locate items more quickly and precisely. And with both hands free, they can build stronger and more efficient pallets, with fragile items safeguarded. An integrated camera captures serial and lot ID numbers for real-time stock tracking. Error rates are down by 40 percent, among many other benefits.

     

    Digital-to-physical transfer: Local Motors builds cars almost entirely through 3-D printing, with a design crowdsourced from an online community. It can build a new model from scratch in a year, far less than the industry average of six. Vauxhall and GM, among others, still bend a lot of metal, but also use 3-D printing and rapid prototyping to minimize their time to market.

    These changes and many others like them are sure to be far reaching, affecting every corner of the factory and supply chain.  

    Strategists should take Industry 4.0 into account as they contemplate the future.  The traditional manufacturing business model is changing, and new models are emerging.  Incumbents must be quick to recognize and react to these new competitive challenges.

    Source:  McKinsey & Company; Manufacturing's Next Act, by Cornelius Baur and Dominik Wee, published June 2015

  • Discuss: Your Organization's Manufacturing

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    We've spent a lot of time in this sprint learning about different ways that your organization's manufacturing capabilities can be harnessed as a strategic advantage. Now, in a final post to your cohort, respond to the following:

    Is your Manufacturing a strategic advantage?  Why or Why not?

    Make sure to take this opportunity to collaborate and discuss this question with your colleagues.

  • Submit: Improving Your Strategic Advantage

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    In the previous activity, you had the opportunity to discuss whether or not your organization's manufacturing is a strategic advantage.  Now, let's follow-up that discussion with some suggestions about how to achieve, or improve, that advantage. 

    In the discussion box below, post one idea that would improve the strategic advantage of your organization's manufacturing. Then read through some of the other posts and collaborate by asking questions and offering suggestions.

• Capstone - Live Event

  • Attend: Live Event: Manufacturing as a Strategic Variable

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    We will hold a live session with the full cohort and our experts, to synthesize what we have learned and explore insights that have arisen along the journey. As this virtual event approaches, please complete all activities prior to the session and be sure to participate in the conversation both online and at the webinar event.

    Much of the value of this course experience will come from your personal experiences and how you plan to apply the new tools to your daily work. One hour prior to the live event you will receive an email with the link to dial in to the GoToWebinar, or you may launch the webinar from this activity. See you then!