Over the years, my relationship with Sourcing has not always been close. You might say we have respect for each other, but our methods of getting to the goal could be at cross purposes. For me, reducing cycle time obtained far greater cost savings than a simple cost-down policy. I […]
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When I would attend industry meetings, people would often ask, “What keeps you up at night?” My answer was always consistent – I was afraid someone would load something in a container of ours that would go ‘Boom’ in the Port of Los Angeles. With all the advancements in globalization, […]
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Over the past few months I have had the opportunity to tour e-commerce operations all over the world. I visited an incredible variety of businesses, including Amway China, Columbia Sportswear, DHL, Duytan Plastics, Lazada Express, Nike, Ching Luh, RR Farms, Schneider Logistics, Honeywell International as well as the American Chamber […]
Read MoreIn my first taste of manufacturing, I was parachuted into the Toyota plant at Motomachi, Japan. There, I was instructed to “do Kaizen.” To my senseis, it didn’t matter that I was the only one that spoke English or that this neophyte American was supposed to teach the masters of […]
Read MoreWe’d been trying to leave Ho Chi Minh City for Beijing for two days. While everyone in the U.S. had been focused on Hurricane Harvey in Texas, we’d been dealing with similar effects from Typhoon Pakhar in China. All air and sea traffic had been brought to a standstill while […]
Read MoreIf you’ve been following this blog, you know that in my role as adjunct professor at Portland State University, I left the U.S. a few weeks ago, accompanying 28 students on a three-week Study Abroad program. Our itinerary included visiting both Vietnam and China to study e-commerce and meet with […]
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