Operations
The supplier wants 8%. Some of that is the cost of how we buy.
When a price increase letter lands, the argument almost always happens on the wrong variable: the number itself rather than what generated it.
Rialto Bridge
Operations
Articles on operations.
Operations
Three quotes were taken. The specification was written by the incumbent.
A competitive tender that the incumbent always wins is not a test of the market. It is a receipt, and…
Operations
The deposit is 50%. The float has been paying the wages.
Customer prepayments feel like cash strength right up to the point the order book flattens, when the same mechanism unwinds…
Operations
The contract renews itself every year. The notice window closed in March.
Automatic renewal is not an administrative detail. It is a pricing mechanism, and it works quietly in favour of whoever…
Operations
Stock turns four times a year. Two thirds of the lines turn once.
An aggregate inventory turn is the average of two businesses sharing one warehouse, and only one of them is earning…
Operations
The management accounts land on the 21st. The decisions were made on the 3rd.
A number that is exact but late has already lost the argument to a number that was roughly right when…
Operations
A third of the month’s orders arrive in the last three days
When demand spikes at the end of every sales period, the cause is rarely the customer. Both the discount and…
Operations
Utilisation hit 92%. The lead time tripled.
Everyone agrees idle capacity is waste. The arithmetic of queues says the last ten points of utilisation are the most…
Operations
Four months make the year. The team is the same size in all twelve.
Most businesses with seasonal demand size their team for the average month, then lose money twice: once in the peak…
Operations
The risk register lists fire, flood and cyber. The real exposure has a mobile number.
Most registers catalogue the risks a business can insure against. The ones that actually stop the work tend to be…
Take it further
This is the general pattern. Your business is the specific case.
Everything here is free to read with an account, and always will be. What it cannot do is tell you which of these applies to your numbers, your market and your constraints. That is the work we do with clients.