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© 2007-2010 Tim Lovelock
From time to time I like to watch Pawn Stars on the History Channel. After watching a few episodes, a couple of clear business lessons emerge:
When in doubt, call in the expert
Every episode has the staff relying on the expertise of outsiders. Given the variety of objects they handle its impossible for any one person to know everything they need to know to make good decisions on a consistent basis. Takeaway from this that as your responsibilities increase in breadth and depth, get good people and rely on their expertise.
Let the other guy reveal his expectations first
Every job hunter has been told not to initiate the salary discussion. You don’t want to leave money on the table, and you just might pay more or receive less if you break first. The Pawn Stars always ask, “So, what are you looking to get from this?”
Never take the first offer
You have the money. Someone wants the money. Chances are pretty good they want to get your money way than you want what they’re selling. Use that. Find out just how badly they want or need your money by bargaining hard.
A good deal is a profitable deal – for you
For all the “training” we receive as business professionals about “yes-yes” deals. It’s great when that can happen, but it doesn’t NEED to happen. You’re in business to make a profit, and there’s nothing shameful about it. If you can’t make a profit on the deal, deliver the news in a straightforward way and if the other party can’t help you get to “YES”, walk away.
Don’t forget your manners
When these guys can’t make a good deal, they shake the other party’s hand, thank them, and part on friendly terms. Just because this deal didn’t work, you never know if they’ll come back tomorrow with a better deal. Or maybe they just have second thoughts and come back to you because you treated them with respect. No need to be a dick.
Inspired by Ted Murphy’s post about the TIM meeting calculator, I whipped up an Excel version to meet my own needs. How could I not? After all, it’s name after me!
Anyway, I cranked this out because I lead a daily meeting with at least 2 dozen daily attendees ranging from hourly support employees to multiple vice-presidents, and I use a projector and Excel as my tools so a spreadsheet will be the most effective communication tool in my environment. I’m the Materials guy that gets assigned to the programs with “issues”, so during the early stages the meeting time can be extensive (read: expensive). As control is re-established and meeting time’s are cut down, the productive time of the team is freed to go back to generating profit.
The other reason I created the spreadsheet is because Money is Money and I didn’t want to pay for the TIM. But if you don’t get to keep Excel running during the meeting where everyone can see the result, by all means head over to Ted.me and follow the link to buy a TIM of your own.
In the meantime, feel free to download the Time is Money Excel Calculator: Single-Level MRP Model (243)
Note: The file contains 2 macros to enter the start and end times conveniently.
Down to 2 Excel worksheet tabs, from well over a dozen. Goal is to get to a single sheet, but the volume of data, screen real estate, and the fact that it is reviewed in a conference room rather than printed all factor it. I’ll get there, but I like the progress so far.
I have a tab with a dynamic chart to review planned orders by assy (over 50 assemblies). Another tab to review upcoming total production volumes by type/workcenter. Need to add demand management and WIP data, then scale it all down to a single sheet.
Eric Miscoll wrote about how the analysis of Total Cost of Ownership of outsourced electronics manufacturing has changed in recent years at EMSNow: EMSNow – Is the Migration of Electronics Manufacturing to Asia Slowing?
In a proper Total Cost of Ownership analysis, direct labor rates are one of many issues considered, and the cost improvement it can offer can be quickly eliminated when considering other important issues like transportation, support, and inventory costs.
More than 2 years ago (pre-my current job), I wrote something similar while arguing that the impact of cycle time in offshore manufacturing is undervalued:
Unless enlighted managers “dollar-ize” the effect of the integrated cycle time – and there are hard- and soft-dollar impacts associated with going from one week to four weeks, or one month to three months – manufacturing will continue to be performed where wages are lowest. It is the challenge of the regional contract manufacturer to educate and inform the customer, and develop financial models to highlight the true bottom-line impact of offshore manufacturing. Global contract manufacturers provide geographic migration plans as a standard piece of their proposals. Regional contract manufacturers must not be afraid to aggressively present these models and make the case for domestic manufacturing.
Lest anyone think I have an opinion one way or the other and that my represents the opinion of my employer (and, allow me to say right now, NOTHING I write here represents the opinion or policy of my employer! 
), I will say that I am in agreement with Miscoll’s final paragraph:
CBA’s recommendation has been and continues to be that no two engagements are alike, and lemming-like behavior in search of ‘low cost labor’ can lead to expensive mistakes in outsourcing. OEMs should consider a proper ‘FIT’ – flexibility, integration, and timing – when designing a supply solution for their electronic products.
Finally, be sure to read the feedback I received from my father, a retired EMS CEO: Good piece, as far as it goes.
Seriously, if all it does it make a list of tasks then what’s the point? Let’s face it, I can do that right here, or in a notebook, or on a post-it for crying out loud!
While I do quite a bit of data analysis and manipulation in Excel using pivot tables, logical functions, lookup functions, and statistical functions, I haven’t spent much time learning Reference Functions in Excel.
Given that my day job is centered around production schedules and materials requirements planning (MRP), I wanted to try to create a simple MRP model that utilized reference functions. The new function for me is the OFFSET function. After using it I can certainly recommend it, although if anyone knows a better way to accomplish the same thing in a more elegant fashion please leave a comment below and I’ll give it a shot in the next iteration. No matter how much I already know, I’m always trying to improve my Excel skills.
I am assuming you have an idea how MRP works in materials management or you wouldn’t have read this far, but if you need a tutorial Wikipedia is a decent place to start. In simplest terms, it is the recipe for building a product; it calculates how many components it takes to build a quantity of end-items, and when the components need to be ordered.
Download the Single-Level MRP Model (243)
- I think it is important for candidates to list specific business accomplishments at each job and not just general job duties.
- I also find it helpful to have the candidates list which business problems/processes they have been working on. It is easy to say inventory reduction of X, but how did you accomplish it (VMI, supplier visibility, etc.)?
I already do the first, and I think I do it well. Judge for yourself. As for the second, I “sort of” do it in my blog posts, but I should probably look at a way to link my resume to supporting blog posts that go into depth. For the HTML resume, at least.
Check out the rest of the tips at The 21st Century Supply Chain » Blog Archive » Six tips for supply chain job seekers.
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