Customer Responsiveness

Ames began seriously considering the changes necessary to meet our major customers' escalating Quick Response requirements about two years ago. After initial discussions and strategic planning, we established the following objectives for our Quick Response Project:

• Develop Quick Response (QR) capability as soon and as completely as possible so that we can meet or exceed current and anticipated customer requirements for improved service.

• Condense the total cycle time from ordering of raw material to delivery to customer's point-of-sale to meet consumer demands.

• Become recognized as a proactive leader in QR capability within our industry and in our marketplace.

• Be the Low Cost—Best Quality—Preferred Service company in our industry.

• Build strong business partner relationships with our customers and with our vendors.

• Develop an effective long-term design for the company, its business practices and its support systems, while meeting the short-term, pressing requirements of our customers com­pletely and on-time.

• Position the company for growth and profitability for the next ten years at least.

We also defined the following areas we should concentrate upon primarily, as well as the underlying design strategies to support our project objectives:

• Manufacturing: reengineer our manufacturing processes, plant layouts, production scheduling, material movement, and sup­port systems and services

— Implement very intensive and dynamic short-term plan­ning, combined with flexibility in manufacturing and the ability to manufacture to meet requirements by SKU on a timely basis.

— Reassess, rearrange and relocate operations and facilities to support true JIT/Quick Response operations.

• Distribution: reevaluate our distribution policies and practices, warehouse locations, and transportation arrangements

— Determine the best network of distribution centers, private fleet trucking, and common-carrier alliances to meet our QR delivery and profitability goals.

— Reorganize the layout of storage and handling space and improve material flow, control systems, and procedures to increase speed and accuracy in all aspects of the warehous­ing/shipping process.

• Administrative: review and improve all support functions, systems, and procedures to complement operations and pro­mote QR service

— Develop a QR business systems design that ingrains QR methods throughout the company's operations, and posi­tions Ames as a true QR supplier.

— Evaluate all information systems for their consistency with and ability to support QR operations extremely well—those that do not must be replaced (or reworked completely to bring them to the required level).

• Education & Employee Relations: implement new and inno-

vative Human Resources programs to prepare for QR effec­tiveness

— Make all employees fully aware of the benefits from and requirements for QR operations. Educate, Educate, Edu­cate!

— Empower our employees to make the changes required in their work environment that will enable them to reach and maintain the quintessential QR standards and objectives.

— Implement a comprehensive Change Facilitation process to prepare all employees for the process of dramatic and continuous change.

• Electronic Communications: extend and improve current data communications with our customers and vendors, and within our own organization

— Upgrade and extend our EDI systems to include all of the new business transactions that will promote and support trading partnerships with our customers (to meet their known present and anticipated future requirements, and to be able to offer them even more services proactively).

— Implement a full range of EDI transactions with our vendors to facilitate trading partnerships with them (to generate the kind of benefits for us that our customers are working toward, and to build excellent supply-pipeline-management capabilities).

— Upgrade and extend intra-company communications to provide the means for fast, easy communication of all relevant information among all elements of the company.

Lean Six Sigma Consulting   World Class Manufacturing   
Balanced Scorecards  Strategic Tactical Planning  
Supply Chain Inventory Management  Principles of Total Quality Management
  Manufacturing Process Improvement