Horses for courses with Lean Manufacturing

While at my son's football training tonight, I got talking to one of the grandads who was a shop-floor supervisor in an SME manufacturer.

He was talking about the NVQ training he was doing in Lean Manufacturing at work and how it all related to the big automated car manufacturers and was not relevant to his company.

This is such a common story where trainers provide generic and often inappropriate training, particularly where government funding is involved and 'bums on seats' means money.

The truth is that introducing some Lean techniques can be incredibly profitable for this type of company, if they are introduced by a consultant/trainer who takes the time to understand the business and its needs.

Someone I have aways admired for his ability to do this is Andrew Nicholson of Nicholson Consultancy. Take a look at Andrew's new blog.

Why all finance directors need to know about ODBC

I regularly come across companies that are paying a small fortune to their software providers for any reporting they want from their ERP system. This is not only expensive, but usually takes a great deal of time and effort from the company's employees in explaining their requirements.

Often no-one at the software provider mentions a free route to report from their software using a tool that staff are familiar with. A quick email or phone call (asking the right question) to their support team and this can be set up - free of charge.

This is not some specific tool from the software provider, but one that is available (free) for almost every software package out there. The tool I am talking about is ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) which allows you to automatically use Excel to report from all of the database tables. For most databases this is already installed on your PC, although you might not know it -for more obscure databases there may be some software to install, but this is usually included on your initial installation disks.

If you have any issues reporting from your software, ask your provider about using the ODBC links - they will almost certainly be available. If you want to read more about what you can do with the data you access, read:

Do your management accounts take weeks, days, hours, minutes…or seconds to prepare?

Good luck!

The link between the base rate and what the banks charge us

Following yesterday's rate cut, I came across this blog post from the BBC's Robert Peston, that is one of the clearest explanations of the complex links that drive the rate that businesses and consumers get charged.

Will a 1.5% interest rate cut do the job?

Today the Bank of England dropped its usual "steady as she goes" image to make a dramatic (and larger than anyone even asked for) rate cut to bring the Bank Base Rate down to 3%.

But as Mervyn King bends over the twisted body of the British Economy, shouts "Clear!" and applies the defibrillator, will it be enough to restart its bruised and battered heart?

If the rate is passed on (and quickly) to mortgage payers and businesses, it might just get people thinking that they can afford to go out and get some Christmas presents in, helping out the retail sector.

Again, if rates are passed on, and the banks are prepared to lend (big ifs), this could be a great time for all of those first-time buyers who have not been able to afford to get on the housing ladder to take advantage of cheap house prices and low interest rates - giving a boost to the construction industry.

Combined with a new president, and a new found optimism, in the US, maybe things won't be that bad after all.

Or am I clutching at straws.

What does everyone else think? Please leave a comment.