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January 2007

Random Selections from Everyday Spam

by Pete Abilla on January 30, 2007

I normally and quickly delete my Spam box, but today I thought of checking it out to see what spammers were up to. To my surprise, I found the Spam almost inspiring; fulfilling some deep human need.  Okay, not quite, but here are some nuggets from the Spam I’ve received today for your enjoyment. Spammers [...]

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Gratuitous ClipArt

by Pete Abilla on January 29, 2007

While at Amazon, we were all told by Divine Fiat that ALL presentations — regardless of kind, cannot ever be on Powerpoint. Period. Bezos prefers prose and actual thoughts slapped in a report — an actual paper report with paragraphs, charts, sentences, an executive summary, introduction of problem, research approach and findings (body of paper), [...]

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Toyota Factory in Ontario, Canada

by Pete Abilla on January 28, 2007

The guys at Gemba Research pointed me to this great video on the Toyota factory in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. This is the opening of the Toyota Ontario Canada plant. “We don’t lay people off. There hasn’t been a layoff worldwide since 1950.” What is the Toyota culture? One of the senior managers interviews says: “We [...]

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The Bullwhip Effect

by Pete Abilla on January 24, 2007

bullwhip effect, proctor and gamble

Yesterday for class, we played the Beer Distribution Game, which is a game developed by the Systems Dynamic Group at MIT back in the early 1960′s. This game simulates what can happen in a traditional supply chain and exposes some interesting dynamics that happen in real-world supply chains. The players of this game take on [...]

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Knocking Down a Wall

by Pete Abilla on January 24, 2007

housing construction

We had a wall knocked down recently, and we are really happy about the result. Previously, as you walked into our front door, you were immediately met with a small front room and an awckward wall. Now, when you walk in, there is a big wide and long room, perfect for wrestling in, entertaining, and [...]

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The 8th Type of Muda

by Pete Abilla on January 23, 2007

muda definition, waste, lean

There are 3 types of activities, 2 of which produce waste: Steps that definitely create value. Steps that create no value, but are necessary given the current state of the system. Steps that create no value and can be eliminated. (2) & (3) naturally create wastes, of which there are 7 types: Over-Production: Producing more [...]

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Forecasting – Unweighted and Weighted Moving Average Model

by Pete Abilla on January 23, 2007

forecasting, weighted moving average

This article is part 2 of a series on Forecasting. In this article, we will discuss 2 types of forecasting models — the weighted and unweighted moving average model. I’ll also discuss Measure of Forecasting Accuracy. Unweighted Moving Average The Moving Average model is in class of “naive” models, because it takes a data set [...]

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Introduction to Forecasting

by Pete Abilla on January 22, 2007

introduction to forecasting, demand planning

This article is part 1 of a series on Forecasting. A forecast is an estimate of the future level of some variable. That variable is most often demand but could also be supply or price. Most companies forecast in order to help the firm in strategic planning activities such as inventory purchasing, capacity planning, labor [...]

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