Cycle Counting Exposes Inventory Ills

This is an excerpt from a Material Handling and Logistics article.

Cycle counting is a process designed to replace comprehensive annual inventories with smaller counts conducted on a continuous basis throughout the year. It can be conducted while normal business operations continue, eliminating the need for an annual shutdown.

While you do need a certain level of product/process complexity or volume to make cycle counting worthwhile, companies need not be large to benefit.

5 Top Benefits

1. Improved ability to fill orders: Cycle counting allows smaller batches of goods to be counted and allows counts of the same batches multiple times a year. Companies can decide, for example, to schedule six counts a year of their highest turnover items, reducing inventory variances in the ordering system and, in turn, reducing the number of purchase requests that must be placed on back-order.

2. Current information to manage the business: When inventory records are inaccurate, orders for extra supply often are placed to provide “padding” that insures goods will be there when needed. This excess inventory increases carrying costs and potentially increases the amount of obsolete stock on hand.

3. Faster recognition of breakdowns in shipping, receiving and inventory transfer transactions: This can reduce extra costs associated with expedited freight that is incurred to make up for time lost dealing with inaccurate inventory records.

4. Reduced disruption: Since only small batches are being counted at a time, there is no need to shut down operations for counting inventory. And since counting is done continuously, the process can be integrated into the regular workflow. Last, there is no need to hire and train temporary workers to do an annual inventory. Existing staff can cycle count.

5. Increased ability to reduce errors and theft: More frequent counting allows discrepancies to be discovered closer to the time they were caused. That in turn makes identification of those causes – and correcting them – easier and quicker, reducing the impact of errors.  More frequent counting also helps detect theft more quickly so that countermeasures can be taken.

The full article is available on Material Handling and Logistics' website.

Job Outlook Improving For Construction Industry

This is an excerpt from a todaysfacilitymanager.com article.

Gradual improvement throughout 2012 and into 2013 offers construction job seekers some relief, according to a new report by CareerCast.com. Commercial construction has improved over the past year with indicators pointing to continued growth.

“Newly created jobs in the construction industry provide opportunities for candidates with a diverse range of qualifications and skill sets,” says Tony Lee, publisher, CareerCast.com. “A construction manager/site superintendent is one such career, and one of the most lucrative in the sector with a median annual salary of $82,790.”

The construction manager/site superintendent oversees the day-to-day operations on-site, which is also important to the overall profitability of a project. Particularly skilled candidates for this job need to make sure projects “avoid hiccups” to prevent further cuts into those profit margins.

In recent years, construction workers with specialized trade skills have been the most in-demand amid the industry’s tumultuous times, Department of Labor statistics show. BLS projections suggest most specialty trade careers will grow over the national average in the next seven to 10 years. That means 20% to 25% more opportunities for carpenters, electricians, and plumbers. Contributing to the growth of these fields are the options they offer. Some skilled workers are independent contractors with whom construction companies employ on an individual basis. Other companies choose to staff their own, full-time skilled trade workers.

The full article is available on the Today's Facility Manager website.

3 Steps to Better Estimates

This is an excerpt from a landscaping estimates article published on Greenindustrypros.com.

Without completely knowing their costs, landscape contractors can't possibly arrive at an accurate bid number. And without that, they can't possibly earn the profit they need to sustain their businesses.

Contractors need a reliable, repeatable and consistent bidding system. By knowing all costs associated with each job, the bidding process will run more smoothly.

Information related to material prices and hourly labor costs should be readily accessible. Some contractors keep binders of information in their trucks. Others use management software back at the office, many times syncing up to a mobile device such as a smartphone or iPad. However you do it, having this information available on the fly is helpful. Not only can it help you to improve the accuracy of your estimating, but it can help speed up your estimating process. Remember, in many instances, the faster you can get an estimate into the prospective client's hands, the better your chances of getting the job.

Producing an accurate estimate requires two things: 1) Knowing how much it costs you to perform each task, 2) Knowing the exact parameters of the job you are bidding on.

Read the full, "3 Steps to Better Estimates" article at Green Industry Pros' website.

Brick-and-mortar retailers display staying power on 2013 Top 100 Retailers list

This is an excerpt from a post on mhi.org about STORES’ 2013 “Top 100 Retailers” list. The full article is available on the MHI news webpage.

Wal-Mart remains at the top of the STORES’ 2013 Top 100 Retailers list, raking in $328.7 billion in 201. Kroger, reporting more than $92 billion in sales in 2012, maintained the No. 2 spot for the fourth year in a row.

Costco (4), The Home Depot (5) and Safeway (9) each moved up a single spot, and McDonald’s (10) joined the top 10 list for the first time in the survey’s history, reporting more than $35.5 billion in sales in 2012.

Target (3), CVS Caremark (7) and Lowe’s (8) round out the top 10, and Amazon.com, one of only two pure-play retailers on the Top 100 list, jumped from No. 15 to No. 11 this year.

…

Growth in Home Goods Sector Shows Consumer Resilience

An area of note in this year’s report is the growth seen in the home goods sector. Of the three companies who made the list, each climbed from last year’s position. Thanks to an improving housing market, consumers have come out of hibernation and have begun sprucing up their homes or buying for their new homes. Williams-Sonoma landed at No. 91 this year, up from No. 94 last year, and IKEA North America came in right behind at No. 92, up from No. 95. Bed Bath & Beyond reported more than $10.9 billion in sales in 2012 and landed at No. 36, up from No. 39 last year.

Continue reading the full article on the MHI news webpage.

Hone Your Hiring Skills

This is an excerpt from an article in Construction Business Owner. The magazine conducted a survey to find the most pressing workforce management challenge that its readers are facing. 

... More than half of those surveyed stated that finding skilled employees was their greatest hurdle. Another 20 percent of readers stated that effective hiring was their top challenge.

This issue takes on even more importance considering that the need to hire employees is on the rise for most companies. According to the “SMB Hiring Outlook Survey 2013” by Sage construction software, a third of small- to mid-sized construction companies reported an increase or plan to increase the size of their workforce in 2013. With such growth comes immense pressure on business owners to make smart hires. CBO interviewed three business management experts to glean insight into how to create an effective hiring process.

Recruiting is the First Step 
The consensus among the experts is that if you wait until you have a position to fill to begin hiring, you have already failed. Jack Daly, a widely recognized sales management consultant and the author of “Real World Management Strategies that Work,” drives this point home: “Sports teams are quite frankly run better than businesses.”

Would Nick Saban or Rick Pitino ever entertain the thought of filling their roster without active recruiting years in advance? Surely no coach, even a less successful one, would consider selecting replacements only as their senior players are preparing to graduate. Yet, business owners often do just this. “There are businesses that aren’t spending any time recruiting good people to come into their company, and then they wonder why their performance is suffering or lacking,” Daly says.

He encourages business owners to act as if their companies are never fully staffed, principally because waiting until you have to find someone often puts you at the mercy of the pool of active job seekers. Stan Davis, founder of Standish Executive Search, concurs: “Active job seekers are maybe 20 to 25 percent of the people you want to attract.” Since no smart business owner would reasonably choose to ignore 75 percent of the talent pool, the need to prioritize recruiting is undeniable. “You’ve got to go where these people are, and you’ve got to dig them out. That’s what good search firms do—they build a network,” Davis says.

The full hiring and recruiting article is available on the Construction Business Owner website.