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| From the evaluation of an existing business environment; to directing radical change; the development of new business strategies; The Ashford Group has the expertise, experience, and resources needed to meet the challenges of global markets, increased competition, and rapidly changing technologies. BUSINESS FOCUS ASSESSMENT An Ashford Business Focus Assessment is an in-depth look at the total business environment to identify areas of opportunity. The process consists of a series of one-on-one discussions with all senior management personnel, most middle management personnel, and key operations personnel. The result is a broad evaluation of each business function. With a detailed list of opportunities and recommendations, the evaluation becomes management's road map and action plan against which to measure progress. The Ashford Business Focus Assessment provides an unbiased and prioritized appraisal of strategic business opportunities, a Management Action Plan, and a preliminary cost/benefit analysis. |
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| BUSINESS RE-ENGINEERING Business as usual is no longer an option! An attitude of business as usual will set the stage for incremental increases in performance. However, today's technology makes it possible to achieve a quantum leap in performance. The issue is not "can we do it" rather it is "let's do it". This quantum leap in performance, which all companies are capable of achieving, comes from making radical changes in the way we look at what we do, why we do it, and who does it. As change agents and project catalysts, The Ashford Group provides a high level of objectivity, new ideas, and re-engineering expertise. BUSINESS STRATEGIES ERROR MSGTHEORY OF CONSTRAINTS (TOC), a philosophy developed by Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt, is applied as a problem solving tool to produce improvements in managing an organization. The organization may be manufacturing, sales, projects - any organization where system constraints exist. This problem solving tool is called the Thinking Process (TP) and its objective is to logically and systematically move move management to answer these questions:
After we decide what to change, we must decide what the replacement will be. Underlying the Theory Of Constraints is the acknowledgment of Effect-Cause-Effect to evaluate and understand the impact of the replacement choices on the strength of the system and to help the decision process. How we cause the change to occur is through the Thinking Process(TP) - an understanding of the system to improve management skills. Our objectives are to improve communication, teach how to effect change, build teams, and empower the users to manage and continue to improve their system using the Theory Of Constraints. In order to achieve a process of on-going improvement, trova alberghi KeszthelyTheory Of Constraints introduces a five step approach to:
To exploit a constraint, we introduce a Theory of Constraints tool called Drum-Buffer-Rope(DBR). The selection of what will be the drum, a constraint but not necessarily the true bottleneck, takes effect-cause-effect analysis into consideration. The buffer or a physical buffer - with the intent to make sure that the drum is never starved. Physical buffers are managed using buffer tools software. The rope ties the rate of the system to the rate or throughput of the drum. Buffer Management(BM) is an effective Theory Of Constraints tool that produces significant and fast results. SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT is a decision making process that ensures that the tactical plans in all business functions are aligned and in support of the business plan. The objective is to reach consensus on a single operating plan that allocates the critical resources of the company - people, capacity, materials, time and money. Systems, Measurements, and Organization are the three keys necessary to effectively integrate a company's "supply activities". These activities - Sales Forecasting, Production Planning, Procurement, Production Scheduling, Manufacturing and distribution - are naturally linked together but are too often organized and executed as independent activities. The process of Supply Chain Management will help minimize this independence. Systems - Without systems, it would be like playing a ball game without rules. If the supply activities utilize independent systems or a system that does not "pull" requirements and responses from those activities that follow in the supply chain, the goal of the company to make money, will be more difficult. Paris cheap hotels The guiding principles are that systems should:
Measurements - Without measurements, it would be like playing a ball game without keeping score. Each of these independent supply activities need to have measurements of how well it is achieving the goal, it's objective, and it's mission in addition to how well it is servicing those supply activities proceeding it in the supply chain. The guiding principles are that measurements need to be: Organization - Without an organization, it would be like playing a ball game with more than 1 player at some positions and no players at other positions. The organizations of each of these independent supply activities need an understanding of the interactions of and the support for the entire supply chain - strength of the chain. The guiding principles are that organization structures are: To support the development and use of a strong supply chain, The Ashford Group has combined the strengths of:
The Ashford Advantage is that we assist our clients implement today's technology - Theory Of Constraints, Advanced Planning and Scheduling Systems, Enterprise Resources Planning - while also supporting the implementation of the process of Supply Chain Management and Sales & Operations Planning. |