The Hindu Business Line : Four `v's for learning

Don't dismiss `v4L' as a queer SMS code; it's one of the formulae behind the success of a world-famous auto maker, as Toyota Supply Chain Management reveals. The four Vs are variety, velocity, variability, and visibility, and L stands for learning, explain the authors Ananth V. Iyer, Sridhar Seshadri, and Roy Vasher (www.tatamcgrawhill.com). They observe that often, variety is chosen with a focus on marketing benefits with scant attention to supply chain implications. While `variety' should be chosen by balancing market demands with operational efficiency, `velocity' considerations are about maintaining a steady flow throughout the system through synchronised capacity planning. The third V is variability. Reducing variability enables all of the supply chain flows to operate with low levels of inventory, the authors note. And, visibility of all processes is ensured by using the right metrics. At Toyota, for instance, "performance metrics have a 50 per cent weight for results and a 50 per cent weight for process compliance."

Imperative read.

Make tough decisions throughout the business

The angst of this tough time in the economy will pull you into fight-or-flight thinking, cautions Nicholas Bate in Beat the Recession: A blueprint for business survival (Research Press). He urges you to balance that `evolutionary pull' with some good leadership that ensures every short-term decision also takes into account the long-term impact. "Many an organisation has laid off good people only to start recruiting them again in three months' time, at great expense and training cost, often without being able to replace some of the rising stars they lost." Bate finds that business battles in recessionary times are won or lost by the ability to make clear decisions under pressure with insufficient data, and to be able to live with the consequences of those decisions. He exhorts bosses to make tough decisions - from major strategies to seemingly less significant items such as pay reviews, bonuses, holidays, and capital investment. "Talk to the `troops,' get onto the shop floor, go out on a call with a rep, get close and show you are human." Instructive material.

D. Murali

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