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 A Guide to online information about:
Starting your Own Business and Supply Chain Approach to Planning and Procurement Management by Bob Paddock Are you tired of working 40 hours a week for someone who thinks knocking down cement walls between rooms "will improve communications" among the staff, something right from a Dilbert Cartoon? Any logical engineer knows interruptions are one of the most effective productivity killers around. Tired of dealing with an IT department that tells you to "live with the 'No Permission' error" on the e-mail system that you are required to use to do your job? How many hours are you willing to have your logic working for yourself? 80 hours, 100 hours, more? In only 7 simple steps you can have your own e-Business. So now that you have all the answers on how to start your own e-Business, my work for this month's Resource Page is finished, right? In all seriousness, the Netscape Small Business Page does have many useful items such as: Owning a Successful Business - Do You Have What It Takes? - Look at what it means to own a business, from sacrifices you'll have to make to skills you'll need to succeed. (rtf file to download) You should study
this site well before taking the plunge. What might e-commerce look like in the future? Perhaps buzzsaw.com, who is transforming the building industry online, gives us an example of the future. "Control your costs and your profits will take care of themself." - Andrew Carnegie, creator of the Steel Industry, circa 1860. As an engineer working for a contract manufacturer, I once had the audacity to question a management policy about minimizing inventory. I wrote a rather lengthy memo questioning the management policy of "buy only what you need when you need it (Just In Time)" in relation to equipment setup times. To add weight to my concerns, I spent some time searching out answers to my questions about inventory stocking and how some big name players, such as HP, do it. The single one sentence reply I recieved from the company's owner was, "You don't understand cash flow." I'm the type that tries to seek out answers to things I don't understand. In seeking an answer to learn about cash flow, I found the answer in my own hometown, and most likely, so can you. The local Chamber of Commerce sponsors a program called "Project Start" a couple of times a year. "Project Start" was a one night a week class for 12 weeks that gave a introduction to small business management. They covered overviews of accounting, cash flow, inventory management, personnel management, financing, marketing, and, most importantly to us, how to find help to write a "Business Plan". The point I'm trying to make is that Internet and High Tech are useful, but don't over look old low-tech ways, such as the local phone book. The local people can help you by pointing out any local or regional requirements, such as taxes and licenses that you would be required to have. Some of main points from my Project Start class: Everyone wants "Angel Financing." That is, an angel from heaven drops the money you need in to your hands just as you want it. It almost never happens. To get financing, you're going to need a sound Business Plan. Since the big news, and perceived big money, is in Initial Public Offerings (IPO's), the best place to start is with the official rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Introduction: The Commission administers Federal securities laws that seek to provide protection for investors; to ensure that securities markets are fair and honest; and, when necessary, to provide the means to enforce securities laws through sanctions.I know of one promising technology that was put to death because the company's stock was not properly registered. So if you have any inkling of someday doing an IPO, make sure you have all your paperwork in proper form. More links on Securities/Stocks/Finance/IRA's/IPO's can be found here. Introduction: The objective of the Federal Trade Commission is to maintain competitive enterprise as a keystone of the American economic system, and to prevent the free enterprise system from being fettered by monopoly or restraints on trade or corrupted by unfair or deceptive trade practices. The Commission is charged with keeping Competitive both free and fair.More links on FTC related maters can be found here. The FTC of late has taken to policing web sites for unsubstantiated claims. Sometimes when I'm working on these Resource Pages I come across some thing that leaves me to wonder, "Why?" Such as when I came across Funeral Rule ( 16 CFR Part 453.pdf) on the FTC site. If your business is going under, I guess they want to see that it gets a proper burial??? [Actually it deals with the Funeral Industry, an area of business that is growing instead of dying.] The Internal
Revenue Service as an example of other
government information that is helpful. If
you want to see an example of how NOT to write a document then check
out United States
Code TITLE 26 - INTERNAL REVENUE CODE.
...Federal Gateway's picks of interesting sites. NIH-Guide to Grants and Contracts Database provides free e-mail subscription. Grants Net has a solid introduction to the federal grant business. U. S. Government and Grant Resources good consolidation of same. Financial Literacy - Hot Sites Listing of quality financial sites. CBDNet key publication of federal contract activities with explanations. Small Business Administration. Federal Gateway to State and Local Government. State and Local Government
on the Net Links to Small Business Marketing
Resources from Don't let the name mislead you. The information is valid no matter where you are. Since I'm located on the Pennsylvania/Ohio border, I've used them more extensively. However, each state has their own resources to help you get started. This web site is the result of the first phase of the Commonwealth's ongoing effort to make Pennsylvania the best and easiest state to open and operate a business! By visiting this one web site, an entrepreneur can get state filing information and many of the forms necessary to start a business, along with other helpful documents and links. Entrepreneur's Guide Guide Part 1 - 52 PagesAn example of how a state might be able to help you bring in new business: Pennsylvania gives green light to web collaboration project
"I'm from the government and I'm here to help you!"
The Small Business know-how Resource
Are you making any of these 10 Deadly Small Business Mistakes? The
Entrepreneur Test (quiz) The Institute of Management and Administration publishes a broad range of high quality information products for business professionals. Their newsletters
and special reports offer "in the trenches" management advice. Find out everything you
need to know to run a successful business.
Get advice from Prodigy members who have been there,
done that. You need
ManagementLibrary.com to do your job, or to help you do your research.
It's filled with thousands of articles on the topic of business management
from a practical no-nonsense standpoint in categories like Human Resources,
benefits, compensation, corporate finance and accounting, law office
management, public accounting, safety and security, and more. Financing: The Fisher College of Business
has designed a site to assist you in gathering information on a wide
variety of financial topics such as
Venture Capital.
In the Small Business Resource Center, Master Card has assembled a host of valuable information on the key issues that impact your business. The Center gives you instant access to Master Card's years of business building experience and the solid expertise of business publications and partners. Don't overlook your closest resource—your Significant Other. For example, my wife subscribes to a newsletter called The Dollar Stretcher that has a lot of tips on doing a Home Business. Remember that company
that started out in a garage?
The Dollar Stretcher also has links to Bank Rate Subject Index for small business. Bankrate.comSM, an online publication of Intelligent Life Corp., has a new feature: Every Wednesday
Stephen Windlass will answer your questions about starting and running
a small business. Check
out a past column. Forbes has several items related to getting your e-Business off the ground, as well as weekly updates on what is happening in the Small e-Business world. Looking for a new business idea or partner? Go talk to one of your kids. My partner, my father. After your new business is off the ground and going well, it is time to start thinking of Pension Options to offer.
Does your current employer have a Byzantine Performance Appraisal System? The type where if you worked 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, the highest yearly raise you can get is 2.8%, while the rate of inflation is 2.6%. When starting up your new e-Business, you might want to consider other options. For example in the book: "Strategic Pay" by
Edward E. Lawler III Mr. Lawler shows how organizations
can use pay systems as a strategic tool for improving organizational
effectiveness - rather than simply viewing pay as an unavoidable cost
of doing business. Cynthia L. Sutton Ph.D. of Division
of Business & Economics Keep her advice in mind at all times: "Leadership is the very heart and soul of business management. No one really manages a business by shuffling the numbers or rearranging organizational charts or applying the latest business school formulas. What you manage in business is people." Watson Wyatt's employer surveys on Strategic Rewardsý: Creating Financial Capital Through Human Capital have consistently found that high-performing companies tend to better align their reward plans with their business strategies. It is important that all share equitably in any business venture. If the executives are taking home six-digit salaries while the people building the product and interacting with the customers are making minimum wage, you can be sure that in the long term, the people most valuable to the company will seek out greener pastures. They just might go off and start up a new company as your competitor with their inventive ideas, which could have been adding to your own bottom line. Any policy you create is bound to have side effects. Make sure you consider the side effects before you implement your new policy, as it might cause problems worse than the one that your new policy was meant to solve. Have you ever wanted to do business with a company but you only needed a ten-cent part, while they had a hundred-dollar minimum order? Did you ever wonder why they had this policy to impede your progress? Does your management insist on using a MRP/ERP system that tells you to order a single SMT resistor that cost 0.083 cents every two weeks? What does doing this really cost your company? Think about the old adage "Time is money." It takes your purchasing department just five minutes of their time, plus the phone charges, to get that resistor on order for "Just-In-Time" delivery. Then it comes in to your receiving dock, where it has to be inspected. Then to your warehouse, where it gets checked in to stock. Then it gets checked out of stock for the job to be built. A minimum of five people have just spent their time/your money on getting that one 0.083-cent resistor. Just because things like inventory and inventory turns are easy to measure, does not mean your company is maximizing its profits. Like Andrew Carnegie pointed out more than hundred years ago, it is your costs that need to be controlled, not your inventory. Maybe "you don't understand cash flow," but you do understand cost control. To measure your staff's productivity is not the same as to improve it; "What you measure wrong, you manage wrong." - Bob Lewis in InfoWorld. Eric Raymond, a partner in my own supply chain, from Pioneer-Standard told me about their new partnership with Supplystream. Supplystream has come out with a line of tools that allow you to optimize the total cost of ownership. These tools will let you find out what that ONE 0.083 cent resistor really costs you to "own" it. For example, AutoK is an application tool to help materials managers create cost effective supply chain strategies. Like other Supplystream Tools, AutoK is designed around the principals of Activity Based Costing and helps the user measure supplier total cost of ownership. Supplystream tools are particularly useful for measuring the value of services provided by distribution. Supplystream's supply chain management tool suite provides the user with a host of powerful tools to measure and manage supplier value added services. Their tools can answer
questions such as, is a $1 IC from a vender that adds no value cheaper
to own than the same IC for $1.10 from a vender that will keep stock
for you on their shelf?  HP Journal The Supply Chain Approach to Planning and Procurement Management by Gregory A. Kruger. The supply chain approach models stochastic events, influencing a manufacturing organization's shipment and inventory performance in the same way that a mechanical engineer models tolerance buildup in a new product design. The objectives are to minimize on-hand inventory and optimize supplier response times. Appendix I: Derivation of the Standard Deviation of Demand Given an R-Week Review Period - fe97a6a.pdf (18K) Appendix II: The Expected Value and Variance of On-Hand Inventory when there are no Restrictions on Minimum Buy Quantities - fe97a6b.pdf (26K) Appendix III: The Expected Value and Variance of On-Hand Inventory when there Are Restrictions on Minimum Buy Quantities- fe97a6c.pdf (22K) Appendix IV: Incorporating SRT (Supplier Response Time) into the Safety Stock Calculations- fe97a6d.pdf (35K) Appendix V: Derating the Service Level to Account for Reduced Periods of Exposure to Stock-outs as a Result of Minimum Buy or Economic Order Quantities- fe97a6e.pdf (15K) Appendix VI: Estimating Weekly Demand Uncertainty from Monthly Data - fe97a6f.pdf (14K) Appendix VII: Adjusting Safety Stock to Account for Yield Loss - fe97a6g.pdf (41K) Additional information about
Supply Chain Technologies can be found HERE.
You don't have to look far to see the supply chain building. It permeates the core cycles of every profit center. Raw materials, manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution... right through transportation logistics. And even as these systems become more automated, they're being interfaced directly with corporate enterprise information systems. The benefits of supply chain management are spreading throughout every corner of the economy, It's an unstoppable wave that demands a new level of technological sophistication from businesses of every size and description. Gaining entrance to the new supply chain economy requires a basic set of enabling technologies that demand data capture systems. Achieving success requires managing these technologies more efficiently than competitors. Click here to subscribe to Supply Chain NewsLink, ID Systems weekly e-mail headline summary of the latest supply chain trends, new products, and industry news covered in IDSystems.com's E-News section. You can also subscribe to the monthly print version of ID Systems magazine. http://www.idsystems.com/reader/white/index.htm Unleashing
Engineering Information to the Enterprise
Collaborative Engineering: Using E-Business for
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Niku delivers enterprise-class applications to help source and manage your talent, provide for project collaboration, capture and share information, and automate the basic business process, through a browser.
Take care of your business
- -
on the web. The IBM
Small Business Assistant step-by-step guide helps you find the right
solution for your business. Prodigy Biz gives you all the tools you need to master your business, and will help answer your questions. Small Biz Web Sites
on the Rise, Yet Many Owners Slow to Embrace the Internet -
Prodigy Reveals Results of Nationwide
Small Biz Study. Some companies mandate
that they will only do business with a company that is "ISO9000
certified". So your small startup needs to keep this
in mind when setting up shop. It is easier to start out a new
company and meet ISO9000 requirements than it is to get "buy in"
from those entrenched in Status Quo in an established company—if
you start from the very beginning of your operation. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies from some 130 countries, one from each country. The mission of ISO is to promote the development of standardization and related activities in the world with a view to facilitate the international exchange of goods and services. A common misconception is that the letters I-S-O are an acronym of International Standard Organization, when in fact, "ISO" is the short form of the organization's proper name. It is derived from the Greek isos, meaning "equal", which is the root of the prefix "iso-" that occurs in a host of terms—such as "isometric" (of equal measure or dimensions) and "isonomy" (equality of laws, or of people before the law). ISO, as a proper name, was chosen to prevent problems with translations of acronyms into different languages. Most of us have run into a manager or organization touting "ISO 9000" as the solution to all product quality problems, and "ISO 14000" as the solution to all environmental, 'Green', problems. In ISO's own words, they want to put an end to company statements that imply that ISO 9000 signifies product quality or that ISO 14000 means that a product is "green". See their How to avoid false ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 claims leaflet if you would like to know more. ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 are what is known as "generic management system standards". "Generic"means that the standards' requirements can be applied to any organization, regardless of the product it makes (or whether the "product" is actually a service activity). "Management system"refers to what the organization does to manage its processes. If your "Management system" says that you can make lifejackets out of cement, and all of your Work Instructions have been properly audited and signed per the ISO 9000 guide lines, then your product is ready to ship, even though it would kill anyone foolish enough to use such a product. The next time you hear some one tout ISO 9000 as a quality system, find out what they really mean. ISO 9001 - 1994 Quality systems - Model for quality assurance in design/development, production, installation, and servicing. ISO 9002 - 1994 Quality Model for quality assurance in production and installation.
ISO 9003 - 1994 Quality systems - Model for quality assurance in
final inspection and test. There are four news sources
I use to keep up with the minute-by-minute changes of eCommerce: CIO WebBusiness - Strategies for Using the Web in Business. NEWSBYTESý -Example: Poll Reveals Lack of E-Relationships. A poll suggests that many online retailers will miss an opportunity to establish long-term relationships with customers. Network Computing -Bowstreet is also leading the push toward the Directory Services Markup Language (DSML) standard, which leverages the power of XML to mediate differences between proprietary directory structures.Example: Simplicity Lies at the Heart of iPin's New Online Payment Scheme.Internet Week -Example: Bowstreet's Web Automation Factory Leverages Directories And XML. XML and its relations are rapidly becoming the language of e-commerce.
The World Wide Web Consortium is where you can keep up with the recent developments in XML. If there is enough interest, XML might be worth a Resource Page of its own. Let me know. Is buzzsaw.com what e-commerce might look like in the future? buzzsaw.com is the building design and construction industry hub that delivers integrated business-to-business collaboration and e-commerce services for everyone in the building industry that needs a faster, more profitable way to work. buzzsaw.com provides the building industry with integrated offerings for design collaboration, bidding, construction administration, and buying. In addition, buzzsaw.com fosters an online community for information exchange by providing industry contacts, relevant reference material and sources, pertinent news, and other services tailored to the needs of building professionals around the world. By offering a broad array
of basic services (including project hosting) at no charge, buzzsaw.com
is transforming the industry. With its intuitive tools and resources,
buzzsaw.com makes it easy for
everyone working on a building project to participate online. Because of all of the legal requirements of starting a new business, I'll leave you with one last parting thought from Shakespeare - 2 KING HENRY VI Act 4, Scene 2; Blackheath. DICK, the butcher:
The fact that an item is listed here does not mean we promotes its use for your application. No endorsement of the vendor or product is made or implied.
If
you would like to add any information on this topic or request a
Circuit Cellar
provides up-to-date information for engineers. Visit www.circuitcellar.com
for more information and additional articles.
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