FEATURES
SEATTLE – On a bright spring Saturday morning in a used goods retail store south of Seattle, small teams of process
improvement engineers scurried about on a mission. Amid aisles cluttered with furniture and appliances, they
measured, sketched ideas on notepads, roamed the store perusing the shelves and immersed themselves into the store’s
operations with a gleam in their eyes.
By Keith Albertson
Firms may claim that they aim for, possess or already benefit from full supply chain visibility (SCV) in their
inbound, internal and outbound supply chains. In our experience, this seems an idealized world. Firms may at best
have partial visibility, and have realized some of the potential that visibility offers. Numerous software companies
and IT service providers offer solutions to increase SCV in various niches of the supply chain.
By Stephan M. Wagner and Christian Postel
With the introduction of novel technologies,
treatment protocols, pharmaceuticals and regulatory
standards, healthcare delivery systems
have become increasingly more complex. A
complex system is defined by Charles Perrow,
the author of several books on accidents
in high-risk organizations, as one that has many parts, is interdependent
in process and time, and has the potential for
unforeseen or unplanned interactions.
By Deen Gu, Alison Amos and Lukasz Mazur
Meet John, the owner and operator of a trash collection business in a rural community. His customers are proud of
where they live and work hard to keep everything green, clean and beautiful. They value reasonable costs, reliable
service and a clean neighborhood.
By Charles G. Chandler, Robert E. Hamm Jr. and Hung-da Wan