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Our newsletters provide guidance on ISO 9001,
AS9100, ISO 13485, ISO/TS 16949, TL 9000, ISO
14001,
ISO 27001, ISO 20000, and related ISO
standards, as well as, Six Sigma.
If you have any questions about the articles
appearing in this issue, or you want to suggest
topics for future issues, please let us
know.
Re-Shoring to America
The National Tooling & Machining Association
(NTMA), Precision Metalforming Association
(PMA), and Association for Manufacturing
Technology (AMT) have announced the 2010
Contract Manufacturing Purchasing Fair, also
known as the Re-Shoring Fair.
This new event will place an emphasis on
bringing lost manufacturing jobs back to the
United States by uniting OEMs with
competitive domestic suppliers. It will be
held May 12, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency Irvine
Hotel in Irvine, California. The fair will
focus on machined, stamped, and fabricated
parts, special tooling (dies, molds, jigs,
fixtures, and gauges) and special machines.
A recent Industry Week article by Josh Cable
made the following points on re-shoring:
1. Manufacturers decide to offshore
manufacturing work because the
freight-on-board costs are lower for work
done overseas. However, if those companies
factor in the costs of regulatory compliance,
potential intellectual property loss, visits
to overseas vendors, potential product
quality problems, high foreign wage
inflation, and carrying extra inventory as
cushion against late or damaged shipments,
the gap is favorable or small enough that it
makes sense to re-shore that work.
2. Among the other harder-to-quantify
benefits of re-shoring are the advantages of
locating manufacturing operations closer to
R&D activities, as well as, the reduced
carbon footprint of shorter shipping
distances. Companies that are heavily focused
on being "green" can make a good case that
the total carbon footprint of a part made 100
miles away in the U.S. is perhaps a half or a
third of what it would be if it was made in
China and shipped to the U.S.
Cable's article also noted it is hard for
American manufacturing operations to compete
with the price of commodity Chinese-made
T-shirts, toys, and similar
high-labor/low-cost items. Typically,
re-shoring is more attractive for the
production of new high-mix/low-volume parts
and components that are sold or used in the
North American market, require frequent
engineering changes, have short lifecycles,
are produced with low labor content, or
involve high shipping costs versus labor
costs.
For more information about the Re-Shoring
Fair, and the opportunities available for
competitive domestic sourcing, visit this web site.
Riskier Business
According to an article by Jill Jusko in
Industry Week, today's uncertain economic
climate is driving greater focus on risk
management.
She said that Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and
CEO Warren Buffett recently made very clear
where he believes the responsibility for risk
management lies: with the chief executive
officer. "If Berkshire ever gets in trouble,
it will be my fault. It will not be because
of misjudgments made by a risk committee or
chief risk officer," he wrote in his annual
letter to Berkshire shareholders.
Signs indicate that CEOs will be taking
greater notice of risk in the wake of the
economic crisis. According to
PricewaterhouseCoopers' latest CEO survey,
fully 84% of respondents reported they
anticipate making changes to the way they
approach managing risk, with 41% indicating
that those changes will be major ones. And,
71% of the survey respondents reported their
boards of directors will become more engaged
in assessing strategic risks, with 20%
becoming "significantly more engaged."
"That one in five say their board of
directors is 'significantly more engaged' in
assessing strategic risk indicates that for
many, approaches to risk are moving beyond
controls-based risk management to corporate
strategy and financial management," note the
authors of the report detailing the survey
results.
Different strategies to address risk are
likely to emerge as companies investigate
where their greatest risks lie. That said,
several organizations have recently offered
their advice:
Categorize your risk. The U.S. leader
of consulting firm Deloitte's governance and
risk management practice suggests dividing
risks into four categories for ease of
management and oversight. Those categories
are 1) strategic risks, 2) operational risks,
3) financial risks, and 4) compliance risks.
"You don't have to throw all your resources
at these areas, but you do need to examine
what is most critical in each of them," wrote
Henry Ristuccia, a partner at Deloitte &
Touche.
Assume greater uncertainty. Unlike in
the past, corporations today must amend their
strategy planning process to accommodate a
greater level of uncertainty, states "Global
Risk 2010," a report prepared by the Global
Risk Network of the World Economic Forum. The
authors note that "relatively few companies
effectively apply tools, such as scenario
analysis, or effectively integrate risk data
into long-term strategic planning. Strategy
setting must be viewed as the optimization of
a portfolio of decisions based on a set of
scenarios that reflect uncertainty," the
report says.
Mitigate credit risk. When it comes to
extending credit, know your buyer, says
Kerstin Braun, executive vice president of
trade receivables management firm Coface
North America. She advises manufacturers not
only to learn all they can about a new
customer, but also to continue to update and
verify that knowledge throughout their
interactions with that customer.
Circumstances of a previously good payer can
change, she notes. "Even if your buyer was
good yesterday, he might not be tomorrow.
Don't trust too much," Braun says. "That's
the biggest risk once you have a positive
experience. You get more loose in your credit
terms because he pays on time, and that's
just when you'll experience your payment
default."
See my January
2010 and March
2010 articles
on the new ISO 31000 and ISO 31010 risk
management standards.
Connecting in 2010
According to Maribeth Kuzmeski in Just My
E-Pinion, if you are looking for ways to
increase your bottom line without increasing
your budget, the secret lies in your ability
to connect.
In today's business world, social networking
can't be ignored. The author notes that we
promote products on Facebook, network through
LinkedIn, and get news updates via Twitter.
However, while social networking is a great
way to connect, it's easy to forget that what
you're aiming for are meaningful connections.
While everyone else works the social media
craze, Kuzmeski says it's time for you to
slow down and consider what really brings
success. It's probably not tweeting 100 times
per day, or having 500 contacts in your
LinkedIn network.
Kuzmeski says 2010 is the year of the
connector. The connections you make, and the
relationships you build, will be the true
game changers. Here are her six tips:
1. Improve your social networking
skills
Just like your real-life relationships, you
should be picky about whom you connect with
online. Choose to connect with people who
have similar interests or who are working in
your particular field. And when someone you
know, want to know, or need to know, connects
with you online, you should always
reciprocate.
2. Remember: It's quality, not
quantity
You can actually be more successful if you
use your social media time to revamp the
connections you already have by making them
more meaningful and personal.
3. True connections happen eye to
eye
Just because there are a lot of new and
improved ways to connect with people doesn't
mean you should rule out good old-fashioned,
face-to-face contact. If you want to really
connect with people, it is important to make
it a priority to schedule face time.
4. Be a voicemail nonconformist
Treat your voicemail messages like an actual
conversation. Keep them short and sweet and
stay on point. Practice your message before
calling to make sure it is compelling! Say
something unexpected that may get the
listener's attention. Have lots of energy and
enthusiasm when you call. Be sure to give the
recipient a reason why he or she should call
you back.
5. Build your own "Harvard Network"
People who have gone to high-status schools
like Harvard typically look out for one
another. So what do you do if you didn't go
to a prestigious school? The principles are
the same for any network of people. Those
with similar interests, backgrounds,
commonality, and relationships will look out
for each other, work with each other, and
help each other.
So if you don't already have a network, find
one! Join a community group, alumni group, or
industry group, and get involved. Create
advocates and make yourself a known entity in
the group through your activism.
6. Create your powerful connections
list
Create a list of at least 20 potentially
powerful connections. Now you know who to
reach out to. It isn't a thousand people. It
is a manageable 20 who will, in turn, connect
you to others.
No matter what method you choose to use for
making connections this year, the important
thing is that you keep connecting. Remember,
improving your connecting skills costs nearly
nothing, but pays off in many ways. It is a
surefire way for you to take your business to
the next level in 2010!
ISO 27003 Guidance
The ISO toolbox of information security
standards has grown with the addition of the
ISO 27003 guidance standard for the
successful design and implementation of ISO
27001.
The ISO 27003:2010 standard is titled, Information technology - Security
techniques - Information security management
system implementation guidance. The new
standard gives advice that will be useful for
all types of security-conscious groups,
regardless of their size, complexity, and
risks.
Information security is constantly in the
news with identity theft, breaches in
corporate financial records, and threats of
cyber terrorism. An information security
management system (ISMS) is a systematic
approach to managing sensitive company
information so it remains secure. It
encompasses people, processes, and IT
systems.
The successful design and implementation of
an ISMS using ISO 27001:2005 will reassure
customers and suppliers that information
security is taken seriously within the
organizations they deal with because they
have in place state-of-the-art processes to
deal with information security threats and
issues.
By using ISO 27003:2010, the organization
will be able to develop a process for
information security management, giving
stakeholders the assurance that risks to
information assets are continuously
maintained within acceptable information
security bounds as defined by the
organization.
ISO 27003:2010 covers the process of ISMS
specification and design, from inception to
the production of implementation plans. It
provides guidance on how to obtain management
approval, and gives the concepts on how to
design and plan the ISMS project to ensure
its successful implementation.
ISO 27003:2010 is intended to be used in
conjunction with ISO 27001:2005 and ISO
27002:2005. It is not intended to modify
and/or reduce the requirements specified in
either standard.
You can order ISO 27003:2010 at this
web page at the ANSI Standards Store.
Whittington & Associates provides training, consulting and auditing services for
management systems based on
ISO 9001, ISO/TS16949, ISO/TS 29001, TL 9000, AS9100, ASS9110, AS9120, ISO 13485,
ISO 27001, ISO 20000, and ISO 14001.
