Presenter

Archive of Monthly President Messages
President’s Message September, 2008: Chapter Mantra: “Networking, Knowledge, Recognition, Fun” Negotiation is an art form. We do it everyday. Negotiation was a topic that our membership wanted to hear more about (you will be getting a free form survey to help the Mission Peak Chapter define topics that interest you). Clearly, as operations management professionals it is part of doing the job. Normally having part of purchasing in our organizations that may spend millions of dollars depending on the size of our business, the need to obtain true value for the money spent will have an aspect of negotiation to obtain that desired value. Professionally, we understand the skill set required. If you do not ask, you do not get. Surprisingly, we do it in our everyday activities outside the work place. Ever drop a teenage daughter off at school in the morning, where she mentions the critical need for lunch money. Timing is everything. Guess who won that negotiation!! Ever go to a flea market?? Price and quantity are negotiable. Ever talk about which movie to see?? Which vacation the family should take? Yes, that is also negotiation. We broke into groups to ponder the challenge presented by Rick O’Malley. Given a list to pick from each group had to select the top three requirements for a good negotiator. The exercise created an opportunity to interface with others at the PDM – my team members were Philip Roberts and James Jeleniewski from Exelixis, a drug company and Turab Nazar a Material Operations fellow. This was a wonderful opportunity to discuss ideas with others who attended the PDM. We picked – Listening Ability (which was selected by many of the other groups), Open Mindedness, and Planning, Personal Integrity, some agreed and other answers were diverse. As Rick explained, there were no right answers. Of course, every one would like to have the silver bullet – unfortunately that does not exist. Please check his slides, which are posted to the web site to select your answers to the question. Rick also briefly gave us some tactics that are used in negotiations. One of my favorites is the nibble, which he mentioned. The nibble tactic is used when negotiations are almost done. The idea is to ask for a little item like a full tank of gas when you have just bought a car, but have not signed the final contact. As an example in a recent ERP purchase negotiation a deal was essentially struck. Of course, an additional feature a nice to have was proposed as an additional extra. I suggested, “Throw it in at No Charge”- the nimble was in play. The feature was added at no charge and the deal was done. Both parties left the table happy – as it should be. I want to thank Rick O’Malley for a presentation well done. The feedback from the members was very positive. I want to thank Chuck Dewey for his usual attention to details. Kristi Ushiro and Shirley Halpenny for the Laptop and assisting in the PDM preparations and making for a very successful “kick off” event for our PDM season programs. My special thanks to Jeanne Beacham the CEO of Delphon for arranging our speaker, Rick O’Malley. Among those attending the PDM were Laura Flores from Matisse Networks, Ray Huang from VM Services, Bo Hallas from Schwan Food Company, Subu Subramanian from ALOM, Matt Brandt, Claudia Halene, Bob Araujo from OMRON Scientific Technologies, Aaron Skolmowski from NAMSA, David Fisher from Nummi (the longest team member at Nummi), Emily Kruu, Kavita Dalal from Cisco, John Parks from STI, Russell Thomas from STI, Patrick Murphy and Mitch Zucker from KLA-Tencor. Always great to meet the many folks that attended. October 1^st is our PDM about Vendor Managed Inventory by Mike Gozzo. Hank Zoeller, CFPIM, C.P.M., CSSBB President’s Message August, 2008: Chapter Mantra: “Networking, Knowledge, Recognition, Fun” The Knowledge Part of the Mantra I hope our program participation will continue the very high level of attendance. We thank you for your support. We have arranged for a wide range of topics that we hope will be of broad interest to our members. Our programs attempt scheduling, well in advance for two reasons: the speakers are in high demand and a desire to give visibility for your scheduling. We understand our membership has demands on their time: work, family, leisure, and professional development among others. Our topic line up includes, “Negotiating and the Cowardly Lion: aka Negotiate with Courage”- Rick O’Malley, Vendor Managed Inventory – Mike Gozzo, Alternate Funding (hard to manage resources when you have no funding) - Dave Becker, Economic Forecast 2009 – Dr. Jay Tontz (one of my favorites), EPR/E-Commerce (Dr Zinovy Radovilsky draws like a rock star). Rick Merritt, President of Santa Clara Chapter of APICS is lined up for May 2009 with a topic TBD in Operations Management. Chuck Mignosa is slotted for Jan 14^th with a topic in quality – TBD. The Networking & Fun Part of the Mantra When we have the attendance, we have experienced in the last year as we start our new year on September 10^th, meeting others is a critical factor for gaining professional knowledge of problems solved (which supports the first part of the mantra), job opportunities, socializing, and of course Massimo has great food. The Mission Peak Chapter’s Board of Directors strives for the membership to have a bit of fun at the PDM. The Recognition part of the Mantra You will notice we strive to communicate “Why Members Join” section on the website that includes Bio, Picture and a paragraph. Monthly, “Presidential Salutes” to an outstanding active member are also included. We are a volunteer organization and payment for a job well done is recognition by the membership, in terms of their comments, renewed memberships and participation. Our Chapter has submitted review for a Gold rating to the National Headquarters in Chicago. This would be our recognition by our peers that we have met and exceeded APICS Chapter standards. I look forward to seeing you in September. Hank Zoeller, CFPIM, C.P.M., CSSBB President’s Message June, 2008: Inventory is considered an asset in the accounting world. Jeff Allen, a retired CFO from Network Appliance viewed inventory as “a liability waiting to happen.” Of course, Jeff’s reference point was in high technology, where a product cycle of 9 months is very short. New versions of memory, disk drives, and declining prices will affect inventory valuation and thus influence the Profit and Loss statement in a very negative way, if there is excess that requires a write down. In a recent conversation with Vincent Occhipinti, managing director of Woodside Fund, we were chatting about inventory and sharing some war stories. We are both from the operations side of business. While he was operations manager for Levi Strauss, he recommended increasing inventory to match an expected increase in demand. The increase in inventory did not happen, but unfortunately, demand dramatically increased, causing backlogs and customer allocations. Any one having experienced this situation knows how brutal the results will be – missed revenue, customers unsatisfied, not to mention the stress. Any one involved in the NPI (New Product Introduction) process, knows the importance of reviewing the Bill of Materials and keeping an eye on lead times, cost and availability. This is not an easy task, because it changes over time. Until the BOM’s are released for a build, only then does one know the real lead times, cost and availability. Rule of thumb and experience says there will be a few ugly parts depending on the number of line items in the BOM. This part of a start up can always be a challenge. Edna Estrada and Devin Wahl, who joined us from XICOM Technology, it is great when people are encouraged by their management to gain addition knowledge to apply to their jobs and make a difference in their company’s results. They are involved in cycle counting a very important function to the company’s success. Ed Mercado’s presentation was very interesting. He focused on perquisites, basics and a new definition concerning operational environment. In the Body of Knowledge (BOK), environment dictates the selection of manufacturing strategy. ETO, (engineered to order), MTS, (make to stock), ATO, (assemble to order) and repetitive manufacturing, Ed added operational to this view of environment. He added such items as retail, distribution and MRO to his definition of operational environment. Thank you, Ed for an interesting and insightful presentation. The presentation and audio are posted to the web site. We raffled Ed’s book “Hands On Inventory Management” and the winner was Jerry O’Connor from Group 7. Others from Group 7 were Paul Belknap and Erin O’Connor. Many thanks to Shirley Halpenny and LaDonna Hoyt for conducting the raffle. Kristi Ushiro gave us technical support so the laptop would talk to our projector. Of course, Asad Urrehman brought his camera and did the photo ops. The participants, also included, our newly minted CPIM - John Trang, and two comrades from Brushwellman-Edwin Cruz (Foil Room Supervisor/Production Planner) and Yup Lee (Waterjet/Laser Technician/Stock Room).others such as Greta Dimitrova Gorman, Dionnie Mcgee, Audrey Gatmiatan and Kathy Martin (both from Union Santiary District). It always good to share education sessions with co workers. Amos Ladunni, Russell Thomas, Balu Anantha, Brian Fetzer, Rich Goddu were among the many attending. The Mission peak Chapter is proud to recognize. Dr Jay Tontz as Instructor of the year. Dr Jay Tontz has supported the Mission Peak Chapter for many years. He is one of our favorite presenters. He is Dean Emeritus at California State University East Bay. Congratulations Dr Tontz. I hope our programs continue to be well attended. We thank you for your support. Hank Zoeller, CFPIM, C.P.M., CSSBB President’s Message May, 2008: David Lechleitner is an expert in software using job shop scheduling techniques. He is a follow on speaker for Patrick Pickerell, co founder of Peridot, who presented earlier this year. Debra Van Sickle is the other co founder of Peridot. Patrick’s perspective was from a user’s point of view concerning managing the business using the data generated from the Job Boss software. David’s perspective is from the creator of Job Shop software and piercing the vale of future customer needs and potential needs as perceived by a software supplier. There is a difference in supplying what the customer thinks they need. Often obtained from customer focus groups and needs that the supplier thinks his customer will need, but has not thought of which is truly the element of innovation. Job shop businesses are the most difficult challenge to schedule. Low volume, high mix, variable work centers, lumpy demand is a daunting challenge for on time delivery of quality product. This is still an economic strength of the United States of America. You may be surprised by the fact that a local sheet metal manufacturer EXPORTED to China and Canada, because they were cost competitive. The Chinese supplier could not supply their customer competitively. The Chinese supplier made a very wise business decision and outsourced it, so they would still be the only supplier with face time to their customer. I have seen decisions go differently and the competition had face time with the customer and took business away from the original supplier. Being competitive is part of the retaining the customer equation. Obtaining new customers is more expensive, than keeping your current customer base loyal and satisfied and adding to that base with either more customers or increased volume. What a nice win for Silicon Valley. The other export was to Canada, which was a result of effective job shop control, quality and being qualified as a supplier. Being a qualified supplier takes time and money, but can be a path for long-term business. Unfortunately, I missed the PDM, but since we did post the audio and the presentation. It is almost like being there with the exception of meeting the many members who attended. I encourage anyone interested in the topic presented to download the presentation and audio. Thank you David for presenting. Bob Patrician, a former President and current Board member who is always at our PDM’s gave his perspective of the PDM. PDM SUMMARY Our PDF presenter this month was Dave Lechleitner with Exact JobBOSS (www.jobboss.com). Dave’s company and personal expertise is in bringing data collection and analysis directly to the shop floor. Dave explained how make-to-order and mixed mode manufacturers must deal with constant change. In order to stay focused on the customer’s expectation of service and delivery more technology must be brought to the shop floor to manage the workflow. Without automation job, information is captured from time cards, job logs and inventory sheets, which suffer from timeliness and accuracy problems. The most recent trend is to apply a standard interface that connects the machine tool on the shop floor directly to the production control and EPR systems in the office. Information of what the machine is doing is sent directly to the ERP information system by the tool. Data collection is much more accurate and timely. People can concentrate on the job at hand and not the paperwork. Doing so helps the small and medium sized shops compete better since they are more in tune with their costs and capabilities. With this type of connection, accurate, real-time shop floor control is achieved with realistic shop scheduling and work center load leveling. Problems on the shop floor can be spotted sooner and steps taken to reduce the impact on production. Bringing technology to the job shop floor helps to reduce waste, assists in meeting the customer’s demand forever shorter lead times on highly customized products and allows the shop floor to be more responsive to change. We thank Dave Lechleitner for his informative presentation. At the PDM, we honored 4 students from California State University East Bay Rong Chen, Darcy Duckenfield, Patrick Murphy, Jessica Wong for their academic achievements. Congratulations!! Hank Zoeller, CFPIM, C.P.M., CSSBB President’s Message April, 2008: As professionals in operations management, we have a responsibility to protect the resources of our organizations. Individually, we have to protect our own personal assets and resources. With an FBI agent in mind (who has asked not to be named), as our speaker for April, I posted a few recent articles on our web site about cyber theft published in the Mercury News. It demonstrates ingenious approaches by the “Bad Guys” interested in stealing your identity and your assets. One article mentions mid air interception when using a credit card. Another demonstrates the importance of encrypting data on laptops. The threat is real. In a recent commercial for the US Air Force on TV showing the Pentagon in Washington D.C., the commentator mentions that it is under attack 3 million times a day. Of course, he was referring to Cyber attacks. 3 million of anything is a lot. The successful conclusion was that the attack was foiled. It was a compelling message for enlistment to serve the country. I want to thank our agent once again for an informative and interesting presentation. We will be posting some notes from the presentation soon, although we cannot post the power point or audio of the presentation. CLICK HERE for a great article on the new e-espionage threat CLICK HERE for a salute to all the Special Agents out there supporting our country Congratulations to John Trang of Brushwellman for earning his CPIM certification. It is a pleasure meeting new members and renewing old friends at the PDM’s. I do ask why new members join and I am encouraged by their responses. As a chapter of APICS, we attempt to foster an environment that encourages networking, sharing business solutions, and education and try to make all of that fun. Hank Zoeller, CFPIM, C.P.M., CSSBB President’s Message March, 2008: On behalf of the Mission Peak Chapter of APICS, I would like to wish everyone a happy Saint Patrick’s Day. It is always good to reach out and share a green beer on that special day. Sharing and fellowship are always good things. As Steve Novak said in his introduction, “Lean and Six Sigma are two of the most popular management systems being used today. Although both systems are well known and widely used, there is still considerable confusion surrounding them. Adding to the confusion are the notions that the two systems are integral to each other. Some proponents say that you cannot implement Lean without Six Sigma. Others say that Lean is just part of Six Sigma. Still others stick them together in something called Lean Sigma, or Lean Six Sigma. What is the Operations professional to do? This presentation will clear up the confusion. We will explain where Lean and Six Sigma intersect, when they are separate, and when and how they can be used in concert. You’ll walk away with a deeper understanding of both Lean and Six Sigma, and the relationship between them.” Lean is execution. Six Sigma is a methodology focused on improvement. Yes, they can be complimentary and work together. When processes are far from optimal, employing Six Sigma, this uses the approach of DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analysis, Improve and Control) can help make that process lean – by eliminating waste. The Six Sigma approach attempts to reduce variation. The tighter parameters of a process or procedure, the more predicable the result. Predictability of results is the corner stone of quality. Steve emphasized that Lean or Six Sigma is ultimately focused on profitability. The bottom line proves an organization’s worth. Thank you, Steve for an excellent presentation. It is posted to the website for your reference or if you missed the presentation. Hank Zoeller, CFPIM, C.P.M., CSSBB President’s Message February, 2008: On behalf of the Mission Peak Chapter of APICS, I would like to wish everyone a happy Valentine’s Day. It is always good to reach out to that significant person in your life and share a special day. Love is always a good thing. Dr. Jay Tontz was booked months ago. You will note that our PDM’s are normally scheduled for Wednesdays, since he is teaching on that day of the week we changed it to Thursday. He is an excellent presenter and has been an annual speaker giving us his economic forecast for the year. He usually grades himself by showing what he forecasted the prior year and comparing that to the actuals. He has been very accurate over the years. His topic of the 2008 forecast was very timely, especially since the news media had a lot of doom and gloom. Congress had just passed an economic stimulus package on Feb 7, 2008 on the day of our PDM a $170 Billion package. The stock market has been very volatile. One day the stock market DJIA was -300 points and then finished +300 points – a 600-point swing in one day. We are all aware of the housing market, the sub prime melt down, liquidity issues in the credit market and talk of a recession – the R word. In France, a broker lost $7.5 Billion of his firm’s money that is almost as much money bet in Las Vegas in one year – (which is $9.3 Billion). Fortunately, we had Dr. Jay Tontz to put this in perspective for us. He started by saying that “it is a challenging time to be making a forecast”. He listed the positive and negative factors. Yes, there are positive factors. He provided historical evidence for his remarks and then boldly went where others might fear to tread and made a forecast for 2008. His remarks included a Chart of GNP (Gross National Product); the observation made was that the trend line was in a positive direction with fewer shorter recessions in the last 20 years. He credited those results to the Federal Reserve System. For more information about the Federal Reserve System, check their web site http://www.federalreserve.gov/aboutthefed/default.htm He mentioned the recommendation by Ben S. Bernanke, Federal Reserve Chairman, for the stimulus package that it be enacted quickly and be temporary in nature. He concluded with a forecast. He mentioned a term “Growth Recession”. It will feel slow, but we will continue to grow. I strongly urge you to review the presentation posted along with the audio of the presentation. I want to Thank Dr. Jay Tontz for an interesting and stimulating presentation. Of course, I immediately asked him to return next year. PDM’s are an opportunity to chat with others. Shirley Halpenny, a new member made it a family affair by bringing her son Max Halpenny. She mentioned that she really enjoyed the previous PDM by Michael Ibrahim. That sure makes the effort of sponsoring a PDM worthwhile. Michael Gozzo made the chapter aware of some educational offerings. For those who want to follow up on those offerings check the website: http://www.calexcellence.org/cgi-bin/dbase/ctclong.cgi?RecordNumber=33 Alternatively, contact him at mgozzo@tbcgroup.org. Mike Gustafson and Frank Carroll from Genitope Corporation, which is in the medical drug industry, generated some very interesting conversation about the worth of the APICS body of knowledge in their industry. I was unaware that Fremont was the home of their company. I want to acknowledge Chuck Dewey for his work making the PDM happen. I also want to thank Asad Urrehman for bringing his camera and giving us a pictorial of the PDM. Sarah Spalding sent me an e-mail after the PDM and said, “Dr.Tontz‘s is an exceptional presenter, his economic forecast was both interesting and entertaining. This was an excellent topic and reminder to all, of the resilience of our economy. I look forward to future PDM's.” Another e-mail from Urvashi Anand said, “I definitely learned a lot from the PDM and thoroughly enjoyed the presentation.” It is always wonderful to get that type of feedback. It is also a lot of fun to see some old and new friends Balu Anantha, Tony Ramsey, Greta Dimitrova, Bob Patrician, Laz Sandor, Betty Griswold, Dr Zinovy Radovilsky, Mike Gustafson, and Dr Jay Tontz to name a few. A recent region meeting honored our very own Anny Zhao for creating the best BOD meeting minutes in the region. Hank Zoeller, CFPIM, C.P.M., CSSBB President’s Message January, 2008: On behalf of the Mission Peak Chapter of APICS, I would like to extend Happy New Year Greetings to all our friends, members and their families. “I had a Dream” was said by Martin Luther King Jr. on August 28, 1963 from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. I saw the original televised version on a small black and white TV. My mother was in awe of the speech and event. Being in my teens at the time, I must admit I did not understand the significance of that day. The nation honors that legacy on Jan 21^st – Martin Luther King Jr. day. Here is a link for reference to the speech given that day and access to videos. http://www.usconstitution.net/dream.html still inspiring and now better understood by this once teenager. In a business sense, those words are uttered by many entrepreneurs. “I had a Dream” becomes the nucleus of a start up. It is fascinating to imagine the problems seen and the solutions pursued. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…. I worked for Nellcor a start up medical device company with the vision for noninvasive monitoring of oxygen saturation. The approach was a disruptive technology that became a standard of care for anesthesiology. Jack Lloyd one of the founders is certainly one of my start up heroes. Another start up I was involved in was Network Appliance, the founders, David Hitz, and James Lau had a dream, that storage could be managed by their innovative software “WAFL” (write anywhere file layout) using off the shelf components and sub assemblies. We did partner with a major corporation to create a powerful mother board using the basic concept of “WAFL” that appealed to the higher end of the market. Flash Electronics was a dream to become a premium contract manufacturer. Chin Fan one of the founders professed that dream when I engaged his company as a customer early in their birth. Their successes are now history. Some interesting start-ups with a dream are still a work in progress. Stratidigm, founded by Shervin Javadi and Rosa Javadi (yes, a husband wife team) has a dream to implement a disruptive technology in cytometers. (Flow cytometry is a technique for counting, examining, and sorting microscopic particles suspended in a stream of fluid. It allows simultaneous multiparametric analysis of the physical and/or chemical characteristics of single cells flowing through an optical and/or electronic detection apparatus.) In other words, it tells you what it is. The unique approach is in the number of parts 1/5 of the standard Cytometer and a unique optical system that is extremely stable. Keimar a medical device company founded by Margaret Webber has a dream of changing the standard of care in the ICU using an electro-chemical sensor to monitor ABG's (Aterial Blood Gases) real time and continuously. The product is unique. Her experience as an ICU nurse and FDA regulatory expert will serve her well in that pursuit. We hope their successes will also be recorded in History. Our speaker at the January 9^th Professional Development meeting, Michael Ibrahim CEO of AmberDove Solutions (a start up) also has a dream. Fortunately, he shared that with the Chapter. His dream is using RFID and having software address the issues of training, expensive hardware, and rapid implementation. He also addressed the issue of investment and payback. I had the pleasure of meeting Michael Ibrahim in 2007 and encouraged him to present. Unfortunately, I could not be at the presentation, but was well aware of the message and Michael’s presentation skills. To my absolute delight, the feedback was extremely positive. A few members, like Asad Urrehman and Greta Dimitrova a new member gave very positive input. It makes the voluntary work done for the chapter a rewarding experience since education and best of breed information is part of our mantra. It is always good to get feedback and great when it is positive. Fortunately, our recent innovation to post the presentation and audio of the presentation gives members, like me an opportunity to get the information even though I missed the presentation. Thank you Michael for sharing. Hank Zoeller, CFPIM, C.P.M., CSSBB President’s Message November/December 2007: On behalf of the Mission Peak Chapter of APICS, I would like to extend Holiday Greetings to all our members and families. Have a safe and joyous Holiday season. Our presentation was preceded by Chuck Mignosa who was the warm-up show during appetizers with a group personality test – everyone raised their hands when the star symbol was shown – Chuck then explained that was the symbol for sex and alcohol as drivers in your personality that drew a bit of laughter from the group. Chuck continued with some magic, where Bob Patrician was selected to draw a card. It was magically read as the Diamond of Hearts, and of course with a story. Patrick Pickerell, CEO and Founder of Peridot, gave us an insightful use of software for job shop scheduling and simulation. Patrick explained Peridot’s business with a virtual plant tour and the type of products. It was interesting that a shift did occur between high technology and medical. He explained the use of load reports and there use in decision making to match load and capacity. Several questions were asked, one was. “What is your on time delivery?” Patrick replied, “That, it was 92%”. It is important to have metrics for your business; clearly this is one that is important for Peridot. Patrick’s presentation and audio is posted to the website for those who missed it. We had a group from Roll Royce consisting of Hunter Davis, Cindy Flores, Cliff Keick, James Mason, and Richard Payne. It is always good to see a group go to an educational session, since each member will bring away a different view and also a common view. Their business is repairing jet engines. I did APICS classes in their facility a while back. It is an interesting business concerning repair work. Hopefully, in a future PDM, we can have them share their challenges and scheduling techniques. A few additional folks that joined us, Lillian Wong, John Tran, Greg Higgins, Asad Urrehman, Thomas Prudent, Imelda De La Cruz, Jean Zhao, Trish Nguyen, Riyaz Rhaikh, Nazem Tayara, Kathy Thurston, Bing Tian, Ling Chen, Leigh Crutchfield, Brian Fetzer, Cathy Hurtado, Vladmir Itskovsky, Deepak Kapoor, Mona Kaur, Marilyn Galiothe, Fred Gapasin to name a few…. As we enter the Holiday season, we have an exciting Professional Development Meeting (PDM) plan for the New Year. We have program speakers booked through June of 2008. In April 2008, we have a presentation by the FBI concerning counter intelligence. The FBI is sponsoring a counter intelligence conference in Sunnyvale, Ca Dec 4^th 2007 if you are interested. http://www.afcea.org/events/counterintel/welcome.asp or you can catch the PDM in April 2008. We have many other interesting and informative speakers – January – Michael Ibrahim “Can RFID Payoff? Seriously!” February – Dr Jay Tontz (one of my favorites) “Economic Forecast for 2008.” Steve Novak for March of 2008. Please check the web site for PDM updates. Mea Culpa, as I wrote previously and was emphasized by Steve Novak in his PDM and seminar, which I attended, was to choose the right tool for the problem at hand. Recently, on a consulting assignment, the executive staff requested a plan for delivery of product a reasonable request. Since I had a hammer in my hand, I concluded the problem was a nail. I chose an MRP solution to create a schedule for delivery of product. As I struggled to bang the nail, I was missing a few elements, such as on hand balances, routings, work centers to name a few. This situation is not unusual for a start up and essentially a new product introduction. Fortunately, a fellow team member Rob Camden-Britton suggested and used the tool Microsoft Project. Rob having product knowledge, estimated activities beginning and ending dates, achieved in short order a plan for delivery for final product. A statement from General Eisenhower (who later became President of the United States) said, “It is important to have a plan, so you know what you are deviating from.” My point being two fold is even though you know you should select the best tools for the solution, sometimes you don’t, thus my confession to encourage others to select the right tool. My second point, you must have a plan. As the cat in Alice in wonderland said, “If you don’t know where you’re going does it matter which path you take!” If you have a plan you have a real compass to guide you to your goal. It is important to have a plan. As we enjoy the Holiday Season, here is a “you tube” link to salute the men and women in our armed forces who are far away from home during the holidays (the site has over 4 million hits). Our thoughts, prayers and admiration for them as they serve to protect our most cherished value – freedom. Http://www.youtube.com/v/ervaMPt4Ha0&autoplay=3D1 Hank Zoeller, CFPIM, C.P.M., CSSBB President’s Message October 2007: Dr. Zinovy Radovilsky presented a fascinating insight to a study he did concerning what the job market was looking for in operations management and what the universities were teaching. He went though his methodology used for the study. He recognized Gayathri Kandasamy for her participation and work in the project. She also was recognized as Region X and National APICS for first place awards for graduate submissions. He showed many charts detailing the results of the study. There were many interesting questions from the audience concerning the material. If you were unable to attend the presentation and an MP3 file are posted to our website for your convenience. Dr. Zinovy Radovilsky has been a frequent and informative presenter and a long time advocate for his students and the University California State East Bay. Thank you for a great presentation. Finding solutions: Total Quality Management (TQM), Six Sigma, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Lean Manufacturing, JIT, Material Requirements Planning (MRP), Kanban, EOQ, Brain Storming, Statistical Process Control (SPC), Pareto Charts, Project Management, Master Production Scheduling (MPS), Capacity Requirements Planning (CRP) are just a few tools that can yield excellent results when understood and properly applied. The list is just a partial one. These tools can be interrelated and powerful. Unfortunately, no one tool is the magic pill that will solve all that may affect your business results. It must also be noted that some very important elements in an organization such as culture, personnel skills sets, management style, market, product life cycle are some factors that can affect the rate of change. As an example, an authoritarian management style would limit the range of tool selection, whereas a participative management style would be more open to a wider range of options. Product life cycle would also affect tools considered. In the growth phase, a more urgent drive to improve would consider a larger range of solutions. In the decline stage of the product life cycle, the prevalent consideration would be "what's the point" since we will no longer going to offer the product in 6 months. Steve Novak will be back in March of 2008 to amplify these basic thoughts in a "lunch and learn" presentation. Value of Certification I recently was asked by John Tran of Brushwellman Electrofusion Division during a recent class, "How do you get all the information to become certified?" My response was, "there are courses, certification classes, seminars, Professional Development Meetings (PDM), other professionals that can explain the various approaches and tools use all of them". APICS offers a Body of Knowledge (BOK) that spans all environments. It can be useful, again if appropriately applied. That is a key word. Having knowledge and not applying a concept is the worst of all worlds. The best of all worlds is knowledge and actually applying that knowledge for a better result. I think becoming certified as a CPIM or CSCP demonstrates to an employer a level of accomplishment with a skill set that can prove valuable in improving processes or successfully completing a project that yields a break though resulting in reduced cycle times and profitability. Preview of November PDM The presenter for November will be Patrick Pickerell. He is the CEO of Peridot, a very successful contract manufacturer for EMI shielding, medical devices, micro manufacturing, which has the challenge of scheduling a part of his environment as a job shop. He mentioned in a recent plant tour that he uses a software package to manage his business using simulation to plan conflicts and avoid missing customer due dates. I am intrigued that a user has successfully implemented such a tool. I have invited him to our November PDM to share his user experience. As I mentioned earlier, there are many tools to use, many different environments and education includes many venues. APICS has standards that each chapter is benchmarked against. It is called C-Bar. Mission Peak Chapter of APICS will be recognized as a having achieved GOLD. LaDonna Hoyt must be recognized for pulling the documentation of everyone's efforts and submitting those to APICS national. It is always fun when members participate, some new faces at the PDM, included, Lucia Khosh, Van Ma, David Shi, Wael Fadel, Davone Platz, Gayathri Kandasamy, Edgar Gayon, Michael Hubley, Nagendra Tatapudi, Kai Manske, Shumei Su, Asad Urrehman, Sam Yassine, Shirley Che, Brian Fetzer, Lars Jakobsen, Qinmei Li, and Rick Merritt, the incoming President of the Santa Clara Chapter. Also joining the meeting were Chuck Dewey, LaDonna Hoyt, Ann Ibach, Anny Zhao, Hank Zoeller, Ludy Zoeller, Joy Montgomery and Bob Patrician. Hank Zoeller, CFPIM, C.P.M., CSSBB President’s Message September 2007: On Wednesday September 12^th, Chuck Mignosa presented “Quality is Magical”. Chuck is an excellent presenter, his breath of experience and keen observations were shared in the presentation. Since he is a master magician, Chuck made the material entertaining by performing a few magic feats to emphasize salient points concerning quality. He quoted Dilbert with the answer to the question, “What is the definition of TQM?” Answer- the process of transferring money from companies to consultants. He recapped the great thinkers in quality, Crosby, Deming, Feigenbaum, Juran and Ishikawa. Chuck made reference to the idea of the management fad of the month. We probably have all experienced the idea that one concept or tool is the magic bullet. The reality is quite different, there are many tools and selecting the most appropriate to solve a business issue is a superior approach. I thought it was very interesting when Chuck pointed out companies do one of two things – a project or process. Projects have a beginning and an end. Processes are a continuous endeavor for improvement. He also pointed out “tell me what you know, not just what you think”. It is nice that one would think they know what the problem is, but knowing what the problem is requires solid data, that can be measured and quantified. As an example, our reject rates are too high!! What are they? Don’t know, but they are too high. A better approach would be, our reject rates are 20%. Better yet, our reject rates are 20% and the Pareto analysis reveals X is the highest reject event. Best would be, the reject rate is 20% our Pareto analysis reveals that X accounts for 80% of those rejects and after investigation, the root cause is Y and our proposed solution is Z. Hopefully, this illustrates Chuck’s point of transitioning from what one thinks the problem is, to what one knows the problem is, which results in an actionable solution. Chuck concludes that whatever tool you select the end result should be to reduce cycle time. It could be a manufacturing process or any business process; the end result should be to reduce cycle time. Chuck presentation is posted to our web site for your review. I would like to thank Chuck Mignosa for an excellent presentation. It always good to see familiar faces at a PDM. Like Minoo Mama, Bob Robbins, Daryl Langdon to name a few. I must admit, I was flattered when Minoo mentioned he read the web page and enjoyed the article. Thank you Minoo. It is gratifying, when there is recognition from a member. The work of a voluntary organization like Mission Peak takes a team of people working together. I must acknowledge the wonderful work of the Board of Directors that makes all of this possible. Hank Zoeller, CFPIM, C.P.M., CSSBB President’s Message Summer 2007: On June 6th, 2007, we had an extremely well attended PDM, featuring Steve Novak, The Past President of the Hawaii Chapter of APICS and author of “The Small Manufacturers Tool Kit”. His topic was “Effective Strategic Planning”. Normally one thinks of strategic planning starting with the Vision, Mission Statement, SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats), but Steve was thinking out of the box. As he stated, “It is NOT your father’s Strategic Plan.” His point that a strategic plan should be at the organizational level and help focus all parts of the organization. It is a living document, not just put in the draw to be brought out at the next management offsite meeting. The strategic plan should be flexible and known to all in an organization. Certainly, Jeanne Beacham CEO of Delphon, our May speaker, would agree. Steve caused a bit of a stir with our academic folks in the audience when he emphasized getting a plan started without dwelling on the Vision, Mission Statement, and SWOT. His point that it was better to start and have a plan, even if it is work in progress, than getting hung up on the on Vision, Mission Statement, SWOT and delaying progress. He did say, that Vision, Mission Statement, SWOT were needed but not at the expense of delays. Steve earlier that day led a seminar about “Though the Maze Workshop”. It was a unique process to think about using the right tool to solve a business problem. The group tackled a real business problem. The seminar was interesting and worthwhile, even for an old salt like me. Richard Blakley, Balu Anantha and Anny Zhao were among the attendees who shared their thoughts, that it was a real value proposition. Thank you, Steve for a very educational day. The winners of our raffle were Deepak Kapor who won the weekend at Paris in Las Vegas, Bob Patrician our very own VP of Education, who won the stay at Atlantis Casino in Reno, and Liz Allen who won the Book “The Small Manufacturers Tool Kit”. Liz Allen accepted the award for company of the year given to KLA-Tencor by the Santa Clara Chapter of APICS. The award was presented by Sue Nelson the Chapter President. On May 1^st our chapter commenced in house training at Brushwellman, Electrofusion products division in Fremont. The modules are Master Resource Planning, Detailed Scheduling and Planning and Execution and Control of Operations. Classes are held twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday, which is an accelerated curriculum. The objective is to become aware of the APICS body of knowledge for practical application in their operation. Electrofusion is currently a very successful Division of Brushwellman. With an undertaking of considering change for improvement, it must have top management commitment and support. Ed Hefter, the Managing Director of the Division, has given that commitment. Greg Higgins, The Operations Manager, has also committed to the effort. Even though he is a very experienced operation individual, he attends class in support of the effort. The other students, Brian Lowe, Howard Chen, Ellen Luyen, Maria Bautista, Brian Gundy, John Trang, and Edwin Cruz are experienced employees that have extensive product knowledge. Howard Chen used an excel spread sheet to create a product structure and calculate a Material Requirements Plan. Wow, I think I will have to give him an A+ on that assignment. In a team meeting the question asked, “Why is it important to have a robust management system?” The responses were: Allow us to better manage our suppliers, improve on time delivery to our customers, reduce lead time, better utilization of machines, and reduce cycle time between order entry material requisitions, ability to have a load leveling capability. Yes, it is fun to instruct a group that has commonality of purpose. Their goal is to improve their operation and I know they will have a break though in productivity. Hank Zoeller, CFPIM, C.P.M., CSSBB President’s Message June 2007: On May 2, 2007, we had a well attended PDM, our second top management night, featuring Jeanne Beacham, President and CEO of Delphon. She was amazing giving the insights of challenges facing a CEO during the purchase of a company, during the phenomenal growth and customer demands, and wild swings when things get tough. She recounted raising funds to purchase her first company. She raised funds for $12 million through a bank loan, traveling to Canada. But wait, here’s the rest of the story. The company had another offer on the table for $18 million, but somehow hers was accepted. Wow. But that’s still not the entire story. She found out she was pregnant, had cancer, and then her husband was laid off. Somehow, any of my issues seemed trivial. That long line at Star Bucks doesn’t compare. She said, “If you have ever had a bad day, see me.” It reminded me of a verse from the bible about a man complaining he had no shoes, till he saw a person with no feet. Jeanne was clearly a people person. When things got tough, she reduced her salary first (wow). At some point, she had to ask for the support of her staff do the same. It reminded me, of Perkin Elmer in the early years back in the late 1930’s, they could not meet payroll, so they asked the employees we will pay you in stock. The ones that stayed with the company during the tough times eventually became multimillionaires. Her staff that went though the tough times is still there and enjoying the better times. She was very proud of having succeeded as a tough competitor in her field of specialty packaging. I was very impressed with her animated, riveting presentation. Her presentation will be posted to the web site soon. Thank you again, Jeanne Beacham for a memorable and insightful presentation. We have been fortunate to have had presentations by, Dr Jim Reeds, Dr Jay Tontz, Kristin Gault, Dr. Jim Harrington and Jeanne Beacham their presentations are posted to the web site. Our plan has been to get the best as presenters; I believe we have exceeded our goal. It has been a real education. Special Thanks to Sue Nelson, President of Santa Clara Chapter of APICS for attending the PDM and inviting the panel from China which included, Tony Wai, Managing Director SCMC, William Wang, Vice President, C.P.M. Beijing Indserve Communication System Integration Co., Ltd. Xu Xiang, Purchasing Director, Delphi, Jason Fan, Sourcing Manager, Essilor Instruments Asia, Cathy Yuan, Purchasing Manager, Festo (China). They made top management night a special success. Of course, do not miss our next PDM June 6^th featuring Steve Novak , and our next raffle for a free weekend at the Paris Casino in Las Vegas. The donation was made by Harrah’s Entertainment. Thanks go to Amy Chui. Again the shameless advertising plug for Amy Chui of Harrah’s Entertainment, her contact information is 415-203-7998 or e-mail "Amy Chui" <Chuia@harrahs.com>, if you want to go to Vegas, she will make it fun and easy. It’s Vegas Baby…. For great entertainment try going to The Scintas. Check their Web site for times and place http://www.thescintas.com/ you will be delighted. Hank Zoeller, CFPIM, C.P.M., CSSBB President’s Message April 2007: Many thanks to Dr Jim Harrington for the April 4th, 2007 Professional Dinner Meeting for his excellent presentation of “The Five Pillars of Organizational Excellence”. As I mentioned before Jim has quality awards named after him in China and Chile. Some poignant points made by Dr Jim Harrington: an organization’s intellectual capital value is often greater than it physical assets by 200%, change management must engage all stakeholders, “to be good is good, being the best is great”, and don’t think outside the box, tear down its walls. The comment concerning intellectual capital, reminded me of my days at Perkin Elmer, where the Chairman of the Board, Admiral Chester Nimitz Jr. (son of the famous Admiral) once commented, “our most important asset is not on the balance sheet. It is our people.” Dr Jim Harrington’s presentation is posted on our webpage, with our other presenters in case you were unable to attend, all are worthy of a review if you missed the PDM. Synnex a world class company was recognized as the company of the year for its support of the community and support for the Mission Peak Chapter. Accepting the award for Synnex was Steve Ichinaga, Vice President of Marketing and Charlotte Chow, Vice President of Manufacturing. It was very satisfying to have excellent participation at our PDM which was jointly held with Santa Clara Chapter and Golden Gate Chapter. It was our first top management night PDM. The winner of our raffle for the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas was Dennis Murray, which was donated by Steve Conigliaro, the President of Casino Marketing. Now for the advertising plug, his contact information is Steve Conigliaro, the President of Casino Marketing, cell 702-274-8212. Do not miss our speaker Jeanne Beacham, CEO of Delphi, our second top management night, but of course our next raffle for a free weekend at the Paris Casino in Las Vegas. The donation was made by Harrah’s Entertainment. Thanks go to Amy Chui. Again the shameless advertising plug for Amy Chui of Harrah’s Entertainment, her contact information is 415-203-7998 or e-mail "Amy Chui" <Chuia@harrahs.com>, if you want to go to Vegas, she will make it fun and easy. It’s Vegas Baby…. Hank Zoeller, CFPIM, C.P.M., CSSBB President’s Message March 2007: Many thanks to Kristin Gault for the March 7, 2007 Professional Dinner Meeting presentation. Her presentation defined the Six Sigma process. The real interesting part was her “hands on” experience that brought the implementation process alive. Some pearls of wisdom mentioned that the culture change is the most difficult. She emphasized that an established organization (70 Years old) can be a challenge for change. The Six Sigma approach can be applied to any business process. She mentioned customer support and the routing of calls. The initial measurement indicated that 40% of after hour calls were lost. After the project concluded, not only was the % significantly reduced, but also routing it to the right person was also accomplished. Another project mentioned was a credit card process. After mapping the process, which she emphasized as a critical step, the processing range was 8.5 days to 53 days. The results dramatically reduced cycle time to 48 hours. The process of Six Sigma - define, measure, analyze, improve, control is data driven. Kristin emphasized, “What gets measured gets done”. With her “hands on” experience, she mentioned that the process of Six Sigma which may appear linear can actually go back and forth between measure and analyze before proceeding effectively to the next step. She summarized Six Sigma as a process that incorporates the best of breed practices. Dr Jim Harrington is our next speaker April 4th who will present “The Five Pillars of Organizational Excellence”. He has quality awards named after him in China and Chile. We are very pleased to have such a noted expert present. Click on the outline for additional details. At that PDM we will also present an award of recognition for company of the year. Kristin Gault’s presentation is posted on our webpage, along with Dr. Jay Tontz’s presentation in February. Both worthy of a review if you missed the PDM. The winner of our raffle for the Siena Penthouse suite, $65 for Spa treatment, and $100 for food was Joy Montgomery. Do not miss the next raffle on April 7^th, for a free weekend at the Rio Hotel Casino in Las Vegas. The donation was made by Casino Marketing. Thanks go to Steve Conigliaro, the President of Casino Marketing. Now for the advertising plug, his contact information is "Steve Conigliaro" <sconig@casinomktg.com>, or call 702-951-7210 extension 234. It’s Vegas Baby. Operations Management Society (OMS) our Mission Peak student Chapter had their Winter Quarter event on March 8^th. Again, the event was very well attended. It is refreshing to interface with the students just starting out on careers. The Speaker Skip Skivington, Director of Operations & Interim Director of Supply Change – Kaiser Permanente explained the size of Kaiser. Some statistics: 156,000 employees, 115,000 physicians, 54 ERP systems, $35 Billion in revenues, 210,000 suppliers – remember it is a not for profit organization. He shared the plan and results for 2006, explained the goals for 2007 and shared some sage advise for students. An evening well spent, informative and fun. Hank Zoeller, CFPIM, C.P.M., CSSBB President’s Message February 2007: Recently, a Certification in Six Sigma Black Belt was co-sponsored by the Hawaii Chapter and Golden Gate Chapter. The Harrington Institute provided materials and instructor for the 5 day very intense course. We were fortunate to have a very diverse class of students, ranging from the Department of Defense - Logistics, Microsoft, Monsanto, Abbott Laboratories, and Navy Logistics. Our instructor was Chuck Mignosa, from Business Systems Architects, who has over 30 years of experience. He has 25 years of experience with IBM where he holds patents on solid lubricants. He also was part of the team that implemented SPC in all 4 business units of IBM in San Jose. Chuck added value when he emphasized some points using magic. Among his other accomplishments, he is a master magician and a member of the magic castle in Hollywood. His “Hands On” knowledge was informative and interesting. The week long course included additional reading and homework assignments, along with a Six Sigma Project. The project challenged us to apply the principles learned. Since Six Sigma discipline is data driven using statistics, the teams had to reduce the variability of a fulcrum tossing a ball. The project drove home the principles learned and was fun as the two teams competed for the best improvement. Our team won 2300 to 1900 points. At the end of the course, we were tested. I am pleased to report – I passed – Yee Ha. It was a great feeling of accomplishment. Steve Novak from the Hawaii Chapter deserves many thanks for coordinating the details of the seminar. Steve will be presenting at our PDM in June 6^th, 2007, along with a seminar in June. Details will follow….. Our Broad of Directors took the challenge from Mel Nelson our Region X, Vice President, to create a mantra for the chapter. After some discussion and really good ideas, the mantra presented at the Region X meeting was “Networking, Knowledge, Recognition, and Fun”. Dr Jay Tontz spoke at the February 7^th 2007, meeting. His presentation on the Economic Forecast for 2007 was fascinating. He recapped his forecast for 2006, which was very close to the actual experience of the economy. His presentation was crisp and clear. The US economy is $13 trillion. He projected continued growth. Even though, bad news such as lay off’s prominent in the news, the economic engine is in good shape. As he mentioned, there have been many economic shifts - we are experiencing that now. A web site, I would recommend that extends Dr Jay Tontz’s hard hitting presentation: enjoy the facts show and the music is from the movie “The Last of Mohicans” ……. http://www.scottmcleod.org/didyouknow.wmv Hector Aguilar was the winner of a $50 gift certificate - compliments of Massimo’s Restaurant. Our next PDM on March 7^th will feature a raffle item from Siena Hotel Spa Casino.http://www.sienareno.com/ a one night stay in the Penthouse suite, $65 for Spa treatment and $100 for food. I want to thank Randy Spangler of Siena Hotel Spa Casino for arranging the donation to our chapter. It is a great place to stay, great food and wonderful Spa…. check out their web site. Hank Zoeller, CFPIM, C.P.M., CCSSBB President’s Message January 2007: On behalf of the Mission Peak Chapter of APICS, I would like to extend Happy and Prosperous New Year Greetings to all our members and families. We ended the old year, with a panel discussion at California State University East Bay. The Panel included, Dennis Lee, Vice President Marketing & Customer devilment, GSC Logistics, Rick Wen, Vice President, Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) USA, Inc. Eric Lindberg, District Director, Meridan IQ, Rhona Lishinshy, Director, COST PLUS WORLD MARKET, INC. Ernie Castiaux, Director of Materials, Tercica. The panel was excellent in their presentation of issues of logistics and supply chain management. Clearly, an august group discussed and shared some developmental history and challenges faced by global logistics and supply chain management. The student body that attended the event was very large and enthusiastic, well over 100 students. Lester Fong, the President of Operations and Materials Society and Dr. Zinovy Radovilsky, Professor, Department of Management and Finance, CSUEB, did a great job along with other members of OMS organizing a very successful event. We started the New Year with a successful and thought provoking presentation by Jim Reeds. He addressed the topic of “A New Paradigm for Operations and Supply Change Management”. Jim is President of the local chapter of ISM. There was discussion during and after his presentation. Dr. Zinovy Radovilsky noted that the % of students at CSUEB had changed from 80% operations management, 20% supply chain management, to 20% operations management, and 80% supply change management. Jim’s point, “are professional societies and educational institutions providing and/or planning to provide education and skill sets needed by their membership and students that match the needs and requirements of employers?” Time will tell if the research that is being done translates to supporting those needs. As Jim pointed out, the need for a shift in the paradigm will dominate their relevance in the future. In February Dr Jay L Tontz will address “How Will the US Economy Perform in 2007”. He promises to bring his all knowing crystal ball. In March we have Kristin Gault a Six Sigma implementer. She will share her experiences in implementing Six Sigma. It is always good to know the “hands on” approach. In April, which will be a joint meeting with the Golden Gate Chapter, Mission Peak Chapter and Santa Clara Chapters of APICS again at Massimo’s Restaurant Hosted by Mission Peak, we will present a world renowned authority on quality and Six Sigma, Dr Harrington is founder and President of the Harrington Institute. He has awards in quality named after him in Chile and China. In May, we have Jeanne Beacham, CEO Delphon Industries, LLC, presenting, "Organic Growth and Acquisition: The Opportunistic Approach to Success" Additional, thanks goes to Joy Montgomery, booking our speaker for May’s PDM. Of course I must recognize former President of our Chapter Bruce Hoyt, who lives in Arizona and dutifully updates our website. The Board of Directors has been successful in improving our web site and is preparing a survey of the membership to insure we are addressing the needs of our members. Our PDM’s will be valuable source of information, our program of excellent speakers extends 5 months into the future at this time. We have increased our membership nearly 16% since October 2006 and continue to add to our membership. Sincerely, Hank Zoeller, CFPIM, C.P.M.

Negotiation is an art form. We do it everyday. Negotiation was a topic that our membership wanted to hear more about (you will be getting a free form survey to help the Mission Peak Chapter define topics that interest you). Clearly, as operations management professionals it is part of doing the job. Normally having part of purchasing in our organizations that may spend millions of dollars depending on the size of our business, the need to obtain true value for the money spent will have an aspect of negotiation to obtain that desired value. Professionally, we understand the skill set required. If you do not ask, you do not get. Surprisingly, we do it in our everyday activities outside the work place. Ever drop a teenage daughter off at school in the morning, where she mentions the critical need for lunch money. Timing is everything. Guess who won that negotiation!! Ever go to a flea market?? Price and quantity are negotiable. Ever talk about which movie to see?? Which vacation the family should take? Yes, that is also negotiation.

We broke into groups to ponder the challenge presented by Rick O’Malley. Given a list to pick from each group had to select the top three requirements for a good negotiator. The exercise created an opportunity to interface with others at the PDM – my team members were Philip Roberts and James Jeleniewski from Exelixis, a drug company and Turab Nazar a Material Operations fellow. This was a wonderful opportunity to discuss ideas with others who attended the PDM. We picked – Listening Ability (which was selected by many of the other groups), Open Mindedness, and Planning, Personal Integrity, some agreed and other answers were diverse. As Rick explained, there were no right answers. Of course, every one would like to have the silver bullet – unfortunately that does not exist. Please check his slides, which are posted to the web site to select your answers to the question. Rick also briefly gave us some tactics that are used in negotiations. One of my favorites is the nibble, which he mentioned. The nibble tactic is used when negotiations are almost done. The idea is to ask for a little item like a full tank of gas when you have just bought a car, but have not signed the final contact. As an example in a recent ERP purchase negotiation a deal was essentially struck. Of course, an additional feature a nice to have was proposed as an additional extra. I suggested, “Throw it in at No Charge”- the nimble was in play. The feature was added at no charge and the deal was done. Both parties left the table happy – as it should be. I want to thank Rick O’Malley for a presentation well done. The feedback from the members was very positive. I want to thank Chuck Dewey for his usual attention to details. Kristi Ushiro and Shirley Halpenny for the Laptop and assisting in the PDM preparations and making for a very successful “kick off” event for our PDM season programs.

My special thanks to Jeanne Beacham the CEO of Delphon for arranging our speaker, Rick O’Malley.

Among those attending the PDM were Laura Flores from Matisse Networks, Ray Huang from VM Services, Bo Hallas from Schwan Food Company, Subu Subramanian from ALOM, Matt Brandt, Claudia Halene, Bob Araujo from OMRON Scientific Technologies, Aaron Skolmowski from NAMSA, David Fisher from Nummi (the longest team member at Nummi), Emily Kruu, Kavita Dalal from Cisco, John Parks from STI, Russell Thomas from STI, Patrick Murphy and Mitch Zucker from KLA-Tencor. Always great to meet the many folks that attended. October 1^st is our PDM about Vendor Managed Inventory by Mike Gozzo.

I hope our program participation will continue the very high level of attendance. We thank you for your support. We have arranged for a wide range of topics that we hope will be of broad interest to our members. Our programs attempt scheduling, well in advance for two reasons: the speakers are in high demand and a desire to give visibility for your scheduling. We understand our membership has demands on their time: work, family, leisure, and professional development among others. Our topic line up includes, “Negotiating and the Cowardly Lion: aka Negotiate with Courage”- Rick O’Malley, Vendor Managed Inventory – Mike Gozzo, Alternate Funding (hard to manage resources when you have no funding) - Dave Becker, Economic Forecast 2009 – Dr. Jay Tontz (one of my favorites), EPR/E-Commerce (Dr Zinovy Radovilsky draws like a rock star). Rick Merritt, President of Santa Clara Chapter of APICS is lined up for May 2009 with a topic TBD in Operations Management. Chuck Mignosa is slotted for Jan 14^th with a topic in quality – TBD.

When we have the attendance, we have experienced in the last year as we start our new year on September 10^th, meeting others is a critical factor for gaining professional knowledge of problems solved (which supports the first part of the mantra), job opportunities, socializing, and of course Massimo has great food. The Mission Peak Chapter’s Board of Directors strives for the membership to have a bit of fun at the PDM.

You will notice we strive to communicate “Why Members Join” section on the website that includes Bio, Picture and a paragraph. Monthly, “Presidential Salutes” to an outstanding active member are also included. We are a volunteer organization and payment for a job well done is recognition by the membership, in terms of their comments, renewed memberships and participation.

Our Chapter has submitted review for a Gold rating to the National Headquarters in Chicago. This would be our recognition by our peers that we have met and exceeded APICS Chapter standards.

Inventory is considered an asset in the accounting world. Jeff Allen, a retired CFO from Network Appliance viewed inventory as “a liability waiting to happen.” Of course, Jeff’s reference point was in high technology, where a product cycle of 9 months is very short. New versions of memory, disk drives, and declining prices will affect inventory valuation and thus influence the Profit and Loss statement in a very negative way, if there is excess that requires a write down. In a recent conversation with Vincent Occhipinti, managing director of Woodside Fund, we were chatting about inventory and sharing some war stories. We are both from the operations side of business. While he was operations manager for Levi Strauss, he recommended increasing inventory to match an expected increase in demand. The increase in inventory did not happen, but unfortunately, demand dramatically increased, causing backlogs and customer allocations. Any one having experienced this situation knows how brutal the results will be – missed revenue, customers unsatisfied, not to mention the stress. Any one involved in the NPI (New Product Introduction) process, knows the importance of reviewing the Bill of Materials and keeping an eye on lead times, cost and availability. This is not an easy task, because it changes over time. Until the BOM’s are released for a build, only then does one know the real lead times, cost and availability. Rule of thumb and experience says there will be a few ugly parts depending on the number of line items in the BOM. This part of a start up can always be a challenge.

Edna Estrada and Devin Wahl, who joined us from XICOM Technology, it is great when people are encouraged by their management to gain addition knowledge to apply to their jobs and make a difference in their company’s results. They are involved in cycle counting a very important function to the company’s success. Ed Mercado’s presentation was very interesting. He focused on perquisites, basics and a new definition concerning operational environment. In the Body of Knowledge (BOK), environment dictates the selection of manufacturing strategy. ETO, (engineered to order), MTS, (make to stock), ATO, (assemble to order) and repetitive manufacturing, Ed added operational to this view of environment. He added such items as retail, distribution and MRO to his definition of operational environment. Thank you, Ed for an interesting and insightful presentation. The presentation and audio are posted to the web site.

We raffled Ed’s book “Hands On Inventory Management” and the winner was Jerry O’Connor from Group 7. Others from Group 7 were Paul Belknap and Erin O’Connor. Many thanks to Shirley Halpenny and LaDonna Hoyt for conducting the raffle. Kristi Ushiro gave us technical support so the laptop would talk to our projector. Of course, Asad Urrehman brought his camera and did the photo ops. The participants, also included, our newly minted CPIM - John Trang, and two comrades from Brushwellman-Edwin Cruz (Foil Room Supervisor/Production Planner) and Yup Lee (Waterjet/Laser Technician/Stock Room).others such as Greta Dimitrova Gorman, Dionnie Mcgee, Audrey Gatmiatan and Kathy Martin (both from Union Santiary District). It always good to share education sessions with co workers. Amos Ladunni, Russell Thomas, Balu Anantha, Brian Fetzer, Rich Goddu were among the many attending.

The Mission peak Chapter is proud to recognize. Dr Jay Tontz as Instructor of the year. Dr Jay Tontz has supported the Mission Peak Chapter for many years. He is one of our favorite presenters. He is Dean Emeritus at California State University East Bay. Congratulations Dr Tontz.

I hope our programs continue to be well attended. We thank you for your support.

David Lechleitner is an expert in software using job shop scheduling techniques. He is a follow on speaker for Patrick Pickerell, co founder of Peridot, who presented earlier this year. Debra Van Sickle is the other co founder of Peridot. Patrick’s perspective was from a user’s point of view concerning managing the business using the data generated from the Job Boss software. David’s perspective is from the creator of Job Shop software and piercing the vale of future customer needs and potential needs as perceived by a software supplier. There is a difference in supplying what the customer thinks they need. Often obtained from customer focus groups and needs that the supplier thinks his customer will need, but has not thought of which is truly the element of innovation.

Job shop businesses are the most difficult challenge to schedule. Low volume, high mix, variable work centers, lumpy demand is a daunting challenge for on time delivery of quality product. This is still an economic strength of the United States of America. You may be surprised by the fact that a local sheet metal manufacturer EXPORTED to China and Canada, because they were cost competitive. The Chinese supplier could not supply their customer competitively. The Chinese supplier made a very wise business decision and outsourced it, so they would still be the only supplier with face time to their customer. I have seen decisions go differently and the competition had face time with the customer and took business away from the original supplier. Being competitive is part of the retaining the customer equation. Obtaining new customers is more expensive, than keeping your current customer base loyal and satisfied and adding to that base with either more customers or increased volume. What a nice win for Silicon Valley.

The other export was to Canada, which was a result of effective job shop control, quality and being qualified as a supplier. Being a qualified supplier takes time and money, but can be a path for long-term business. Unfortunately, I missed the PDM, but since we did post the audio and the presentation. It is almost like being there with the exception of meeting the many members who attended. I encourage anyone interested in the topic presented to download the presentation and audio.

Bob Patrician, a former President and current Board member who is always at our PDM’s gave his perspective of the PDM.

Our PDF presenter this month was Dave Lechleitner with Exact JobBOSS (www.jobboss.com). Dave’s company and personal expertise is in bringing data collection and analysis directly to the shop floor.

Dave explained how make-to-order and mixed mode manufacturers must deal with constant change. In order to stay focused on the customer’s expectation of service and delivery more technology must be brought to the shop floor to manage the workflow.

Without automation job, information is captured from time cards, job logs and inventory sheets, which suffer from timeliness and accuracy problems. The most recent trend is to apply a standard interface that connects the machine tool on the shop floor directly to the production control and EPR systems in the office. Information of what the machine is doing is sent directly to the ERP information system by the tool. Data collection is much more accurate and timely. People can concentrate on the job at hand and not the paperwork. Doing so helps the small and medium sized shops compete better since they are more in tune with their costs and capabilities.

With this type of connection, accurate, real-time shop floor control is achieved with realistic shop scheduling and work center load leveling. Problems on the shop floor can be spotted sooner and steps taken to reduce the impact on production.

Bringing technology to the job shop floor helps to reduce waste, assists in meeting the customer’s demand forever shorter lead times on highly customized products and allows the shop floor to be more responsive to change.

Rong Chen, Darcy Duckenfield, Patrick Murphy, Jessica Wong for their academic achievements. Congratulations!!

As professionals in operations management, we have a responsibility to protect the resources of our organizations. Individually, we have to protect our own personal assets and resources. With an FBI agent in mind (who has asked not to be named), as our speaker for April, I posted a few recent articles on our web site about cyber theft published in the Mercury News. It demonstrates ingenious approaches by the “Bad Guys” interested in stealing your identity and your assets. One article mentions mid air interception when using a credit card. Another demonstrates the importance of encrypting data on laptops. The threat is real. In a recent commercial for the US Air Force on TV showing the Pentagon in Washington D.C., the commentator mentions that it is under attack 3 million times a day. Of course, he was referring to Cyber attacks. 3 million of anything is a lot. The successful conclusion was that the attack was foiled. It was a compelling message for enlistment to serve the country.

I want to thank our agent once again for an informative and interesting presentation. We will be posting some notes from the presentation soon, although we cannot post the power point or audio of the presentation.

Congratulations to John Trang of Brushwellman for earning his CPIM certification.

It is a pleasure meeting new members and renewing old friends at the PDM’s. I do ask why new members join and I am encouraged by their responses. As a chapter of APICS, we attempt to foster an environment that encourages networking, sharing business solutions, and education and try to make all of that fun.

On behalf of the Mission Peak Chapter of APICS, I would like to wish everyone a happy Saint Patrick’s Day. It is always good to reach out and share a green beer on that special day. Sharing and fellowship are always good things.

As Steve Novak said in his introduction, “Lean and Six Sigma are two of the most popular management systems being used today. Although both systems are well known and widely used, there is still considerable confusion surrounding them. Adding to the confusion are the notions that the two systems are integral to each other. Some proponents say that you cannot implement Lean without Six Sigma. Others say that Lean is just part of Six Sigma. Still others stick them together in something called Lean Sigma, or Lean Six Sigma. What is the Operations professional to do?

This presentation will clear up the confusion. We will explain where Lean and Six Sigma intersect, when they are separate, and when and how they can be used in concert. You’ll walk away with a deeper understanding of both Lean and Six Sigma, and the relationship between them.”

Lean is execution. Six Sigma is a methodology focused on improvement. Yes, they can be complimentary and work together. When processes are far from optimal, employing Six Sigma, this uses the approach of DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analysis, Improve and Control) can help make that process lean – by eliminating waste. The Six Sigma approach attempts to reduce variation. The tighter parameters of a process or procedure, the more predicable the result. Predictability of results is the corner stone of quality. Steve emphasized that Lean or Six Sigma is ultimately focused on profitability. The bottom line proves an organization’s worth.

Thank you, Steve for an excellent presentation. It is posted to the website for your reference or if you missed the presentation.

On behalf of the Mission Peak Chapter of APICS, I would like to wish everyone a happy Valentine’s Day. It is always good to reach out to that significant person in your life and share a special day. Love is always a good thing.

Dr. Jay Tontz was booked months ago. You will note that our PDM’s are normally scheduled for Wednesdays, since he is teaching on that day of the week we changed it to Thursday. He is an excellent presenter and has been an annual speaker giving us his economic forecast for the year. He usually grades himself by showing what he forecasted the prior year and comparing that to the actuals. He has been very accurate over the years. His topic of the 2008 forecast was very timely, especially since the news media had a lot of doom and gloom. Congress had just passed an economic stimulus package on Feb 7, 2008 on the day of our PDM a $170 Billion package. The stock market has been very volatile. One day the stock market DJIA was -300 points and then finished +300 points – a 600-point swing in one day. We are all aware of the housing market, the sub prime melt down, liquidity issues in the credit market and talk of a recession – the R word. In France, a broker lost $7.5 Billion of his firm’s money that is almost as much money bet in Las Vegas in one year – (which is $9.3 Billion). Fortunately, we had Dr. Jay Tontz to put this in perspective for us.

He started by saying that “it is a challenging time to be making a forecast”. He listed the positive and negative factors. Yes, there are positive factors. He provided historical evidence for his remarks and then boldly went where others might fear to tread and made a forecast for 2008. His remarks included a Chart of GNP (Gross National Product); the observation made was that the trend line was in a positive direction with fewer shorter recessions in the last 20 years. He credited those results to the Federal Reserve System. For more information about the Federal Reserve System, check their web site http://www.federalreserve.gov/aboutthefed/default.htm He mentioned the recommendation by Ben S. Bernanke, Federal Reserve Chairman, for the stimulus package that it be enacted quickly and be temporary in nature. He concluded with a forecast. He mentioned a term “Growth Recession”. It will feel slow, but we will continue to grow. I strongly urge you to review the presentation posted along with the audio of the presentation. I want to Thank Dr. Jay Tontz for an interesting and stimulating presentation. Of course, I immediately asked him to return next year.

PDM’s are an opportunity to chat with others. Shirley Halpenny, a new member made it a family affair by bringing her son Max Halpenny. She mentioned that she really enjoyed the previous PDM by Michael Ibrahim. That sure makes the effort of sponsoring a PDM worthwhile. Michael Gozzo made the chapter aware of some educational offerings. For those who want to follow up on those offerings check the website: http://www.calexcellence.org/cgi-bin/dbase/ctclong.cgi?RecordNumber=33 Alternatively, contact him at mgozzo@tbcgroup.org.

Mike Gustafson and Frank Carroll from Genitope Corporation, which is in the medical drug industry, generated some very interesting conversation about the worth of the APICS body of knowledge in their industry. I was unaware that Fremont was the home of their company.

I want to acknowledge Chuck Dewey for his work making the PDM happen. I also want to thank Asad Urrehman for bringing his camera and giving us a pictorial of the PDM.

Sarah Spalding sent me an e-mail after the PDM and said, “Dr.Tontz‘s is an exceptional presenter, his economic forecast was both interesting and entertaining. This was an excellent topic and reminder to all, of the resilience of our economy. I look forward to future PDM's.” Another e-mail from Urvashi Anand said, “I definitely learned a lot from the PDM and thoroughly enjoyed the presentation.”

It is always wonderful to get that type of feedback. It is also a lot of fun to see some old and new friends Balu Anantha, Tony Ramsey, Greta Dimitrova, Bob Patrician, Laz Sandor, Betty Griswold, Dr Zinovy Radovilsky, Mike Gustafson, and Dr Jay Tontz to name a few.

A recent region meeting honored our very own Anny Zhao for creating the best BOD meeting minutes in the region.

On behalf of the Mission Peak Chapter of APICS, I would like to extend Happy New Year Greetings to all our friends, members and their families.

“I had a Dream” was said by Martin Luther King Jr. on August 28, 1963 from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. I saw the original televised version on a small black and white TV. My mother was in awe of the speech and event. Being in my teens at the time, I must admit I did not understand the significance of that day. The nation honors that legacy on Jan 21^st – Martin Luther King Jr. day.

Here is a link for reference to the speech given that day and access to videos. http://www.usconstitution.net/dream.html still inspiring and now better understood by this once teenager.

In a business sense, those words are uttered by many entrepreneurs. “I had a Dream” becomes the nucleus of a start up. It is fascinating to imagine the problems seen and the solutions pursued. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…. I worked for Nellcor a start up medical device company with the vision for noninvasive monitoring of oxygen saturation. The approach was a disruptive technology that became a standard of care for anesthesiology. Jack Lloyd one of the founders is certainly one of my start up heroes. Another start up I was involved in was Network Appliance, the founders, David Hitz, and James Lau had a dream, that storage could be managed by their innovative software “WAFL” (write anywhere file layout) using off the shelf components and sub assemblies. We did partner with a major corporation to create a powerful mother board using the basic concept of “WAFL” that appealed to the higher end of the market. Flash Electronics was a dream to become a premium contract manufacturer. Chin Fan one of the founders professed that dream when I engaged his company as a customer early in their birth.

Some interesting start-ups with a dream are still a work in progress. Stratidigm, founded by Shervin Javadi and Rosa Javadi (yes, a husband wife team) has a dream to implement a disruptive technology in cytometers. (Flow cytometry is a technique for counting, examining, and sorting microscopic particles suspended in a stream of fluid. It allows simultaneous multiparametric analysis of the physical and/or chemical characteristics of single cells flowing through an optical and/or electronic detection apparatus.) In other words, it tells you what it is. The unique approach is in the number of parts 1/5 of the standard Cytometer and a unique optical system that is extremely stable.

Keimar a medical device company founded by Margaret Webber has a dream of changing the standard of care in the ICU using an electro-chemical sensor to monitor ABG's (Aterial Blood Gases) real time and continuously. The product is unique. Her experience as an ICU nurse and FDA regulatory expert will serve her well in that pursuit.

Our speaker at the January 9^th Professional Development meeting, Michael Ibrahim CEO of AmberDove Solutions (a start up) also has a dream. Fortunately, he shared that with the Chapter. His dream is using RFID and having software address the issues of training, expensive hardware, and rapid implementation. He also addressed the issue of investment and payback. I had the pleasure of meeting Michael Ibrahim in 2007 and encouraged him to present. Unfortunately, I could not be at the presentation, but was well aware of the message and Michael’s presentation skills. To my absolute delight, the feedback was extremely positive. A few members, like Asad Urrehman and Greta Dimitrova a new member gave very positive input. It makes the voluntary work done for the chapter a rewarding experience since education and best of breed information is part of our mantra. It is always good to get feedback and great when it is positive. Fortunately, our recent innovation to post the presentation and audio of the presentation gives members, like me an opportunity to get the information even though I missed the presentation. Thank you Michael for sharing.

On behalf of the Mission Peak Chapter of APICS, I would like to extend Holiday Greetings to all our members and families. Have a safe and joyous Holiday season.

Our presentation was preceded by Chuck Mignosa who was the warm-up show during appetizers with a group personality test – everyone raised their hands when the star symbol was shown – Chuck then explained that was the symbol for sex and alcohol as drivers in your personality that drew a bit of laughter from the group. Chuck continued with some magic, where Bob Patrician was selected to draw a card. It was magically read as the Diamond of Hearts, and of course with a story.

Patrick Pickerell, CEO and Founder of Peridot, gave us an insightful use of software for job shop scheduling and simulation. Patrick explained Peridot’s business with a virtual plant tour and the type of products. It was interesting that a shift did occur between high technology and medical. He explained the use of load reports and there use in decision making to match load and capacity. Several questions were asked, one was. “What is your on time delivery?” Patrick replied, “That, it was 92%”. It is important to have metrics for your business; clearly this is one that is important for Peridot. Patrick’s presentation and audio is posted to the website for those who missed it.

We had a group from Roll Royce consisting of Hunter Davis, Cindy Flores, Cliff Keick, James Mason, and Richard Payne. It is always good to see a group go to an educational session, since each member will bring away a different view and also a common view. Their business is repairing jet engines. I did APICS classes in their facility a while back. It is an interesting business concerning repair work. Hopefully, in a future PDM, we can have them share their challenges and scheduling techniques.

A few additional folks that joined us, Lillian Wong, John Tran, Greg Higgins, Asad Urrehman, Thomas Prudent, Imelda De La Cruz, Jean Zhao, Trish Nguyen, Riyaz Rhaikh, Nazem Tayara, Kathy Thurston, Bing Tian, Ling Chen, Leigh Crutchfield, Brian Fetzer, Cathy Hurtado, Vladmir Itskovsky, Deepak Kapoor, Mona Kaur, Marilyn Galiothe, Fred Gapasin to name a few….

As we enter the Holiday season, we have an exciting Professional Development Meeting (PDM) plan for the New Year. We have program speakers booked through June of 2008. In April 2008, we have a presentation by the FBI concerning counter intelligence. The FBI is sponsoring a counter intelligence conference in Sunnyvale, Ca Dec 4^th 2007 if you are interested. http://www.afcea.org/events/counterintel/welcome.asp or you can catch the PDM in April 2008. We have many other interesting and informative speakers – January – Michael Ibrahim “Can RFID Payoff? Seriously!” February – Dr Jay Tontz (one of my favorites) “Economic Forecast for 2008.” Steve Novak for March of 2008. Please check the web site for PDM updates.

Mea Culpa, as I wrote previously and was emphasized by Steve Novak in his PDM and seminar, which I attended, was to choose the right tool for the problem at hand. Recently, on a consulting assignment, the executive staff requested a plan for delivery of product a reasonable request. Since I had a hammer in my hand, I concluded the problem was a nail. I chose an MRP solution to create a schedule for delivery of product. As I struggled to bang the nail, I was missing a few elements, such as on hand balances, routings, work centers to name a few. This situation is not unusual for a start up and essentially a new product introduction. Fortunately, a fellow team member Rob Camden-Britton suggested and used the tool Microsoft Project. Rob having product knowledge, estimated activities beginning and ending dates, achieved in short order a plan for delivery for final product. A statement from General Eisenhower (who later became President of the United States) said, “It is important to have a plan, so you know what you are deviating from.” My point being two fold is even though you know you should select the best tools for the solution, sometimes you don’t, thus my confession to encourage others to select the right tool. My second point, you must have a plan. As the cat in Alice in wonderland said, “If you don’t know where you’re going does it matter which path you take!” If you have a plan you have a real compass to guide you to your goal. It is important to have a plan.

As we enjoy the Holiday Season, here is a “you tube” link to salute the men and women in our armed forces who are far away from home during the holidays (the site has over 4 million hits). Our thoughts, prayers and admiration for them as they serve to protect our most cherished value – freedom.

Dr. Zinovy Radovilsky presented a fascinating insight to a study he did concerning what the job market was looking for in operations management and what the universities were teaching. He went though his methodology used for the study. He recognized Gayathri Kandasamy for her participation and work in the project. She also was recognized as Region X and National APICS for first place awards for graduate submissions. He showed many charts detailing the results of the study. There were many interesting questions from the audience concerning the material. If you were unable to attend the presentation and an MP3 file are posted to our website for your convenience. Dr. Zinovy Radovilsky has been a frequent and informative presenter and a long time advocate for his students and the University California State East Bay. Thank you for a great presentation.

Total Quality Management (TQM), Six Sigma, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Lean Manufacturing, JIT, Material Requirements Planning (MRP), Kanban, EOQ, Brain Storming, Statistical Process Control (SPC), Pareto Charts, Project Management, Master Production Scheduling (MPS), Capacity Requirements Planning (CRP) are just a few tools that can yield excellent results when understood and properly applied. The list is just a partial one. These tools can be interrelated and powerful. Unfortunately, no one tool is the magic pill that will solve all that may affect your business results.

It must also be noted that some very important elements in an organization such as culture, personnel skills sets, management style, market, product life cycle are some factors that can affect the rate of change. As an example, an authoritarian management style would limit the range of tool selection, whereas a participative management style would be more open to a wider range of options. Product life cycle would also affect tools considered. In the growth phase, a more urgent drive to improve would consider a larger range of solutions. In the decline stage of the product life cycle, the prevalent consideration would be "what's the point" since we will no longer going to offer the product in 6 months. Steve Novak will be back in March of 2008 to amplify these basic thoughts in a "lunch and learn" presentation.

I recently was asked by John Tran of Brushwellman Electrofusion Division during a recent class, "How do you get all the information to become certified?" My response was, "there are courses, certification classes, seminars, Professional Development Meetings (PDM), other professionals that can explain the various approaches and tools use all of them". APICS offers a Body of Knowledge (BOK) that spans all environments. It can be useful, again if appropriately applied. That is a key word. Having knowledge and not applying a concept is the worst of all worlds. The best of all worlds is knowledge and actually applying that knowledge for a better result. I think becoming certified as a CPIM or CSCP demonstrates to an employer a level of accomplishment with a skill set that can prove valuable in improving processes or successfully completing a project that yields a break though resulting in reduced cycle times and profitability.

The presenter for November will be Patrick Pickerell. He is the CEO of Peridot, a very successful contract manufacturer for EMI shielding, medical devices, micro manufacturing, which has the challenge of scheduling a part of his environment as a job shop. He mentioned in a recent plant tour that he uses a software package to manage his business using simulation to plan conflicts and avoid missing customer due dates. I am intrigued that a user has successfully implemented such a tool. I have invited him to our November PDM to share his user experience. As I mentioned earlier, there are many tools to use, many different environments and education includes many venues.

APICS has standards that each chapter is benchmarked against. It is called C-Bar. Mission Peak Chapter of APICS will be recognized as a having achieved GOLD. LaDonna Hoyt must be recognized for pulling the documentation of everyone's efforts and submitting those to APICS national.

It is always fun when members participate, some new faces at the PDM, included, Lucia Khosh, Van Ma, David Shi, Wael Fadel, Davone Platz, Gayathri Kandasamy, Edgar Gayon, Michael Hubley, Nagendra Tatapudi, Kai Manske, Shumei Su, Asad Urrehman, Sam Yassine, Shirley Che, Brian Fetzer, Lars Jakobsen, Qinmei Li, and Rick Merritt, the incoming President of the Santa Clara Chapter. Also joining the meeting were Chuck Dewey, LaDonna Hoyt, Ann Ibach, Anny Zhao, Hank Zoeller, Ludy Zoeller, Joy Montgomery and Bob Patrician.

On Wednesday September 12^th, Chuck Mignosa presented “Quality is Magical”. Chuck is an excellent presenter, his breath of experience and keen observations were shared in the presentation. Since he is a master magician, Chuck made the material entertaining by performing a few magic feats to emphasize salient points concerning quality. He quoted Dilbert with the answer to the question, “What is the definition of TQM?” Answer- the process of transferring money from companies to consultants. He recapped the great thinkers in quality, Crosby, Deming, Feigenbaum, Juran and Ishikawa. Chuck made reference to the idea of the management fad of the month. We probably have all experienced the idea that one concept or tool is the magic bullet. The reality is quite different, there are many tools and selecting the most appropriate to solve a business issue is a superior approach. I thought it was very interesting when Chuck pointed out companies do one of two things – a project or process. Projects have a beginning and an end. Processes are a continuous endeavor for improvement. He also pointed out “tell me what you know, not just what you think”. It is nice that one would think they know what the problem is, but knowing what the problem is requires solid data, that can be measured and quantified. As an example, our reject rates are too high!! What are they? Don’t know, but they are too high. A better approach would be, our reject rates are 20%. Better yet, our reject rates are 20% and the Pareto analysis reveals X is the highest reject event. Best would be, the reject rate is 20% our Pareto analysis reveals that X accounts for 80% of those rejects and after investigation, the root cause is Y and our proposed solution is Z. Hopefully, this illustrates Chuck’s point of transitioning from what one thinks the problem is, to what one knows the problem is, which results in an actionable solution. Chuck concludes that whatever tool you select the end result should be to reduce cycle time. It could be a manufacturing process or any business process; the end result should be to reduce cycle time. Chuck presentation is posted to our web site for your review. I would like to thank Chuck Mignosa for an excellent presentation.

It always good to see familiar faces at a PDM. Like Minoo Mama, Bob Robbins, Daryl Langdon to name a few. I must admit, I was flattered when Minoo mentioned he read the web page and enjoyed the article. Thank you Minoo. It is gratifying, when there is recognition from a member. The work of a voluntary organization like Mission Peak takes a team of people working together. I must acknowledge the wonderful work of the Board of Directors that makes all of this possible.

On June 6th, 2007, we had an extremely well attended PDM, featuring Steve Novak, The Past President of the Hawaii Chapter of APICS and author of “The Small Manufacturers Tool Kit”.

His topic was “Effective Strategic Planning”. Normally one thinks of strategic planning starting with the Vision, Mission Statement, SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats), but Steve was thinking out of the box. As he stated, “It is NOT your father’s Strategic Plan.” His point that a strategic plan should be at the organizational level and help focus all parts of the organization. It is a living document, not just put in the draw to be brought out at the next management offsite meeting. The strategic plan should be flexible and known to all in an organization. Certainly, Jeanne Beacham CEO of Delphon, our May speaker, would agree. Steve caused a bit of a stir with our academic folks in the audience when he emphasized getting a plan started without dwelling on the Vision, Mission Statement, and SWOT. His point that it was better to start and have a plan, even if it is work in progress, than getting hung up on the on Vision, Mission Statement, SWOT and delaying progress. He did say, that Vision, Mission Statement, SWOT were needed but not at the expense of delays.

Steve earlier that day led a seminar about “Though the Maze Workshop”. It was a unique process to think about using the right tool to solve a business problem. The group tackled a real business problem. The seminar was interesting and worthwhile, even for an old salt like me. Richard Blakley, Balu Anantha and Anny Zhao were among the attendees who shared their thoughts, that it was a real value proposition. Thank you, Steve for a very educational day.

The winners of our raffle were Deepak Kapor who won the weekend at Paris in Las Vegas, Bob Patrician our very own VP of Education, who won the stay at Atlantis Casino in Reno, and Liz Allen who won the Book “The Small Manufacturers Tool Kit”. Liz Allen accepted the award for company of the year given to KLA-Tencor by the Santa Clara Chapter of APICS. The award was presented by Sue Nelson the Chapter President.

On May 1^st our chapter commenced in house training at Brushwellman, Electrofusion products division in Fremont. The modules are Master Resource Planning, Detailed Scheduling and Planning and Execution and Control of Operations. Classes are held twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday, which is an accelerated curriculum. The objective is to become aware of the APICS body of knowledge for practical application in their operation. Electrofusion is currently a very successful Division of Brushwellman.

With an undertaking of considering change for improvement, it must have top management commitment and support. Ed Hefter, the Managing Director of the Division, has given that commitment. Greg Higgins, The Operations Manager, has also committed to the effort. Even though he is a very experienced operation individual, he attends class in support of the effort. The other students, Brian Lowe, Howard Chen, Ellen Luyen, Maria Bautista, Brian Gundy, John Trang, and Edwin Cruz are experienced employees that have extensive product knowledge. Howard Chen used an excel spread sheet to create a product structure and calculate a Material Requirements Plan. Wow, I think I will have to give him an A+ on that assignment. In a team meeting the question asked, “Why is it important to have a robust management system?” The responses were: Allow us to better manage our suppliers, improve on time delivery to our customers, reduce lead time, better utilization of machines, and reduce cycle time between order entry material requisitions, ability to have a load leveling capability. Yes, it is fun to instruct a group that has commonality of purpose. Their goal is to improve their operation and I know they will have a break though in productivity.

On May 2, 2007, we had a well attended PDM, our second top management night, featuring Jeanne Beacham, President and CEO of Delphon. She was amazing giving the insights of challenges facing a CEO during the purchase of a company, during the phenomenal growth and customer demands, and wild swings when things get tough. She recounted raising funds to purchase her first company. She raised funds for $12 million through a bank loan, traveling to Canada. But wait, here’s the rest of the story. The company had another offer on the table for $18 million, but somehow hers was accepted. Wow. But that’s still not the entire story. She found out she was pregnant, had cancer, and then her husband was laid off. Somehow, any of my issues seemed trivial. That long line at Star Bucks doesn’t compare. She said, “If you have ever had a bad day, see me.”

It reminded me of a verse from the bible about a man complaining he had no shoes, till he saw a person with no feet. Jeanne was clearly a people person. When things got tough, she reduced her salary first (wow). At some point, she had to ask for the support of her staff do the same. It reminded me, of Perkin Elmer in the early years back in the late 1930’s, they could not meet payroll, so they asked the employees we will pay you in stock. The ones that stayed with the company during the tough times eventually became multimillionaires. Her staff that went though the tough times is still there and enjoying the better times. She was very proud of having succeeded as a tough competitor in her field of specialty packaging. I was very impressed with her animated, riveting presentation. Her presentation will be posted to the web site soon. Thank you again, Jeanne Beacham for a memorable and insightful presentation.

We have been fortunate to have had presentations by, Dr Jim Reeds, Dr Jay Tontz, Kristin Gault, Dr. Jim Harrington and Jeanne Beacham their presentations are posted to the web site. Our plan has been to get the best as presenters; I believe we have exceeded our goal. It has been a real education.

Special Thanks to Sue Nelson, President of Santa Clara Chapter of APICS for attending the PDM and inviting the panel from China which included, Tony Wai, Managing Director SCMC, William Wang, Vice President, C.P.M. Beijing Indserve Communication System Integration Co., Ltd. Xu Xiang, Purchasing Director, Delphi, Jason Fan, Sourcing Manager, Essilor Instruments Asia, Cathy Yuan, Purchasing Manager, Festo (China). They made top management night a special success.

Of course, do not miss our next PDM June 6^th featuring Steve Novak , and our next raffle for a free weekend at the Paris Casino in Las Vegas. The donation was made by Harrah’s Entertainment. Thanks go to Amy Chui. Again the shameless advertising plug for Amy Chui of Harrah’s Entertainment, her contact information is 415-203-7998 or e-mail "Amy Chui" <Chuia@harrahs.com>, if you want to go to Vegas, she will make it fun and easy. It’s Vegas Baby…. For great entertainment try going to The Scintas. Check their Web site for times and place http://www.thescintas.com/ you will be delighted.

Many thanks to Dr Jim Harrington for the April 4th, 2007 Professional Dinner Meeting for his excellent presentation of “The Five Pillars of Organizational Excellence”. As I mentioned before Jim has quality awards named after him in China and Chile. Some poignant points made by Dr Jim Harrington: an organization’s intellectual capital value is often greater than it physical assets by 200%, change management must engage all stakeholders, “to be good is good, being the best is great”, and don’t think outside the box, tear down its walls. The comment concerning intellectual capital, reminded me of my days at Perkin Elmer, where the Chairman of the Board, Admiral Chester Nimitz Jr. (son of the famous Admiral) once commented, “our most important asset is not on the balance sheet. It is our people.”

Dr Jim Harrington’s presentation is posted on our webpage, with our other presenters in case you were unable to attend, all are worthy of a review if you missed the PDM.

Synnex a world class company was recognized as the company of the year for its support of the community and support for the Mission Peak Chapter. Accepting the award for Synnex was Steve Ichinaga, Vice President of Marketing and Charlotte Chow, Vice President of Manufacturing. It was very satisfying to have excellent participation at our PDM which was jointly held with Santa Clara Chapter and Golden Gate Chapter. It was our first top management night PDM.

The winner of our raffle for the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas was Dennis Murray, which was donated by Steve Conigliaro, the President of Casino Marketing. Now for the advertising plug, his contact information is Steve Conigliaro, the President of Casino Marketing, cell 702-274-8212.

Do not miss our speaker Jeanne Beacham, CEO of Delphi, our second top management night, but of course our next raffle for a free weekend at the Paris Casino in Las Vegas. The donation was made by Harrah’s Entertainment. Thanks go to Amy Chui. Again the shameless advertising plug for Amy Chui of Harrah’s Entertainment, her contact information is 415-203-7998 or e-mail "Amy Chui" <Chuia@harrahs.com>, if you want to go to Vegas, she will make it fun and easy. It’s Vegas Baby….

Many thanks to Kristin Gault for the March 7, 2007 Professional Dinner Meeting presentation. Her presentation defined the Six Sigma process. The real interesting part was her “hands on” experience that brought the implementation process alive. Some pearls of wisdom mentioned that the culture change is the most difficult. She emphasized that an established organization (70 Years old) can be a challenge for change. The Six Sigma approach can be applied to any business process. She mentioned customer support and the routing of calls. The initial measurement indicated that 40% of after hour calls were lost. After the project concluded, not only was the % significantly reduced, but also routing it to the right person was also accomplished. Another project mentioned was a credit card process. After mapping the process, which she emphasized as a critical step, the processing range was 8.5 days to 53 days. The results dramatically reduced cycle time to 48 hours. The process of Six Sigma - define, measure, analyze, improve, control is data driven. Kristin emphasized, “What gets measured gets done”. With her “hands on” experience, she mentioned that the process of Six Sigma which may appear linear can actually go back and forth between measure and analyze before proceeding effectively to the next step. She summarized Six Sigma as a process that incorporates the best of breed practices.

Dr Jim Harrington is our next speaker April 4th who will present “The Five Pillars of Organizational Excellence”. He has quality awards named after him in China and Chile. We are very pleased to have such a noted expert present. Click on the outline for additional details. At that PDM we will also present an award of recognition for company of the year.

Kristin Gault’s presentation is posted on our webpage, along with Dr. Jay Tontz’s presentation in February. Both worthy of a review if you missed the PDM.

The winner of our raffle for the Siena Penthouse suite, $65 for Spa treatment, and $100 for food was Joy Montgomery.

Do not miss the next raffle on April 7^th, for a free weekend at the Rio Hotel Casino in Las Vegas. The donation was made by Casino Marketing. Thanks go to Steve Conigliaro, the President of Casino Marketing. Now for the advertising plug, his contact information is "Steve Conigliaro" <sconig@casinomktg.com>, or call 702-951-7210 extension 234. It’s Vegas Baby.

Operations Management Society (OMS) our Mission Peak student Chapter had their Winter Quarter event on March 8^th. Again, the event was very well attended. It is refreshing to interface with the students just starting out on careers. The Speaker Skip Skivington, Director of Operations & Interim Director of Supply Change – Kaiser Permanente explained the size of Kaiser. Some statistics: 156,000 employees, 115,000 physicians, 54 ERP systems, $35 Billion in revenues, 210,000 suppliers – remember it is a not for profit organization. He shared the plan and results for 2006, explained the goals for 2007 and shared some sage advise for students. An evening well spent, informative and fun.

Recently, a Certification in Six Sigma Black Belt was co-sponsored by the Hawaii Chapter and Golden Gate Chapter. The Harrington Institute provided materials and instructor for the 5 day very intense course. We were fortunate to have a very diverse class of students, ranging from the Department of Defense - Logistics, Microsoft, Monsanto, Abbott Laboratories, and Navy Logistics. Our instructor was Chuck Mignosa, from Business Systems Architects, who has over 30 years of experience. He has 25 years of experience with IBM where he holds patents on solid lubricants. He also was part of the team that implemented SPC in all 4 business units of IBM in San Jose.

Chuck added value when he emphasized some points using magic. Among his other accomplishments, he is a master magician and a member of the magic castle in Hollywood. His “Hands On” knowledge was informative and interesting. The week long course included additional reading and homework assignments, along with a Six Sigma Project. The project challenged us to apply the principles learned. Since Six Sigma discipline is data driven using statistics, the teams had to reduce the variability of a fulcrum tossing a ball. The project drove home the principles learned and was fun as the two teams competed for the best improvement. Our team won 2300 to 1900 points. At the end of the course, we were tested. I am pleased to report – I passed – Yee Ha. It was a great feeling of accomplishment.

Steve Novak from the Hawaii Chapter deserves many thanks for coordinating the details of the seminar. Steve will be presenting at our PDM in June 6^th, 2007, along with a seminar in June. Details will follow…..

Our Broad of Directors took the challenge from Mel Nelson our Region X, Vice President, to create a mantra for the chapter. After some discussion and really good ideas, the mantra presented at the Region X meeting was “Networking, Knowledge, Recognition, and Fun”.

Dr Jay Tontz spoke at the February 7^th 2007, meeting. His presentation on the Economic Forecast for 2007 was fascinating. He recapped his forecast for 2006, which was very close to the actual experience of the economy. His presentation was crisp and clear. The US economy is $13 trillion. He projected continued growth. Even though, bad news such as lay off’s prominent in the news, the economic engine is in good shape. As he mentioned, there have been many economic shifts - we are experiencing that now. A web site, I would recommend that extends Dr Jay Tontz’s hard hitting presentation: enjoy the facts show and the music is from the movie “The Last of Mohicans” …….

Hector Aguilar was the winner of a $50 gift certificate - compliments of Massimo’s Restaurant.

Our next PDM on March 7^th will feature a raffle item from Siena Hotel Spa Casino.http://www.sienareno.com/ a one night stay in the Penthouse suite, $65 for Spa treatment and $100 for food. I want to thank Randy Spangler of Siena Hotel Spa Casino for arranging the donation to our chapter. It is a great place to stay, great food and wonderful Spa…. check out their web site.

On behalf of the Mission Peak Chapter of APICS, I would like to extend Happy and Prosperous New Year Greetings to all our members and families.

We ended the old year, with a panel discussion at California State University East Bay. The Panel included, Dennis Lee, Vice President Marketing & Customer devilment, GSC Logistics, Rick Wen, Vice President, Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) USA, Inc. Eric Lindberg, District Director, Meridan IQ, Rhona Lishinshy, Director, COST PLUS WORLD MARKET, INC. Ernie Castiaux, Director of Materials, Tercica. The panel was excellent in their presentation of issues of logistics and supply chain management. Clearly, an august group discussed and shared some developmental history and challenges faced by global logistics and supply chain management. The student body that attended the event was very large and enthusiastic, well over 100 students. Lester Fong, the President of Operations and Materials Society and Dr. Zinovy Radovilsky, Professor, Department of Management and Finance, CSUEB, did a great job along with other members of OMS organizing a very successful event.

We started the New Year with a successful and thought provoking presentation by Jim Reeds. He addressed the topic of “A New Paradigm for Operations and Supply Change Management”. Jim is President of the local chapter of ISM. There was discussion during and after his presentation. Dr. Zinovy Radovilsky noted that the % of students at CSUEB had changed from 80% operations management, 20% supply chain management, to 20% operations management, and 80% supply change management. Jim’s point, “are professional societies and educational institutions providing and/or planning to provide education and skill sets needed by their membership and students that match the needs and requirements of employers?” Time will tell if the research that is being done translates to supporting those needs. As Jim pointed out, the need for a shift in the paradigm will dominate their relevance in the future.

In February Dr Jay L Tontz will address “How Will the US Economy Perform in 2007”. He promises to bring his all knowing crystal ball. In March we have Kristin Gault a Six Sigma implementer. She will share her experiences in implementing Six Sigma. It is always good to know the “hands on” approach. In April, which will be a joint meeting with the Golden Gate Chapter, Mission Peak Chapter and Santa Clara Chapters of APICS again at Massimo’s Restaurant Hosted by Mission Peak, we will present a world renowned authority on quality and Six Sigma, Dr Harrington is founder and President of the Harrington Institute. He has awards in quality named after him in Chile and China. In May, we have Jeanne Beacham, CEO Delphon Industries, LLC, presenting, "Organic Growth and Acquisition: The Opportunistic Approach to Success"

Additional, thanks goes to Joy Montgomery, booking our speaker for May’s PDM. Of course I must recognize former President of our Chapter Bruce Hoyt, who lives in Arizona and dutifully updates our website.

The Board of Directors has been successful in improving our web site and is preparing a survey of the membership to insure we are addressing the needs of our members. Our PDM’s will be valuable source of information, our program of excellent speakers extends 5 months into the future at this time. We have increased our membership nearly 16% since October 2006 and continue to add to our membership.