If you’re even slightly familiar with “Lean thinking”, then you would have heard the phrase – “Lean is all about flow!”. There is a good deal of sense in capturing the essence of Lean in that pithy way. (And if you’re familiar with linear programming as well) You might also aver that “Lean is about eliminating waste” – the latter phraseology being the dual of the former i.e. maximizing flow does minimize waste. Observations like these are exciting because, Lean thinking and Optimization borrow insights from each other pointing towards a unity that very much doesn’t exist in the business planning and optimization of an enterprise but exists very much in the fundamental aspects of both disciplines.
In any case, this post is about throughput accounting. I took some time out to familiarize myself with the Theory of Constraints which is where I came across the term and description of Throughput Accounting. Pascal van Cauwenberghe of Thinking for a Change has posted an article at his site that summarizes the key aspects of Throughput Accounting.
Pascal outlines the three basic variables of throughput accounting:
- Throughput = fresh money coming in from sales.
- Operating Expense = money going out to keep the company going. Once spent, the money is gone (wages, energy, rent
Logistics Management has a new article that outlines why the Middle East is a booming regiong for logisitics and supply chain services. At least, that is the conclusion of a recent study released by the research firm – Transport Intelligence.
The logistics sector has been benefited as companies invest in upstream and downstream infrastructure projects. And, other opportunities are presenting themselves from investment in construction including tourism (hotels, amenities etc), reconstruction of Iraq, and transportation projects (ports, logistics parks and airports etc). In addition, the importance of consumer markets is increasing as GDP per head soars throughout the region.
That is the key takeaway from the article and I can personally attest to that having visited the Middle East not more than a few months ago on a supply chain consulting engagement. There’s a lot of oil money flowing in the region and that is being put to work building up infrastructure of all kinds. In short the area has been booming for a few years and could concievably continue to do so for a little longer. Current events, notwithstanding, this part of the world is pretty critical to the rest of the world and if there is something that a supply chain fits in nicely with – are the critical things that power/drive the rest of the world.
Categorized as: News_, Supply Chain Management_, Logistics_
Tags: Middle East, Logistics Services, Transportation
