APICS Atlanta - Recruiting Resources

The New Chapter Job Board for Free Local Listings

The APICS Atlanta Career Center is the premier resource for local companies and third party recruiters seeking experienced specialists in the field of operations management. As a totally free service, this Career Center communicates your employment opportunities to this select, highly qualified, group of supply management professionals; A group that is committed to furthering their professional development through APICS networking, certifications (CPIM, CIRM and CSCP) and continuing education hours.

New AUTOMATED JOB BOARD FORM

Companies can now publish their jobs directly, and they will automatically disappear after 90 days.  These postings should look and feel more like full job descriptions, and we hope they will benefit everyone.

!!!IMPORTANT!!!  Job postings can include basic html hyperlinks and formatting, but there are no tools to assist you in coding that properly, and no capabilities for editing jobs after they are published.  (Career Center Staff can assist with minor text changes only!)

Our team will continue to monitor and remove jobs not focused on production, supply chain, or other related roles here in the Atlanta Metro area.  (Please keep us advised if you see a questionable advertisement - CareerCenterAdmin@APICSAtlanta.org )

To discuss the process, your company's capabilities,
or active alternatives, please contact:
Jon Harvill, CPC, APICS Atlanta Career Center Director, careercenter@apicsatlanta.org
c/o Professional Search of Atlanta, Phone: (770) 952-0009, Fax: (770) 952-9422,
E-mail: JHarvill@professionalsearchatlanta.com, Website: professionalsearchatlanta.com

New AUTOMATED JOB BOARD FORM

Building a Quality Organization

Article by: Jon Harvill CPC
Article appeared in the February 2008 APICS Atlanta eNewsletter

In the technical and professional associations for which this article is being written, we tend to talk a lot about creating and implementing bigger and better hardware and software systems, like WMS, IMS, MRP, DRP, and ERP.

We also occasionally hear of the failure of a notable company which had all of these latest systems, but the company failed anyway.  While at the same time, we know of other companies, even in the very same industries, that appear to fare much better, even thrive, and they may be operating with the very same systems as the company that is failing.

It makes you wonder, “What are the differences?”  Are the failures caused by Economic factors, Natural disaster, Government actions, Obsolete industries, Aggressive competition, Executive miss-management, Global competition?

All of these may be in effect in one instance or another but the most common cause which is almost universal in the failures, is the misuse of their people.  They fail to attract the right people.  They fail to retain the right people; they fail to empower their people. They fail to develop their people. So let’s look at some common people problems, or we can call them opportunities.  

PEOPLE – Great results can be obtained from average people who are well trained and well managed.  Truly phenomenal results can be obtained by organizations made up of very slightly above average individuals, who are well managed.  As a manager, always be on the lookout for that strong individual you can acquire to replace the weakest link in your organization.  With good communications, the rest of the group will respond positively when they see the leader take action removing the troublemaker or slacker.  The other members of the organization know that it will make their life easier and their work more productive with the staff upgrades they see you make.

As an individual, don’t be caught being that weakest link, troublemaker or slacker. Solve your attitude problem or personality conflicts with your boss or co-workers.  Invest in your own future.  It is said that an individual who reads four books each year in his professional field will know more about his industry than ninety-five percent of the so-called experts.

Training – Most of the consulting firms that install manufacturing control systems advocate heavy investments in training as a part of the implementation.  Yes, they are selling training, but they are also ultimately measured by how well the system functions after they leave.  It is a sad commentary, but the success rate among MRP/ERP system implementations is pretty poor.  Second in popularity only to ‘# 1. Lack of top management commitment’, as the reason for implementation failure, is ‘#2. Insufficient training’.

Also, more generic training, such as the APICS or ISM body-of-knowledge,  six sigma lean and supervisory training, all improve an organization's performance in many documented ways.  You will correlate increased employee knowledge levels with increased Key Performance Indicators, such as forecast accuracy, productivity, inventory turns, service level, sales volume, quality level and profit.

Attitude – When hiring employees, select people with the right attitude.  Sure, we can change people’s attitudes,---- or can we?  People do not like to be changed.  Why take on the almost impossible task of changing anyone when, at every hiring opportunity, you can hire only people with good attitudes?  Hire good enough attitudes and you may need to almost get out of their way.  They are going to be successful, in spite of what you or I do. If you should make a hiring decision mistake, do not let it contaminate your organization.  Face up to having made a mistake and work just as hard correcting it quickly by taking advantage of a possible probation period, or satisfy termination criteria.  One of the most creative solutions I have observed, I call the Trojan Horse.  This manager found the problem employee a more responsible job with a direct competitor.

The Cost of a Vacant Position

missingArticle by: Jon Harvill CPC
Article appeared in the Summer 2008 Professional Consultant newsletter

Dr. John Sullivan, when heading the Human Resources Management Program at San Francisco State University, used the example, "If an airline bought a new 747, and then let it sit for two months on the runway because they didn't have a pilot, what would the cost be to the airline?"

What if a new business venture, which was targeted to make millions of dollars in profits, cannot begin until the key personnel is recruited,---and the understaffed Human Resources department takes six months to hire the key executives?

What is lost if a critical Time To Market (TTM) is slightly delayed by staffing issues and results in a new product having a weak #2 position in the marketplace, rather than a strong #1 position?

If we expect cost reductions and cost avoidance from our purchasing and our production staffs, what happens when they fail to accomplish the lower costs because, they are spread too thinly due to having unfilled positions; yet their competitor continues to reduce its costs?

Many firms calculate the cost-per-hire, but few have taken the time to calculate the cost of a vacant position. Don Schwerzler, Managing Director of Family Business Institute, feels that unfilled positions cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars.

"Most organizations fail to make a direct connection between the time it takes to fill a vacancy, and the dollars they end up losing from the bottom line," he said recently. "As a rule-of-thumb, the average manager should make for their company at least five times his or her salary -- i.e. a $50,000 supervisor should move $250,000 to the bottom line; a $100,000 executive should personally be responsible for $500,000 profits."

CASE STUDY 1:

In a real life case study, a client company balked when told that a retained search should be used to work out conflicting expectations held by their plant management and their corporate staff, regarding a newly created Materials Manager position.  The retained search was quoted to be the same rate as the contingency search that was chosen, so expected cost was not a factor in the decision.

Over the course of a full year numerous candidates received thorough vetting, including travel, interviewing, psychological testing and more interviewing. Midway through the one-year process, one hire was made and he lasted only six weeks.

Implementation of a critical scheduling system was delayed a year and urgently needed cost reductions, process improvements and the supply chain staff’s training and developments were missed, and all due to the inability to agree on a viable candidate.

The position was eventually filled with an $80,000 Materials Manager, probably no better than dozens who had been considered and rejected before.

Using Don Schwerzler's formula, an $80,000 position should earn the company five times their salary, or $400,000 per year. That is $33,333 per month that did NOT go to the bottom line.  Given the strategic nature of Supply Chain function, I'll bet many of you can make the argument that the cost was actually a great deal more than $400,000.

Possibly with no direct connection to this course of events, the company has since been sold.

Ending on a happier thought, another case study comes to mind:

CASE STUDY 2:

Management for a Fortune 500 company called from Minneapolis on a Monday asking for help filling a Warehouse Manager position in St. Louis. The company had been increasing inventory levels trying to improve flagging service levels but the extra inventory just made it more difficult to find and pull the correct product.  Service levels continued to decline, causing a flood of customer complaints.

We had the new Warehouse Manager onboard within fourteen days.  During the post-assignment debrief process the company gave an unsolicited testimonial recapping how we had saved them money.  They had budgeted $20,000 for relocation and no relocation was required.  We had found a Warehouse Manager for $10,000 less than they were prepared to pay. They gave us credit for $15,000, identified as lost-opportunity savings, for finding someone in two weeks while they had expected the search to take six weeks.

However, the real savings were accomplished over the next year. The new Warehouse Manager had committed to reach the targeted service level and also remove $1,000,000 from their inventory. He actually reduced their inventory by $2,000,000 and improved service 2% above their targeted level. In addition to saving the $2,000,000 in reduced inventories and the $360,000 annual carrying cost on that inventory, our client's customers were happy and buying product once again.

Additional Articles for Recruiters and Hiring Officials

Please feel free to visit this external website for more articles on recruiting, networking, interviewing, and retention.

New Job Posting Automation Under Construction

http://apicsatlanta.org/jobs/jobboard.asp