Talk: The invisible thief of your profits. Parts on the shelf

Talk description

Title:	The invisible thief of your profits. Parts on the shelf
Short synopsis:	We do not see it, but there are parts on the shelf, whilst at the same time people are being mislabelled as resources. What are the parts on the shelf? What does labelling people as resources have to do with it? And does it matter anyway? Yes! It has a significant impact on your business, your profits, your quality of goods and your customer advocacy. The presentation will use the reality of industry, including the history of Triumph Motorcycles from the 1970s and 80s, to bring to life what parts on the shelf means, and what resources actually are. Don’t let the invisible be a thief in your company! Max size: 500 chars
Long synopsis (optional):	In service industries and business departments, knowledge work is the main product being produced and people are now called “resources” as they are a major expense on the books. What is not understood is that there is a potentially greater, hidden expense, to the business because we have misunderstood what a “resource” is and labelled the wrong item on the balance sheet. When the UK was seen as a manufacturing economy, the raw materials being used were the resources and as the product was built both resources and partially built products would take up space in the factory. These “parts on the shelf” were visible and known to cost money. This presentation will use examples from manufacturing and historic businesses, such the Triumph Workers Cooperative, the motorcycle manufacturer from the 1970s and 1980s, to make visible what is invisible in businesses today, highlight the costs and impacts. Whilst the costs are similar and the impacts huge, the work is significantly different between manufacturing and knowledge work. These differences mean we cannot just implement lean manufacturing, remember people are not the “resources”, so how we deal with it will be different. Of course it’s no good understanding the impacts if you cannot deal with them, so tools and techniques that you can take away and implement will also be a significant part of the presentation. Max size: 5000 chars
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