FIF
United Kingdom
Morning: Operational Excellence
We’d all like to think we’re fairly good at what we do and often see words like ‘leading manufacturers of’, ‘high quality’, and ‘unsurpassed reliability’ banded about. But what does that actually mean to you or more importantly to your customers and prospects? Just what are the differences between world class and world average companies and why should you bother? You’re doing OK, aren’t you?
This session will introduce participants to the concept of operational excellence within organisations - or how to be the best you can, or need to be.
Content
• Why we must change
• High ‘Value’ Manufacturing
• Competency led strategy
• Case study - an Olympian effort
• Lean and the Toyota Production System
• Measure lots, forget targets
• 2 x case studies
• Building sustainable competitive advantage
• Customer value propositions
• Operational Excellence
• Six Sigma overview and tools
• Concepts are more important than tools
• Systems thinking
Afternoon: Finance
Does anything kill a business more quickly than running out of cash? How about an owner who doesn’t see or understand that a business is running out of cash? Or what do to about it? We’ll learn to see the warning signs, look at sources of short term funding, how to interpret and construct cash flow statements, look at how to lighten up on our trade creditors and control costs. We’ll also look at Balance Sheets and Profit & Loss Statements. Some critical financial ratios will be introduced. For those of a non-finance persuasion, it’s not pretty. It’s not even much fun. It is however absolutely essential.
Content
• Managing cash
• Cash operating cycle and its calculation
• Overtrading
• Short term Finance
• Working capital
• Liquidity ratios
• Budgets and Forecasts
• Exercise - constructing a cash flow
We then turn our attention to understanding both the Balance Sheet and Income Statement (or P&L):
• What do Balance Sheets and Income Statements tell us?
• Where do the numbers come from?
• Profitability ratios
• Solvency ratios
• Managing Inventories
• Managing Accounts Payable
• What’s the difference?
• How do we use them?
• Additional liquidity ratios
• Using ratios
• Managing Accounts Receivable
• Raising finance for SMEs
