Seminars and Workshops

These seminars and workshops are available to be run as public or in-house events. They can be modified to suit a particular requirement or company.

Seminars and Workshops

Business Forecasting and Demand Management

“Getting your Demand Management process off to a good start.”

The key to good planning in any business is to start with the best forecast of sales that can be put together. Without starting the planning process off with a reasonably accurate forecast all materials and capacity planning throughout the organisation will be suspect. In addition, your customer service will suffer and remain at a low level.

Who Should Attend?

The target group for this seminar is anybody working in a Sales, Marketing and Planning role. Top management will also find the seminar useful, as a reasonable aggregate forecast for the Sales and Operations planning process is essential. Master Schedulers should attend, as having a reasonably accurate detailed forecast with which to work will improve the function of Master Scheduling considerably.

Course Objectives

The objectives of the course are to show delegates the importance of forecasting in good planning for an organisation. Several forecasting techniques and methodologies are described. The importance of measuring the forecast accuracy is discussed and methods of measuring accuracy shown. The seminar concludes by using a computerised statistical forecasting tool to illustrate several of the techniques that have been discussed and it is hoped that delegates will bring some of their own data which will be used as forecasting examples.

Course Agenda

  • Introduction – the importance of forecasting in a business environment
  • Why do we need to forecast?
  • What do we need to forecast in our business?
  • What is statistical forecasting?
  • Forecasting methodologies
  • Measuring forecast accuracy
  • Using computerised forecasting packages

Inventory Accuracy

“Achieving Accurate, Real-Time Inventory Records in your Store or Warehouse”.

Without achieving at least 95% accuracy real-time records in your stores and warehouse, your ERP manufacturing and distribution systems will not function to the best of their ability, and your employees will be making many business decisions every day based on incorrect information. Inventory accuracy is therefore key to any successful ERP or supply chain management implementation.

On the face of it, it would seem an easy objective to achieve accurate, real-time records in the store/warehouse, but many companies find it difficult to reach this goal and maintain accuracy into the future.

This seminar puts forward a tried and test methodology for any store to achieve and maintain real-time accurate records.

Who Should Attend?

The target group for this seminar is everybody working in or around the store or warehouse. In addition, store management and inventory management should attend. It is also useful in an implementation of a stores accuracy project to get those that interact with the stores or warehouse to attend, such as production supervisors, and representatives from the sales team and purchasing.

Course Objectives

The objectives of the course are to show delegates the importance of inventory accuracy in any manufacturing or distribution business. Secondly, to suggest a methodology to achieve this target and thirdly to focus on the cycle counting process that is key to the success of a project of this nature.

Course Agenda

  • Introduction – the importance of inventory accuracy
  • A methodology to achieve accuracy in your store or warehouse
  • The monthly / annual stock-take
  • The importance of cycle counting
  • Implementing a cycle counting process
  • Summary and ten points for success

Stores and Stock Control

“Putting Best Practice into your Stores and Warehouses”.

Inventory is probably the biggest asset that any company has on its balance sheet. Traditionally, the capability of our people and practices we use in our stores and warehouses leaves a lot to be desired. We need our best educated, trained, and empowered people looking after our most valuable asset. This seminar looks at the key practices within a store, or warehouse, and suggests what should be done to achieve a world class facility.

Who Should Attend?

The target group for this seminar is anybody working in, or having direct contact with, a store or warehouse. This includes people involved in receiving, issuing, shipping, putting away, picking, stock counting, stores/warehouse management, materials managers, supply chain managers, logistics managers, production, finance and purchasing.

Course Objectives

The objectives of the course are to show delegates the importance of stores and warehousing in the overall supply chain and what their responsibilities are towards the supply chain. To indicates what is best practice with regards to the various task carried out by the stores / warehouse and how they might be implemented. Inventory accuracy and cycle counting practices are covered in the ‘Inventory Accuracy’ one day seminar.

Course Agenda

  • Introduction
  • Role of the store / warehouse
  • Suppliers and purchasing
  • Classification and coding of stock
  • Security in the store
  • Warehousing facilities – design and layout
  • Materials handling in the store / warehouse
  • Inbound logistics and receiving
  • Stores issues and returns
  • Outbound logistics and shipping
  • Inventory valuation

Managing Quality in the Purchasing Process

This intensive 2-day workshop is designed to give Purchasing Managers and Buyers the necessary understanding to develop purchasing processes which will ensure optimal quality from their suppliers. The presenter, Colin Seftel, developed this workshop based on his experience of 20 years as a hands on practitioner in both purchasing and quality management at a successful ISO9000 accredited manufacturing company.

Programme

Day 1

Session 1: Purchasing & Supply Chain Management - Overview
Session 2: Determining the 'Optimal Quality'
Session 3: The Buyer-Supplier Interface

Day 2

Session 1: Approaches to Sustaining & Improving Quality
Session 2: Introduction to ISO 9000
Session 3: Total Quality Management – An Overview

The results:

  • Fewer rejects
  • More reliable deliveries
  • Better supplier relations
  • Lower procurement and logistic costs
  • Better customer service/ fulfilment

Who is the Target Audience?

Purchasing Managers and Buyers wishing to improve the quality of their purchased products and outsourced services. Quality Managers who need a better understanding of how purchasing processes work within a quality environment.

About the Presenter

Colin Seftel BSc(Eng) CFPIM CSCP CDDP is a former director of APICS in the USA and its South African Associate, SAPICS.

Colin has presented papers at the annual SAPICS conferences in 1994, 1995, 1998, 2004, 2009, 2013 and 2015. In 2010, he was invited to speak at the APICS conference in the USA and in 2011 this was followed up with speaking engagements at the SMART Conference in Australia and Supply Chain World Southeast Asia in Singapore.