by Bill Marr

Never has it been more important to align inventory to profitability than in today's ultra- competitive marketplace. Misalignment is far more common and costs WD's more than most could ever imagine. Learn the pitfalls and the action steps you can take today to make inventory your friend.

by Dan McLean

You have no doubt heard the adage, "You cannot manage what you do not measure." This is particularly true of your IT investments. Most of our clients focus on those areas of their business in which they excel: operational expertise, financial expertise but most often not IT despite how crucial it is to their business. Often, we only consider our IT investment when it has stopped functioning. This article in IT World outlines the cost of such an approach and the tremendous savings available with more proactive monitoring and managing of your IT infrastructure.

90 litigants in the US are suing many of the world's largest airlines (including Air Canada) for price fixing on their cargo rates. If you have been shipping cargo by air, you might be entitled to recover the overcharges!

by Richard Bray

Understanding critical business relationships is essential to successful management. Often, this need is very poorly supported by the management and accounting information system (MAIS) being used to gather the data. Consider how well your MAIS could identify the following problem:

Gross margin per product (we have 10,000 SKUs) across all salespeople (we have 50) is 30% lower when dealing with two of ten categories of customer, but only in the western region. Now, how long would it take you to determine why this occurs? In his article, Richard Bray discusses an emerging class of analysis and reporting tools designed to work with any MAIS to simplify finding these problems and the answers to them without the help of expensive programmers.

If you're an employee or an employer, the answer is yes!

Changes to Manitoba Employment Standards Code have been implemented in Manitoba, effective May 1st, 2007. With virtually no changes to the Code for the past 30 years, and as a direct result of the Michalowski v. Nygard case, significant areas of the Code have been amended. All employers should be aware of the new requirements & obligations, including: termination/notice provisions for employers & employees, overtime obligations, child labour regulations and deductions from wages, just to name a few.

An example of one change...if an employer terminates an employee and a general holiday falls within the four weeks following the date of termination, the employer is required to pay that employee 5% of total wages earned in the four weeks prior to the holiday. Even though the employee is no longer an employee, the employer is still obligated to pay the terminated employee for this holiday day.

Susan Scott, F.H. Black's Manager of Human Resources, will be contacting our Manitoba clients directly to arrange a complementary meeting to address any questions or concerns you may have regarding the above. If you are not a client but are interested in a meeting, please call Susan at 204.949.9113 ext. 15.

Report prepared by Robert Angel

Canadian companies need to ensure that they are continually reviewing their supply chain, as this in itself becomes a competitive advantage. Read this executive roundtable report, "Speeding up the Supply Chain" and question yourself as to how innovative you are in dealing with global pressures impacting your business.