Somehow we erroneously associate productivity with meetings. It is actually the opposite in this new corporate culture.

In general, meetings that do not conform to certain rules are the number one reason for loss of productivity and hence huge cost.

Simple Rule: If you can accomplish your goal without a meeting, then don’t hold a meeting

We live in an “Outlook culture” where people schedule time on your calendar, seemingly at will.

Amazingly, at most companies this is accepted behavior.

Yet, it costs companies thousands of dollars in wasted of time and lost productivity.

The sad part is that most of the time the person who calls for the meeting is looking for a way to vent off or just express themselves. It really has nothing to do with productivity, it is just about speaking aloud. 

The number one rule for meetings for a group less than 6 people: Keep it short. If the meeting exceeds 30 minutes especially for an unscheduled meeting, you have wasted your time and listened to someone who just wants to satisfy their ego

Meeting Spam is Worse Than Email Spam

What is worse than email spam? Meeting spam.

Those meeting requests that you receive seemingly out of thin air that have no true purpose or topic.

At least with email spam you can set up filters. You can simply hit “delete.”

With meeting spam, you have to politely decline. You have to find a reason why you cannot attend.

How do you determine which meetings are unnecessary and likely to reduce productivity ?

1. Too Many People – If you get more than six people together, the ability to hold a conversation goes downhill quickly. When you see  a meeting request with 8-12 people on it, it usually means that the organizer didn’t know who they should be talking to.
2. More than one meeting per week especially with the same group.
3. Same Subject: if you have to call a meeting for the same reason over and over again or discuss the same topics, you apparently are looking to just talk
4. No Agenda – Everyone would agree that all meetings should have an agenda, yet almost no meetings actually have one. This is a sure-sign tell that the meeting will be a free-for-all.
5. No Meeting Place – When you get a meeting request that has no meeting location, it usually is a sign that the organizer hasn’t put much thought in the appointment. Inevitably you will get the last-minute updates with the meeting details.
6. Scheduled for Too Much Time – Avoid meetings that are scheduled for > 1 hour. Two (or three) hour meetings are too long. These are usually “fishing meetings” where the organizer doesn’t know what they want but is hoping that the attendees can figure out the answer for them.
7. Vague Topic – If I can’t tell what a meeting is about from the invite, then I usually decline. Just as emails should have a descriptive subject line, so should meeting invites. “Catchup” is not an adequate meeting topic.
8. Called at the Last Minute – Meetings that are called with little notice, usually aren’t meetings. They are usually knee-jerk responses to a problem. They should probably be a conversation between the involved individuals rather than a meeting. This may seem like a fine distinction, but many managers react to small issues by “gathering the entire team.”
9. Standing Meetings – Ah, the repeating-into-infinity meeting. It is on your calendar from now until the end of time. Yet, each week, people have to ask what is on the agenda. Delete these standing meetings. Meet when you actually have something to decide.
10. Lunchtime Meetings – Disorganized people love to call lunchtime meetings. They have little regard for other people’s schedules or lunch activities. They figure they aren’t going to enjoy their lunch, so they might as well bring others with them.
11. Other People’s Work – Some people call meetings with the sole purpose of getting others to do their work. Combine this with #6 and you have a recipe for a dysfunctional and inefficient workplace.
12. Simple Announcements – Have you ever been to a meeting that was simply to announce something that was already sent out via email? Or to read a new policy or document? Avoid these “reading” sessions. Unless of course, your employees don’t read their email.

Meetings should be designed to save time not to express an opinion, if you hold meetings to just talk or chat i suggest going to the park. Don’t waste time. If you are good at math, you will realize that for evey hour you waste of your time you wasted an hour of everybody’s time who is attending the meeting.

Read More: Budgetsource.com

The total capacity of cold storage warehouses was 600 million cubic meters in 2016, an increase of 8.6% since 2014 (4.2% annualized growth rate). Considerable new construction in emerging markets explains most of the increase in refrigerated warehousing space.

Cold storage is an essential link in any supply chain. There are a lot of companies in the marketplace looking to save money in their supply chain this year. Over the long term, making investments in your supply chain can save a lot more money down the road. One of the biggest areas of this is in Refrigerated Warehouses. There has been a lot of new technology researched in this area of business.

A Refrigerated Warehouse is an important segment of the supply chain that involves the storage of temperature-sensitive goods. Refrigerated storage helps in storage of perishable goods during cold chain supply. On the Basis of temperature ranges maintained, refrigerated warehouses can be segmented into two categories: Cold storage (coolers) and frozen storage (freezers). Cold storage areas usually maintain temperatures between 0-10 °C (32-50°F), while frozen storage areas maintain temperatures lower than 0°C (32°F).

Trends in Cold Storage

1. More Outsourcing. Many manufacturing companies are outsourcing their needs to other companies. There are a lot of benefits to doing this over the long term. Not only does it take the hassle out of the process for a company, but often times it will save them money as well. 
2. Focus on Quality. There is a higher focus on quality than ever before. No longer can companies get away with cutting corners in this area of their business. Many years ago, the customer did not care as much about product quality. The focus was just on the price of the food. There are a lot of people who now would rather pay more to have a fresher set of ingredients. Anyone who is looking to appeal to this customer must make sure their cold storage facilities are up to par.
3. Need for More Supply Chain Efficiency. The market demand for more supply chain efficiency is growing. There are a lot of companies that are starting to focus on ways to save money in their supply chain. A lot of companies have figured out that this is an area where they can save millions of dollars in excess cost while still not affecting the company performance overall. Anyone who wants to look into ways to improve their overall supply chain can do so through several areas.
4. Investing in Technology. Although a lot of changes have taken place in this industry over the past couple of years, there is still a huge need for companies to invest in technology. Over the long term, this is the way that products and services can be scaled to meet the needs of the customer.

In many organizations the opportunities to reduce inventory costs are often not addressed at all or are not completely exploited. If your organization needs help taking money out of inventory there are strategies you can employ today that will provide payoff.

Some of these strategies address having less active inventory, others how you acquire active inventory, and still others require transferring inventory or relying on vendors for better inventory management. Regardless of which you choose to explore, proactive inventory management policies will make a difference in your operations.

Here are Some Strategies:

1. Base Cycle Stock on Economics: For purchased products, getting a handle on your acquisition transaction costs will either reduce average inventory or allow for reducing purchasing and receiving labor. For manufactured products, if production equipment changeover costs are in a similar state, getting them in place will either reduce average inventory through shorter runs or allow for reducing changeover and receiving labor through longer runs.
2. Reduce Order Transaction Costs: In the office, use the computer to generate purchase orders (POs), EDI for PO transmission, advance shipping notices (ASNs) to reduce expediting, and historical vendor performance to prioritize expediting to lower purchasing costs. In the manufacturing plant, pre-planning; pre-staging of needed parts or materials; use of special tools or equipment; changeover initiation prior to completion of the previous run; teamwork and work-division; maintaining equipment temperatures; and minimizing QA / QC work all reduce cycle stock inventory. In the distribution center (DC), pallet manifest-based receiving processes, counting scales, statistics-based inspection and checking, bar code scanners for data entry, certifying key vendors to eliminate receiving functions, and stocking forward storage locations first and reserve locations second can all reduce purchase transaction costs and cycle stock accordingly. Purchase transaction costs are not normally SKU-specific. However, reflecting any extraordinarily low receiving costs associated with specific SKUs will serve to reduce inventory for them. The opposite, of course, is also true.
3. Lower Inventory Holding Costs: Improve space utilization in leased, contract, or public warehouses (or to minimize or delay expansion of owned facilities) through narrow aisle handling equipment, mezzanines, layout, or more appropriate storage modes.