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TQM - High Margin Craft Beer

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  • TQM - High Margin Craft Beer

    Craft Brewers create high-quality beer, but can have low-quality organizational processes. I am looking for Craft Brewers, Distributors and Retailers that have used TQM principles to better their supply chains or are looking for ways to increase the quality of the business behind their beer. I am interested in researching the problems and solutions the Craft Brewing Industry has come across in this paradigm of quality control.

    Cheers!

    Bill Bensing

  • #2
    Tqm

    Originally posted by Bill_NHKLLC
    Craft Brewers create high-quality beer, but can have low-quality organizational processes. I am looking for Craft Brewers, Distributors and Retailers that have used TQM principles to better their supply chains or are looking for ways to increase the quality of the business behind their beer. I am interested in researching the problems and solutions the Craft Brewing Industry has come across in this paradigm of quality control.

    Cheers!

    Bill Bensing

    Hey Bill, interesting question. If you find the answer will you post here?
    Fred

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    • #3
      Originally posted by Fred Scheer
      Hey Bill, interesting question. If you find the answer will you post here?
      Fred
      Fred,

      Right now i'm putting together a reaserach methodology so I may use this topic for my Master thesis and basis for my PH.D. Do you have an interest in being studied?

      Comment


      • #4
        We're a off premise/on premise retailer-restauranteur and would be in interested in getting more info on what you're looking for. Shoot me a PM if you'd like to chat.
        Owner
        Grind Modern Burger
        PostModern Brewers
        Boise, ID

        Comment


        • #5
          Suppliers

          Don't know if this is going to help or not, but. I think one of the things that is going to help me in the long run is the use of as many local products and businesses and possible, and refraining from large contract driven out of state suppliers. I constantly see this when it comes to Hops, that brewers are locked into a contract to purchase X amount of hops for Y lenght of time regardless of thier need for the hops. I see this type of customer/supplier relationship as costly and wasteful for the customer. There are scores of local grain, malt and hop producers and why not tap your local resourses. Your local producers will be far more willing to work with in terms of your needs and wants as their success is more intwined with yours. This keeps yours and their costs down. Yes this is kind of a green business model and it is micro economics but it's true and it works. Being a small guy I'm not big on the huge supply chains list of customers, but the hop grow down the street a mile will smile and shake my hand everytime he see me coming.
          Last edited by gray31; 04-20-2013, 11:38 PM.
          Sleiche!
          Bill
          Busted knuckles Brewing Co.

          Comment


          • #6
            From a retailer/restauranteur perspective I don't know that you'll find much in the way of helpful info. Because of the way the 3 tier system regulates the purchase and sale of alcohol there just simply aren't enough options available to us to have an impact on our operations
            Owner
            Grind Modern Burger
            PostModern Brewers
            Boise, ID

            Comment


            • #7
              TQM requires accurate quantitative evaluation. Data costs money, and I doubt in a small brewery the time and effort it takes to gather data and analyze small improvements is worth the gains in productivity.

              A big reason TQM techniques worked in Japan was that employees had jobs for life. Employees could easily say "I'm wasting my time on these tasks" or even "my position is redundant." In the States, workers don't really want to tell their boss they're redundant.

              Small breweries are stuck with a small number of suppliers, so I don't see a lot of room to substantially improve their inbound logistics. Outbound logistics are hamstrung by the 3-tier system, like Brewtopian mentioned.

              I'm sure some of the TQM principles could be applied, but I'd be surprised to see large gains as a result.
              Last edited by nateo; 04-21-2013, 08:56 AM.

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              • #8
                I hate this kind of shit. this is exactly why I quit my job and started a brewery.

                Having said that good luck and have a nice day.

                Tim
                Tim Eichinger
                Visit our website blackhuskybrewing.com

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by callmetim View Post
                  I hate this kind of shit. this is exactly why I quit my job and started a brewery.

                  Having said that good luck and have a nice day.

                  Tim
                  What an odd thing to say.

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                  • #10
                    I say odd things more than I should but I was in management for over 30 years with part of that time working for an HR consulting company. it gets to the point where rather than just using solid management principles they get renamed and rebranded even though its the same old shit. TQM was started by Deming as part of the Marshall Plan in Japan. It worked so well that they crushed the US automotive industry for a few years until we started using it. Excellent stuff. But when they start having Black Belts and Saison and just making stuff up it gets old. Why not a teenage mutant ninja turtle?

                    it's my cross to bear but it is obviously a sensitive thing for me.

                    like I said good luck I am sure it will work well my only caution is don't get to caught up in the jargon.

                    Tim
                    Tim Eichinger
                    Visit our website blackhuskybrewing.com

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                    • #11
                      Tim - Your second response made a lot of sense, your first response, not so much. You obviously have an opinion to share on the topic, informed by your experience, but that doesn't come across when you just say "that shit sucks."

                      I agree most of it comes across as gimmicky. Every one of those (Six Sigma, Lean, TQM, etc.) have their blind evangelists. No solution is one-size-fits all, but there are insights you can learn from each of them.

                      I would definitely not hire a Six Sigma Blackbelt to "revolutionize my paradigm."

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