When in doubt, throw it out? Maybe not....

Original post:  Nov 25, 2014

Every year, Americans discard tons of perfectly good food. Much of this waste can be traced to general confusion caused by the "sell by" or "use by" dates printed on most foods.

Did you know that infant formula is the only food manufacturer legally required to print those dates? Most others print this because it helps ensure that their products are consumed when they are at or near their peak of freshness. It isn't so much that the product expires as it is less desireable.

The USDA has more information on their procedures for food and poultry at this website:  http://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/wcm/connect/19013cb7-8a4d-474c-8bd7-bda76b9defb3/Food_Product_Dating.pdf?MOD=AJPERES

Here are two clips from the document:

All of this confusion can add up to a lot of edible trash:  Food date labels may not mean what you think they mean | Harvest Public Media

With no explanation or legal definition of a “sell by,”  “use by” or “best by” date, the manufacturers decide on the date based on their own assessment – which, of course, can differ among brands.

So as the date on a package approaches, there are several options as it sits on the shelf. Grocery stores may choose to compost it, donate it, or – like many households – just throw it out. Indeed, each year a family of four in the U.S. tosses away food worth between $1,300 and $2,200, according to Jonathan Bloom, author of “American Wasteland.”

Traditionally, “sell by” dates were meant to provide information to store owners so they can rotate their stock, according to food safety specialist Londa Nwadike. “Best by” and “use by” dates were recommended for the best quality. Nwadike said these dates were intended to help shoppers know not how safe a product is but how long it has been on the market.

It’s also important to note that consuming food before its printed “best by” date isn’t a blanket of protection from illness, especially if the food hasn’t been stored, cleaned and cooked properly.

Six steps to successful supply chain collaboration

Payam Parsa at CELDi forwarded me a link to a fascinating article over the weekend. It talks about the challenges in establishing successful supply chain collaborations with your key business partners.

Here's a sobering statistic:  80% of all supply chain collaborations in the consumer packaged goods industry fail. This is true despite the best efforts of these companies who know that they are in a hypercompetitive environment where pennies can literally make the difference between survival and bankruptcy. Even with that backdrop, there is still the promise of huge potential payouts for those organizations that can transform these initiatives into success.

I thought there were three key lesson that we ought to incorporate into any future activity:

1. Turn win-lose into win-win with the right benefit sharing model
2. Select partners based on capability, strategic goals, and value potential
3. Establish a robust, joint performance-management system

For the first point, there are going to be times when the benefits are not equal for both parties. Creative solutions could help overcome that obstacle:

Here's one real-life example: a retailer and a manufacturer were able to reduce overall logistics costs between factory and store by cutting out the manufacturer's distribution centers and treating the retailer's distribution network as one integrated supply chain, from manufacturing plant to store shelf. However, the retailer's supply chain executives struggled to gain acceptance for the idea from their leadership because it resulted in the retailer carrying a far larger fraction of the logistics cost. 

Rather than shying away from such asymmetric collaborations, smart companies can make them work by agreeing on more sophisticated benefit-sharing models. These can come in the form of discounts or price increases to more fairly share increased margins or cost reductions, or they can involve compensation in other parts of the relationship. For example, when one retailer collaborated with a manufacturer on a co-branded product line, the manufacturer agreed to absorb the upfront product-development costs in return for an expanded share of the retailer's product offerings across a wider set of categories.

....

Similarly, in the product-flow improvement case described in the sidebar ("Opportunities for collaboration," below), the manufacturer provided the upfront investment in new retail-ready packaging, while its retail partner reaped most of the benefits in terms of increased availability and reduced labor costs. The two companies established a joint benefits pool and agreed to use a percentage of the savings to fund future cost-reduction efforts and a sales-improvement program.

The second point is also easily overlooked in the rush to collaborate:

The biggest potential partner might not be the best one. Many companies aim to collaborate with their largest suppliers or customers because they assume that the greatest value is to be found there. In many cases, however, this turns out not to be true. Collaboration may be of more interest to a smaller partner, which might invest more time and effort in the program than a very large one that is already juggling dozens of similar initiatives.

Finally, creating the right key performance indicators are an absolute necessity:

....By building common metrics and targets—and jointly monitoring progress—companies avoid the misaligned incentives that damage so many collaboration efforts. 

Picking the right metrics can be challenging, however, and it will inevitably involve trade-offs. In a collaboration to reduce logistics costs, for example, the partners may have to choose between a pallet configuration that's optimized to suit a retailer's restocking processes, which will reduce in-store labor costs, and one that optimizes truck fill, which will reduce transportation costs from distribution center to retail store.

How to overcome these potential conflicts? The trick is to keep things simple by picking the smallest possible number of metrics required to give a picture of the collaboration's overall performance, and then to manage those metrics closely, with regular joint reviews and problem-solving sessions to address trade-offs. The real power of any performance-management system comes from this frequent, robust dialogue between partners, yet this is also the element most commonly ignored or underemphasized by collaborating companies.

Here is the link to the original source article: Six steps to successful supply chain collaboration – Strategy – CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly

Let it snow, let it snow, make it stop!!

Original post:  Nov 20, 2014

Buffalo, NY just endured a crazy snowstorm that buried much of the city under white powder. There are more storms headed their way.

Here in Mansfield, the storm that most people remember is known as the "Blizzard of '78". Two feet of snow paralyzed Boston. Abandoned vehicles blocked the main freeways and it took several days for the city to return to normal. The storm that is currently tearing through Buffalo is actually dumping more than three times as much snow as we endured during that Blizzard!

Believe it or not, that isn't the worst storm to ever hit Buffalo. Here are some of the heaviest snowstorms in US history. I can't even imagine what it would be like to have nearly 200" drop at once:

Teachers as performers

Original post:  Nov 20, 2014

Earlier this week, I heard a radio story talking about how some teachers are incorporating performance into their routines. They are trying to move away from the standard lecture format into more of an active, theatrical style.

My wife is a teacher and she agrees with the basic idea. Teaching is a difficult job even when you have engaged, willing students. This often thankless task becomes even more challenging when you layer complicated subject matter on top of disinterested pupils. If you can find different ways to make your material come alive for your target audience, I think you can surprise them with how much they can absorb!

There are many situations in our own work lives where we will have to teach others. It may be centered on a specific role or job. It might be informing a larger team about our role in a project. It might include a briefing to a steering committee or your sponsoring executive. Whatever the case, there is something to be learned by adopting the tactics in this article and "channeling your inner Springsteen". Of course, you can always substitute your preferred role model!

We may not all reach the heights of the fictional teacher Robin Williams plays in "Dead Poets Society." That doesn't mean we can't be inspiring in our own way.

Here is the link to the full radio story:  Channeling Springsteen: Teachers As Performers : NPR Ed : NPR

OK, but how much is it?

Original post:  Nov 19, 2014

One remedy that is often proposed in healthcare is to make it more responsive to market forces. In theory, the customer (i.e., the patient) should make informed choices and select the most cost-effective care. Setting aside the situations where you have a complete inability to choose (e.g., an emergency like a heart attack or broken leg), you should select the lowest cost provider for your procedure. That's the theory. The practice is much more uneven.

KQED in San Francisco recently collaborated with a startup called ClearHealthCosts.com. The idea was to crowdsource the prices that people paid for specific medical procedures. Hundreds of people have shared their experiences. Here is a sample from the article:

We thought we would find variation, and indeed we did. In California, commercial insurers paid from $128 to $694 for a screening mammogram. In Los Angeles,one woman's insurer paid $600 more than the lowest-cost screening mammogram reported in the area. "I'm sure every woman who's had a mammogram had the exact same experience I did," this woman said. "It was a friendly technician, but I don't think that's worth maybe 600 extra dollars."

In lower-back MRIs, we found that for CPT code 72148, insurers paid from $467 to $1,567. But when we looked beyond commercial insurers, we found even greater variation — from a low of $255 to a self-pay price of $6,221 at an academic medical center. That $255 MRI was paid by Medicare, and was just a fraction of the facility's charge of $2,450.

But the variation doesn't stop there. Yet another person went to the same facility and was charged $603 for the same procedure, same CPT code. This patient had commercial insurance but paid the entire amount out of pocket, the patient wrote, since "I had not yet met my deductible."

While price is certainly a major factor in the equation, quality is also a key component. You won't save any money if the procedure that you have is ineffective and you have to have a return visit to fix the original work! Unfortunately, it's really difficult to compare and little data exists.

Here is the link to the full article:  In California, That MRI Will Cost You $255 — Or Maybe $6,221 : Shots - Health News : NPR

For more on this topic, here is a link to the Masachusetts law that went into effect January 1, 2014 which mandates that hospitals must reveal their costs up front:

Price shopping....for healthcare?

Here is a link to a WSJ article comparing prices in Southern California:  How much will that be?

Maintain, don't gain

Original post:  Nov 18, 2014

With the holiday season fast approaching, there will be ample opportunity for us to overindulge. Many of our gatherings will feature vast quantities of food. With a nibble here and a handful there, we may suddenly find ourselves well over our standard caloric intake.

Here in Mansfield, there is a program sponsored by the Wellness Group called "Maintain, Don't Gain". This holiday challenge invites us to keep track of our current weight and keep the extra pounds off.

One of the best ways to watch what you eat is to understand how many calories are in a standard serving. There is a new app called Calorific. It shows pictures of 200 calorie servings of various foods.

On the positive side, it would be challenging to eat 200 calories worth of lettuce:

2000 calories might almost get you a full bagel:

Sadly, the donut does not fare as well. I think it would be just enough to make me mad:

Here is a link to an article with more photos of different foods:  What 200 Calories of Every Food Looks Like - The Atlantic

Best of luck as you navigate through the rest of 2014!

Classical Cartoon Festival

Original post:  Nov 3, 2014

Over the weekend, we attended the WCBR Classical Cartoon Festival. It was held at Symphony Hall in Boston. I had no idea this was the 16th time the event had been held!

There were some incredible demonstrations of all types of different music forms that kids do not normally encounter. We sat through an amazing marimba concert played by pre-teens. There were snippets of musical theater and opera and the Handel/Haydn society. My boys even got to try their hands (or lips) on the trumpet, trombone, clarinet and violin. While I don't have any budding Mozarts, it was wonderful to watch their reactions as they were able to make some joyful noises with these instruments. Well, I suppose you could call it joyful. Some might say it resembled a wounded animal, but that would just be mean.

Of course, the most popular event was the cartoon screening. We all laughed at these classic shorts. It might have been the first time for my boys, but it was fun to relive these famous laughs (especially with hundreds of others in a wonderful hall):

Here is a clip of the trombone concert we enjoyed: