Building better businesses - practical workshops for SMEs

Six evening workshops - Thursdays 2, 9 and 23 February, Thursday 8, 15 and 22 March 2012, Cambridge

These workshops are designed for functional managers employed in small and medium sized companies (SMEs), to provide a range of business knowledge and skills tailored to SMEs working in the manufacturing, science, technology and engineering sectors.

These evening workshops will assist senior managers of small and medium sized manufacturing companies in the development and growth of their business. Each workshop focuses on an important issue related to winning orders or managing limited resources, and aims to help senior managers understand how to:

• develop superior order-winning capabilities
• use focused, structured approaches to improve key enabling capabilities

Organised by the University of Cambridge Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), delegates will work as individuals and in groups, using real-life scenarios to explore different challenges and outcomes. There will be plenty of opportunity for questions and answers as well as opportunity for discussion with other delegates.

The workshops provide participants with the business knowledge and skills they need to contribute quickly and effectively in an SME environment

Who should attend?

The workshops are designed for General and Factory Managers as well as managers of manufacturing, operations and production and production supervisors. A certificate of attendance will be sent to participating attendees.

Presenters

The events will be delivered by the IfM's industrial practitioners, who have worked with over 500 companies in the last ten years.

Workshop Themes

• Marketing - Thursday 2 February
• Quality - Thursday 9 February
• Unique value and innovation - Thursday 23 February
• Successful product pricing - Thursday 8 March
• Supply chain - Thursday 15 March
• Delivery performance - Thursday 22 March

Each workshop will start at 17.00 hrs and close at 20.00 hrs, with refreshments provided

Marketing - 2 February 2012

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This workshop explores how to develop and communicate value to your customers, and prospective customers. The focus is on managing all aspects of communications.

• strategies to position your company and its products in your chosen markets
• distribution - how to reach your customers
• pricing strategies
• marketing communications

Quality - 9 February 2012

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This workshop focuses on how to compete on the basis of quality.

• understand and manage customers’ expectations with respect to quality
• design superior quality into products
• develop appropriate quality systems
• build understanding of quality issues across the company
• manage suppliers’ quality performance
• use performance measures to improve quality

Unique value and innovation - 23 February 2012

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This workshop is designed for manufacturing SMEs who want to compete by offering distinctive or unique value to their customers.

• develop a better understanding of what your customers value, and thus identify opportunities
• develop innovation and product development strategies
• generate ideas for new products
• prioritise and select ideas for development
• develop and introduce new products

Successful product pricing - 8 March 2012

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This workshop focuses on a critical issue for small and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs) - how to price products to win business and achieve healthy margins.

• manage the balance between margins and sales volumes
• design pricing strategies
• manage effective processes to set prices
• analyse and manage costs
• manage prices over the lifetime of products

Supply chain - 15 March 2012

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This workshop will show how to improve supply chain performance while reducing costs.

• deliver the service promise
• develop an appropriate supply chain strategy
• reduce inventory levels safely
• manage suppliers
• use performance measures to improve supply chain performance

Delivery performance - 22 March 2012

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This workshop will show how to achieve superior delivery performance.

• shape the business to deliver customer requirements
• minimise lead time
• improve the accuracy of delivery promises
• select and manage suppliers
• minimise the cost to serve customers
• build flexibility into the process to cope with changes in demand and unexpected events

Venue

The events will run at the IfM on the University’s West Cambridge Site. This offers excellent teaching facilities and easy access to the region’s transport network.

Programme

16.45 Registration
17.00 Workshop opens
20.00 Close

Booking

To book a place on-line click here, otherwise please download, print, fill and return a booking form to the address below. (download booking form)

Jo Griffiths
IfM Education and Consultancy Services Ltd
17 Charles Babbage Road
Cambridge CB3 0FS
UK

T: +44 (0)1223 766141
F: +44(0)1223 464217
E: ifm-events@eng.cam.ac.uk

Costs

Each workshop is £130.00 plus VAT.

IfM members and alumni are entitled to a 20% discount. Book to attend five of these workshops and attend the sixth at no charge.

Cancellations

Substitutions may be made at any time. Bookings cancelled less than five days prior to the event will be charged in full.