Profit centers

Sysco, based in Houston, Texas, is the largest food marketing and distribution company in North America. SYSCO sells annually over 30 billion of food, related products, and services to over 400,000 customers through 157 separate profit centers which employ in total 46,000 employees. The magnitude of SYSCO s operations is mind-boggling. It sells over 300,000 products to over 400,000 customers and on a daily basis delivers almost 4 million cases of food and related foodservice products to 360,000 customers, 99% on-time and defect-free. Over one-half of SYSCO s 46,000 employees are hourly warehouse and delivery people, and it employs 12,000 sales and business development employees. 

The decision to implement GLPs in a captive or corporate laboratory is not very different from the decision in a contract-independent laboratory, especially if the lab is run as a separate business unit or profit center. In making the decision, however, management must take additional factors into account. 

The ecological and economic consequences of recovering 4500 lbs. per month of a 32% ferro-nickel alloy are impressive. This material can be saleable feedstock to industries producing wrought stainless steel, stainless steel castings, and high-nickel cast irons. Instead of a cost and liability, we now have a profit center. 

Providing services is a field of increasing importance, often initially forced by a switch from a cost to a profit center mentality... 

Having taken that second step, service companies faced new challenges how could products and services be clearly specified to make them marketable Which products/services should be run as cost and which ones as profit centers How should they react to their customers new freedom in contracting How should... 

To capture the business opportunities, the procurement team then needs to build a holistic business plan. The business plan mentality is critical, since it will provide the organization with a clear proposal and basis for the decision to allocate necessary resources to the planned efforts. Organizations that have pursued such an approach have created the prerequisites for performance transparency and service-oriented behavior. Possible outcomes depending on the needs of the company and the capabilities developed within procurement can range from a strong procurement network with its own profit and loss statement and balanced scorecard to the creation of a market-oriented profit center unit. The business plan should be focused primarily on value creation rather than cost savings, and should consist of two distinct parts ... 

Some hospital units in Europe have recently become more commercially minded and have set themselves up as profit centers within their own hospitals. As financial pressures increase, with the increased cost of medical technology and the unfavorable demographics of an aging population, we would expect more hospitals to go along this route. 

P. Modak, Waste Minimization A Practical Guide to Cleaner Production and Enhanced Profitability, Center for Environmental Education, Ahmedabad, India, 1995. 

Membrane research and development started in Du Pont in 1962 and culminated in the introduction of the first B-9 Permasep permeator for desalination of brackish water by reverse osmosis (RO) in 1969. The membrane in this B-9 Permasep module consisted of aramid hollow fibers. In 1969, proponents of RO technology had ambitious dreams and hopes. Today, RO is a major desalination process used worldwide to provide potable water from brackish and seawater feeds. Du Font s membrane modules for RO are sold under the trademark Permasep permeators. The RO business is a virtually autonomous profit center that resides in the Polymer Products Department. The growth and success of the Permasep products business is a direct result of Du Font s sustained research and development commitment to polyamides, a commitment that dates back to the 1930 s and the classic polymer researches of Wallace H. Carothers. Since 1969, improved and new Permasep permeators have been introduced six times, as shown in Table I. 

While what we have said up to now was aimed at corporate level innovation-invention and development, the same philosophies apply to individual operating lonits. An operating profit center can handle new things on the same beisis of separating day-to-day repetitive activities from the untried experimental ones and achieve good results. Usually the scope of activity will be limited to improvements and additions to existing product lines, as opposed to exploring fields in which the company has limited experience. 

Business Opportunity and Profit Center 1588 6.2. Overview of CMMS/EAM System Functionality 1606... 

An important look at maintenance management for the new millennium and the emerging role of a chief maintenance officer (CMO) and new technologies, will be presented. The chapter will help the new and experienced IE, the engineering manager, the operations manager, as well as the CEO, to understand better their own maintenance operation. It will outline specific methodologies to help improve mission-essential maintenance operations. It will also help aU to view the maintenance process as a profit center and key contributor to total operations success... 

The maintenance process should be viewed as an internal business opportunity. Since Tompkins Associates introduced the concept of maintenance as a profit center (Tompkins 1999), this modem view of maintenance has emerged in literature and in practice. Business process continuous improvement (BPCI) and most of the traditional IE principles have application to maintenance operations. When we consider that there are countless contract service providers for all types of maintenance services competing to replace or supplement internal maintenance departments, it becomes apparent that internal maintenance with the help of IE techniques can be improved. 

Today s information technology for computerized maintenance management offers the maintenance leader an exceptional tool for managing and controlling the maintenance process as an internal business and profit center. However, maintenance surveys and benchmark evaluations conducted by Tompkins Associates and others validate that poor utilization of existing CMMS/EAM systems is a major improvement opportunity. 

A revolution cannot be managed, it must be led. An individual who is profit-centered yet understanding of the fact that people assets are the most important assets will lead new millennium maintenance. The evolution of a chief maintenance officer (CMO) will occur in both large and small operations. Successful maintenance leaders will be profit centered, establish strategic maintenance plans that are integrated with the business plan, and validate return on investment with effective measurement processes. 

Contract maintenance will continue to grow. The core requirement for maintenance will be even more important in the next millennium due to technology advances. Organizations will focus on core competencies. Some forget the core requirement for maintenance and also lose their core competencies to do effective maintenance. Profit-centered contract maintenance providers wiU consume internal maintenance operations that continue a cost-centered approach. In-house maintenance operations will continue to lose when they are unable to replenish and/or maintain their core competencies in maintenance. 

The neglect of the past and the future will be overcome by services from a growing number of profit-centered maintenance providers that clearly understand how to provide value-added maintenance service at a profit. Neglect of the past can also be overcome internally by the emergence of an internal CMO who can lead maintenance forwmd to profitabUity as if he or she owned the internal maintenance business. 

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