Robert Vackar

World-class manufacturing is a common catch phrase, but it's usually used even though the company has done nothing to justify the highfalutin title. Many companies have been using manufacturing resource planning (MRP), lean manufacturing, kaizen, kanban, Six Sigma systems, statistical process...

Why do some companies fail or continuously underperform? It's a complex question with as many "answers" as there are heads of industries and university scholars. In actuality, the most common reason for business failure is poor cash flow. Most organizations experience severe cash flow problems at...