Business social media forums

[mark_mnc1]

I was wondering if anyone out there knows of any social media site for business people that has a BBS/forum like this one?  Of course the main one is linkedin and Ive been a part of that but it seems pretty worthless and theres no forum to post questions in (that I know of at least).  Technorati is pretty popular but its really only for the I.T. field, right?  I'm mainly concerned with the operations management field.  Thanks.

Mark

[LTKoblinsky]

Or you could just talk to some of us here....I'm sort of an all around manager for a small food manufacturing firm out of Oklahoma at the moment. I will need to find some work in the Manch area if anyone knows anyone who is hiring. Sakal CAI?

[mark_mnc1]

Sure i suppose I can bring it up here.  I did more searching for a kind of website for business professionals that was free to use and a forum like this one but couldn't find much of anything.  Theres a shitload of tutorial business start up or marketing sites, pay sites, and business news sites but one with this format would be the best.

So your in the manufacturing field and planning on moving the N.H.?  Very cool.  Ideally I would like to be up there myself but need the job here to make enough money to be able to move up there...or just a good enough job offer there. My main field has been in logistics/distribution...with some manufacturing details... but if anyone out there is willing to find a way, or has found a way, to build a motor based on static electricity I would absolutely love to be part of that business endeavor.   I just hope in this real life case that inventor/entreprenuer doesn't have his lifeblood drained by him.  Personally, Ive had just about enough drained from me.

I've been in the field for 4-5 years and currently I work as a contractor in a major distribution center but I've been studying a ton on the side to find a supervisor or management role and have read up on lean methodology, statistical process control for six sigma/root cause analysis (but I don't have a certification belt), the theory of constraints, performance benchmarks, ERP and general supply chain management but its just all from books I bought off of amazon.   Do you recommend any specific books?  I don't have the money for certification courses but I'm not sure if I just want to keep buying books.  Do you think just buying and reading books is a good move?     

[LTKoblinsky]

Sure i suppose I can bring it up here.  I did more searching for a kind of website for business professionals that was free to use and a forum like this one but couldn't find much of anything.  Theres a shitload of tutorial business start up or marketing sites, pay sites, and business news sites but one with this format would be the best.

So your in the manufacturing field and planning on moving the N.H.?  Very cool.  Ideally I would like to be up there myself but need the job here to make enough money to be able to move up there...or just a good enough job offer there. My main field has been in logistics/distribution...with some manufacturing details... but if anyone out there is willing to find a way, or has found a way, to build a motor based on static electricity I would absolutely love to be part of that business endeavor.   I just hope in this real life case that inventor/entreprenuer doesn't have his lifeblood drained by him.  Personally, Ive had just about enough drained from me.

I've been in the field for 4-5 years and currently I work as a contractor in a major distribution center but I've been studying a ton on the side to find a supervisor or management role and have read up on lean methodology, statistical process control for six sigma/root cause analysis (but I don't have a certification belt), the theory of constraints, performance benchmarks, ERP and general supply chain management but its just all from books I bought off of amazon.   Do you recommend any specific books?  I don't have the money for certification courses but I'm not sure if I just want to keep buying books.  Do you think just buying and reading books is a good move?     

While the certs will help you get that second look on a resume and application, having practical knowledge and an open mind are by far the best assets you could have. The idea of studying on your own for self improvement is wonderful and employers would love that. My company uses ideas like mean methodology, benchmarks, and other processes, but they become so integrated, you hardly think of them that way after a while ; they become "the way it's done."

My job focuses mainly on logistics and supply. I'm trying to integrate a warehouse management system and a transportation management system into our processes to provide extra capacity for growth. I do some quality control, minor HR duties, light IT work, and even a bit of sales if I happen to pick up the phone. A side project I'm (and soon was) working on here is developing a new market that already counts for 3.5% of our business in its first year. I'm hoping to use this experience to find a similar job in the Manchester/Boston area. I feel like working in a small business (around 20 employees) has really helped me grasp a big picture view of processes that college never quite could, which will help in larger firms if I end up working at one.

BTW, does Monster.com or other job hunting sites not have forums?

[mark_mnc1]

You know I was wondering myself what on earth happened to monster.com a few years ago.  They used to be a major company with commercials all the time, everywhere, I'm sure the #1 job searching site but now its a joke. In my opinion, its horrible to view and get your eyes and mind off of all of the advertisements and clutter they have.  I find by far now the best two job search engines are meta search engines-indeed.com and simplyhired.com.  Theres still too much junk on the site for me but a lot easier to use and theres a ton more jobs available...not even close to monster any more.  I've looked but haven't found a forum on any of these major job search engines yet.  

If you’re looking to move to the SE N.H. area Amazon has a fulfillment center (Amazonspeak for distribution center) in the Nashua area and they call it Bos1 (for the Boston area-just like the two facilities I work at are Ind1 and Ind2 near Indy, In.) From what I know they have two kinds of facilities-sort, for smaller products and non-sort for bigger products (like tv monitors, skis, diapers, etc) and I'm not sure what the Bos-1 site is but you might want to look into applying there for an Operations or Senior Operations Manager position..it sounds like you have the experience for it.    

I guess with the company you are at now and the W.M.S. system you’re looking into-what products or options are you looking into?  Ive read a little into SAP's ERP (enterprise resource planning) and that seems to be able to encompass nearly everything a senior level manager could want and I think you can integrate WMS in it.  My only experience with WMS was tracking product/order through our D.C. system from receiving, R.F, scanning, any testing that might go on with it, storage, and shipping but it was cool to use.  ERP from what I know can do it all from the perspective I was at-regular employee, trainer, and fill-in lead.  It can assign or recommend tasks to workers, record data and offer graphs and charts for analytics, and has modules for engineering, production, H.R., purchasing, and every department you can think of.  I’ve heard Oracle offers an ERP software package but SAP, a German company, looks like it has the best ERP package out there.  

Since I’ve worked at all major fortune 500 companies (and the govt) at a low level I really don’t have experience with the finance or sales side of things or even capacity planning/demand management that a G.M. would.  I just see things at the lower levels and have a million ideas for possible improvement that will never get heard-even simple things like work more in tune with product manufacturers, trucking companies, suppliers, etc to make sure they are all on the same wavelength and all working to grow help your company as well as themselves.  The book I read a while back that kickstarted me reading up more on ops management was a business novel called “The Goal” by Elijahu Goldratt who brought up the idea of the Theory of Contraints, managing bottlenecks in any business operation as well as using logical trees to uncover problems not seen by most managers.  

Mark