David Weil is a professor of social policy and economics at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University where he also served as Dean from 2017-2022. Prior to that, he was the Peter and Deborah Wexler Professor of Management at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. He was appointed by President Barack Obama to be the Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor and was the first Senate confirmed head of that agency in a decade. He led the Wage and Hour Division from 2014 to January 2017. Weil is an internationally recognized expert in employment and labor market policy.
A young entrepreneur owns her own janitorial services franchise where she is both owner and emplo... more A young entrepreneur owns her own janitorial services franchise where she is both owner and employee. She receives contracts for work from a regional franchisor who oversees her franchise, which in turn is part of a large, national franchisor that provides all of her contracts, defines the geographic boundaries of her franchise, and sets quality and performance standards, as well as the rate of pay for her jobs. A maid works in a hotel owned by a Real Estate Investment Trust that is her employer of record. She is evaluated and supervised on a daily basis and her hours and payroll are managed by staff of a national third-party hotel management company, but she follows daily procedures regarding cleaning, room set-up, overall pace, and quality standards established by the international hotel chain whose name the property bears. An employee of a temporary labour agency works under the direction of supervisors of a national logistics company. That logistics company, in turn, has been hired by an international retailer to operate one of its major distribution centres. The logistics company and the temporary agency hired by it follow the detailed procedures created by the retailer and evaluate the performance of the temporary agency workforce based on their ability to meet those standards.
As retailers adopt lean retailing practices, manufacturers are feeling the pinch. Retailers no lo... more As retailers adopt lean retailing practices, manufacturers are feeling the pinch. Retailers no longer place large seasonal orders for goods in advance-instead, they require ongoing replenishment of stock, forcing manufacturers to predict demand and then hold substantial inventories indefinitely. Manufacturers now carry the cost of inventory risk--the possibility that demand will dry up and goods will have to be sold below cost. And as product proliferation increases, customer demand becomes harder to predict. Most manufacturers apply one inventory policy for all stock-keeping units in a product line. But the inventory demand for SKUs within the same product line can vary significantly. SKUs with high volume typically have little variation in weekly sales, while slow-selling SKUs can vary enormously in weekly sales. The greater the variation, the larger the inventory the manufacturer must hold relative to an SKU's expected weekly sales. By differentiating inventory policies at the SKU level, manufacturers can reduce inventories for the high-volume SKUs and increase them for the low-volume ones--and thereby improve the profit-ability of the entire line. SKU-level differentiation can also be applied to sourcing strategies. Instead of producing all the SKUs for a product line at a single location, either offshore at low cost or close to market at higher cost, manufacturers can typically do better by going for a mixed allocation. Low-variation goods should be produced mainly offshore, while high-variation goods are best made close to markets.
This article describes how information technologies have reconfigured retailing and in turn the o... more This article describes how information technologies have reconfigured retailing and in turn the operation of a core US manufacturing industry, apparel.Lean retailers exchange point-of-sales information with their suppliers and require them to replenish orders quickly ...
... as the support of our families through-out this intensive project. Understanding the scope of... more ... as the support of our families through-out this intensive project. Understanding the scope of changes in these linked industries and their implications more generally would not have been possible without such cooperation. Cambridge, Massachusetts Frederick H. Abernathy ...
A young entrepreneur owns her own janitorial services franchise where she is both owner and emplo... more A young entrepreneur owns her own janitorial services franchise where she is both owner and employee. She receives contracts for work from a regional franchisor who oversees her franchise, which in turn is part of a large, national franchisor that provides all of her contracts, defines the geographic boundaries of her franchise, and sets quality and performance standards, as well as the rate of pay for her jobs. A maid works in a hotel owned by a Real Estate Investment Trust that is her employer of record. She is evaluated and supervised on a daily basis and her hours and payroll are managed by staff of a national third-party hotel management company, but she follows daily procedures regarding cleaning, room set-up, overall pace, and quality standards established by the international hotel chain whose name the property bears. An employee of a temporary labour agency works under the direction of supervisors of a national logistics company. That logistics company, in turn, has been hired by an international retailer to operate one of its major distribution centres. The logistics company and the temporary agency hired by it follow the detailed procedures created by the retailer and evaluate the performance of the temporary agency workforce based on their ability to meet those standards.
As retailers adopt lean retailing practices, manufacturers are feeling the pinch. Retailers no lo... more As retailers adopt lean retailing practices, manufacturers are feeling the pinch. Retailers no longer place large seasonal orders for goods in advance-instead, they require ongoing replenishment of stock, forcing manufacturers to predict demand and then hold substantial inventories indefinitely. Manufacturers now carry the cost of inventory risk--the possibility that demand will dry up and goods will have to be sold below cost. And as product proliferation increases, customer demand becomes harder to predict. Most manufacturers apply one inventory policy for all stock-keeping units in a product line. But the inventory demand for SKUs within the same product line can vary significantly. SKUs with high volume typically have little variation in weekly sales, while slow-selling SKUs can vary enormously in weekly sales. The greater the variation, the larger the inventory the manufacturer must hold relative to an SKU's expected weekly sales. By differentiating inventory policies at the SKU level, manufacturers can reduce inventories for the high-volume SKUs and increase them for the low-volume ones--and thereby improve the profit-ability of the entire line. SKU-level differentiation can also be applied to sourcing strategies. Instead of producing all the SKUs for a product line at a single location, either offshore at low cost or close to market at higher cost, manufacturers can typically do better by going for a mixed allocation. Low-variation goods should be produced mainly offshore, while high-variation goods are best made close to markets.
This article describes how information technologies have reconfigured retailing and in turn the o... more This article describes how information technologies have reconfigured retailing and in turn the operation of a core US manufacturing industry, apparel.Lean retailers exchange point-of-sales information with their suppliers and require them to replenish orders quickly ...
... as the support of our families through-out this intensive project. Understanding the scope of... more ... as the support of our families through-out this intensive project. Understanding the scope of changes in these linked industries and their implications more generally would not have been possible without such cooperation. Cambridge, Massachusetts Frederick H. Abernathy ...
Uploads