Operational Efficiency
Aligning operations with strategy
Tuning the management model and governance
The organization plans and deploys its resources to achieve its strategic objectives. However, direction must be shared by all stakeholders. The management model and governance must therefore be in phase, and this is characterized by :
- A management team that understands, shares and is interested in playing its role as a transmission belt.
- Governance and the management model must be organized in such a way as to facilitate achievement of the defined plan.
New industrial trajectory
A Fresh Look at the Supply Chain, the essential pillar for smooth operations.
Rethinking the supply chain
Rethinking the supply chain, implementing lean management methods, making or having made, redesigning industrial processes
Whether in industry, the service sector, NGOs or higher education, all business sectors must at some point review their business models and adapt their production facilities accordingly.
Lean management is emerging as a key solution in this quest for efficiency. Process optimization, waste reduction and increased flexibility are becoming imperatives.
The dilemma between “doing” or “having things done” takes on a new dimension, involving careful analysis of in-house skills and outsourcing opportunities to maximize added value. Delivery methods are becoming more complex, and can become a key aspect of the customer experience (BtoC) or an important element of operational efficiency (BtoB):
- Just-in-time (JIT)
- Automated Warehousing (The use of automated systems, robots and automated conveyors) to optimize inventory management and accelerate order fulfillment processes.
- Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) and remote workshops
- Dropshipping (and sales platforms)
- Cross-chain and cross-docking
- Batch Picking and Wave Picking to reduce shipping costs
Not to mention the challenges of integrating operations:
- Between suppliers and manufacturers. Purchasing portals are becoming obsolete in these contexts, and should be replaced by specific portals enabling integrated management of operations.
- between carriers and logisticians, to ensure traceability and reduce transport costs
Redefining the Industrial Plan
This process goes far beyond the simple allocation of resources. It involves juggling a variety of issues, such as improving profitability, developing greater flexibility, reinforcing unit autonomy or, on the contrary, seeking synergies. Alignment between production and strategy is therefore key, as the possibilities are numerous.
Paradoxically, this issue applies not only to heavy industry, but to all organizations. Let’s take a look at 2 cases we worked on recently:
- International public health NGOs are increasingly developing their own R&D centers in countries such as India.
- Universities and Higher Education Establishments, once firmly rooted in a given territory (with a few exceptions, notably in the USA) and supported by the quality of their teaching staff, will have to expand into an increasingly virtual and international world.
Information systems at the heart of large organizations
With the digitization of business activities, IT is once again at the center of concerns.
Above a certain organizational size, strategy cannot be effectively implemented without the support of the IT department.
Industrial IT continues to strengthen to support new models: integration of operations between suppliers and customers, product traceability and safety, computer-aided design and integration with production, ever greater automation of the production chain and deployment of object computing (IoT), integrated planning, and so on.
Interaction with digital technology is becoming the rule, and some sectors are having to rethink themselves entirely. We’ve already talked about the education system, but it’s the entire public sector that needs to make a 180° turn, with some incredible successes already underway (e.g., online tax and administrative procedures). Let’s not forget that this is the beginning of the digital revolution. Artificial intelligence is being deployed in more and more applications, and the whole service economy is about to be turned upside down.
The key is to prepare and address these issues now:
- Strategic reflection on the fundamentals of the business
- Setting up data collection, storage and processing processes
- The development of new professions around data science, and the training of employees in these new tools and new ways of working.
Systems are becoming almost mission-critical, so logically security is a growing concern. Infrastructures are now shared, with all the attendant benefits, but also a whole new approach to risk management.
Our consultants support senior management and their IT departments in these fundamental reflections. We draw up strategic reviews, realign roadmaps, and help you make the necessary transformations and changes.
