How do you ensure your manufacturing operations strategy is always aligned, effective and efficient?

Keeping your manufacturing strategy on point is all about staying on your toes. Keep doing regular check-ins to make sure the strategy still fits with what the company needs. Watch key numbers like how fast you're making stuff and how often you're nailing or missing customer expectations. Don't just look at the data, talk to your customers and your team to get the full picture. Stay on top of what competitors are doing and don't let your tech get old and clunky. And keep an eye on costs; sometimes saving money in one spot can mess things up in another. Flexibility is key, so be ready to switch things up if needed. Keep all departments in the loop so everyone's on the same page.

Secure people in the organisation understand the strategy, how everyone can contribute? Show examples and best practices, reward performances and create passion. A lot of small steps will make the strategy become alive. Measure the temperature of the climate in the organisation and celebrate. A lot of tools for continous Improvement exist so ensure people understand how to use them. Remember it is people behind the success.

To ensure a consistently successful manufacturing strategy, focus on goal alignment, data-driven decisions, lean practices, cross-functional collaboration, tech adoption, employee development, risk management, customer-centricity, strategy reviews, benchmarking, sustainability, feedback loops, KPI tracking, and adaptability. These principles foster a culture of continuous improvement, guaranteeing the enduring alignment, effectiveness, and efficiency of your operations strategy.

It's important to know where you're starting from to realistically understand where you can go and what adjustments need to be made to get there. With a SWOT analysis, you can identify the areas already thriving, weaknesses that are breaking your progress, opportunities for growth and development, as well as potential roadblocks in the future. This can apply to manufacturing, logistics, cost management, and many other areas of operations. In a larger organization, asking leadership to prepare this for each respective area of business is an excellent way to evaluate current needs and where extra support may be required.

A good distinction between qualitative and quantitative goals is one point here. Quantitative goals (budget, production,...) are set to be reached. Qualitative goals (strategy, SWOT,...) are to help understand what we would like to achieve and can be adjusted according to the changing conditions, new players, shortage of raw materials,... Qualitative indicators are important to understand why a quantitative objective is not reach, or outperformed.

Visions brings Organize planning throughout process. [ During the process, the organization creates a vision, articulates its purpose, and sets strategic goals that are long-term and forward-focused.]

In my opinion, a coherent and clear definition of the business model is just as important as the strategy so that everyone in Operations can make the right adjustments ... ... and please don't forget systematic Operations innovation in order to keep an eye on the ever faster developments in the technologies relevant to Operations ... ... and please regularly and not ad hoc when the question comes from the management ...

Defining objectives is important, and they must align with core concepts and vision of the company, but they should also be measurable. This is one of the biggest opportunities for most operations! Easy to say "grow the bottom line by 20%," but what does that mean? It may be a metric, it may be a milestone, it may be a completed task-- regardless, any objective is useless without a way to measure it. Stick to SMART when defining objectives and you're already on the way to reaching any goal.

Once new benchmarks are identified, make a list of pragmatic objectives along with relevant costs and timelines. Prioritise your objectives based on achievability, expected results, costs, dependency on previous/ subsequent processes and disruption in existing operations.

Every change is a project with a defined outcome. Make a comprehensive project charter outlining objectives, team/ resource allocation etc. Identify a critical path of execution and have a contingency plan in hand.

Executing a communication plan is key to strategy success. Utilize a digital dashboard for real-time updates accessible to stakeholders. Engage teams with interactive AR/VR workshops for a deeper understanding of the vision. Deploy AI-driven tools to analyze employee feedback, refining communication. Introduce company podcasts or vlogs for authentic storytelling. Use collaborative platforms for real-time planning and interaction. Train strategy champions from various departments for consistent messaging. And, employ gamification for strategy adoption, rewarding active participants. Effective communication thrives on clarity, consistency, and engagement.

Good communication is key ensures that stakeholders are well-informed about progress, challenges, and performance metrics, to keep and hold everyone accountable for their contributions to the success. With social medias communication has never been so easy but it's drawback is that it is anonymous and often direct communication is forgotten. Meetings, face to face discussions are essential. With lockdowns, home working, human contact can have been lost, a "Fear of Missing Out" culture can have spread amongst the Company that must be fought to preserve the identity and ensure sharing of a common vision.

Communication is the key. Have a couple of brainstorming cum training sessions with all stakeholders to share the required information. Any project team requires the following three things to achieve the desired objective/ goal:- 1. Clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities 2. Knowlege about efforts required, a timeline of execution and expected results 3. Allocation of resources It is still possible that despite the above factors, the team may fail to achieve the end objective if it lacks human touch ie synergy and cohesiveness.

Kouzes and Posner in The Leadership Challenge reminds us to Enable Others to Act when implementing a change strategy. Even a step within Kotter’s change model is labeled Empower Others to Act. To be effective in executing a plan, team members from all levels of the organization, especially those informal leaders, need to be involved in the planning and implementation process. In doing so you have a better chance of understanding and planning for the resistance your change effort will meet.

Changes take time to settle down (trust your team) and if you know it, you are already halfway to your goal. PRMs (more frequent at the beginning and reduced progressively) are important to monitor progress and do course corrections when necessary. Using advanced tools to interpret data and fetch important information is critical. All contingency planning you did while preparing the project charter will be helpful to minimise/ prevent unexpected delays. If planning is comprehensive and detailed, only fine-tuning will be required. Any major change will be a new project in itself.

Walk the floor, talk to your team and see for yourself. This should be underpinned by KPIs structured to measure critical performance figures such as OTIF.

Risk base plannings on machine maintenance & spare parts stock to reduce down time must be considered to keep manufacturing operations aligned & efficient. Quality failure of raw material also need a back up plan. Multi skilled workers could maintain efficiency during unwanted absence of workers.

Aligning manufacturing operations to business strategy is key part when it comes to organizational success. Manufacturing strategy should be aligned and derived from business strategy. While crafting strategy, you must check what is in pipeline from competition?What are new technologies being implemented in industry to foster effeciency, productivity and speed of output? Are new technology or existing machinery models can adopt and work with new products? Are there any changes coming in supplies, especially those of automation parts? (models tend to be replaced very quickly) New trends being introduced in market can be manufactured on existing machines? Communication with stakeholders and floorshop is key so that no confusion arises.

My daily work taught me the importance of risk management a good plan should a clear identification and communication about potential risks and which measures can help in mitigating them, anticipating them. One must adopt proactive approach and continuous improvement quality management system. Disruptions of operations can be costly and damageable. It is thereafter essential to have an adapted crisis management and ensure communication plan inform promptly the employees, the stakeholders to help minimize confusion, ensure a coordinated response and take the correct corrective actions.

1. Lean manufacturing principles: Implementing lean practices such as just-in-time production 2. Regular performance monitoring:Regularly review these KPIs and make necessary adjustments to ensure alignment with your strategy. 3. Flexibility and agility: Ensure that your manufacturing operations are flexible and agile enough to adapt to changes. 4. Technology integration: Embrace technology such as automation, data analytics, and IoT to optimize processes, improve decision-making. 5. Employee training and engagement: Engage your workforce in decision-making processes to foster a culture of continuous improvement and alignment with your manufacturing strategy.

De entrada algo que me sirvió mucho es la aplicación de hoshin kanri. Para asegurar que todos en la organización comprendan y trabajen hacia los mismos objetivos estratégicos. Ayuda la comunicación entre diferentes niveles de la organización, asegurando que todos entiendan cómo sus roles y responsabilidades se vinculan con los objetivos generales. Lo más importante que centra la atención en unos pocos objetivos vitales, evitando la dispersión de esfuerzos y recursos en demasiadas direcciones. Y no debemos olvidar los procesos de revisión y ajuste regular para asegurarse de que las estrategias sigan siendo relevantes y efectivas en un entorno cambiante.