Having a clear operations path for capital investments and cost management ensures that customers and stakeholders are satisfied. Ultimately, this drives long-term success.
But often, operations seems to be forgotten when it comes to setting strategy.
Questions Worth Asking
Consider your organization:
- How much time do you spend on finance, marketing, and commercial strategy—versus operations?
- Does it feel like your operations functions are getting in the way of success?
- Are you sacrificing front-end initiatives due to poor financial performance from operations?
- What is your level of operational confidence?
If these questions hit close to home, you need an operations strategy.
The “Carbon Copy” Trap
In a perfect world, a multi-site organization would have identical processes and services at each location. Unfortunately, that “perfect world” scenario is:
- Costly to implement and maintain
- Inefficient when locations have different strengths
- Potentially harmful to customer satisfaction
A diversified industrial manufacturer learned this lesson—and developed a clear operations strategy that not only saved money but enhanced their core competencies.
Case Study: Playing to Each Location’s Strengths
The Problem
The manufacturer was a good producer of goods, but much better at product development. Historically, they tried to duplicate manufacturing processes at all locations, which:
- Cost them time and money
- Took focus away from their strongest core competency—product development
- Created inefficiencies across the network
They needed a clear operations strategy to become more agile and streamline operational execution and investment.
The Solution
The company conducted a SWOT analysis for each location. From that assessment, they developed version one of their operations strategy by:
- Identifying core competencies at each location
- Strengthening those competencies rather than duplicating capabilities
- Assigning a finite purpose to each location
The Results
- Business investment decisions became consistent and easy to determine
- Volume allocation aligned with each location’s strengths
- Less time and money wasted duplicating processes and capabilities
- Product development and commercial functions received the focus they deserved
- Customers received new products in the timeframe they valued
By playing to each location’s strengths instead of forcing uniformity, the business grew.
Is Your Operations Strategy Holding You Back?
If operations feels like it’s getting in the way—rather than enabling success—it may be time to develop a clear strategy.
Our Process Assessment & Capability Analysis can help you identify each location’s strengths and build an operations strategy that supports your business goals.
Contact us to start the conversation.