The Challenge of Improving Operational Efficiency
Different unplanned and potentially catastrophic business and economic events will create crisis situations that require time critical action to “stop the bleeding”, solve the underlying problem, develop, and implement corrective action plan(s). Often, an experienced, independent professional can help regain control. However, in addition to crisis and turnaround situations, less dramatic business and managerial challenges can also occur as a result of implementing business plans, planned projects, continuous improvement or a discovery of a bottleneck in the course of normal operations.
Each of the four following challenging situations requires a different approach to address one or more factors affecting business activity – Crisis Management and Turnarounds, Organization Change Management, Process Improvement and Information Systems. Usually, very complex problems are a combination of these challenges and ignoring one or more of them usually results in incomplete solutions that, despite how well the parts that were addressed are performed, the solution as a whole often fails. Whether implementing cost reductions, downsizings, or reorganizations to overcome temporary challenges or achieving high benefit outcomes for normal operations, an experienced professional can add good value, objectivity and help you focus on all the relevant challenges. Our service offerings are listed by the challenging situation they address.
Crisis Management and Turnarounds
- Problem Assessment; Financial; Inventory and Production Analysis; Root Cause Analysis; Temporary Workarounds and Recommendations
- Solution Pilots and Complete Implementations
Organization Change Management
- Organization Assessment, Structure Design and Job Definition can include Existing Skills Assessment, Education Requirements Definition, Impartial Employee Evaluations and Position Selection
- Change Readiness Assessment and Change Management Planning
- Organization Transformation
Process Improvement
- Workflow Assessment, Value-Added Analysis, Root Cause Determination and Benchmark Comparisons
- Improvement Recommendations with Rationale
- Process Design or Reengineering with “Best Practice” Identification
- “Quick Hit”, Pilot and Complete Solution Implementations
Information Systems
- IS Department Reviews including Process, Operations, Organization Business Systems Effectiveness, Technology Infrastructure, Data Security, Disaster Recovery, and Service Level Agreement Compliance
- IS Department Process Redesign, Organization Design, and staff de- or redeployment.
- Technology Enabler Identification
- Functional Requirements Definition, High-level Process Architecture and Data Design
- RFP Preparation and Proposal Evaluation
- Solution Pilots
- Packaged Software Modifications
- Software Design and Development
- Software and Systems Testing
- Process Flow integration
- Skill Requirements and Education
- Complete Solution Implementation(s)
Citations
The following paragraphs describe two examples of how we put our knowledge and skill to work by leveraging one or more of the above listed Operations Improvement services to the benefit of the businesses we helped.
Example One - Cost Reduction, Process Reengineering and Organization Consolidation
Self-directed team member that reengineered the Financial Control Process for the North American Consumer Bank of Citicorp which included the branch, credit card, and mortgage businesses. Project entailed redesigning the processes for closing the books, forecasting, planning, reporting and analysis. Project scope covered 27,000 employees spread over 28 locations utilizing over 60 different systems.
Result: Recommendations included reducing headcount and operating expenses by 50% and improving closing cycle time by 6 days. Also, gained an in-depth knowledge of reengineering concepts and methodologies, technology’s role as an enabler, and benchmarking.
Example Two – Organization Change Management and Process Improvement
As CFO of a new international consumer electronics and accessories distribution corporation formed from the merger of a privately held computer accessories distributor and a privately held but related consumer electronics distributor, all sales, operations, and accounting processes were rationalized and consolidated. This entailed reviewing and restructuring the merged organization by identifying key management roles, evaluating current position holders, and determining who would fill them. Office space requirements were reassessed as well as logistic and administrative service providers.
Result: Eight full-time positions were eliminated; monthly office rent was lowered by 60% and Internet and telephone expenses were pruned by 80%. In total, monthly recurring overhead was reduced by 66%. A bidding process for all overseas product shipping from our manufacturers was initiated and product shipping costs dropped by about 20%.
If you would like help “stopping the bleeding” or with operational improvement challenges please Contact Us.