Fredéric Gagnon
Vice President, Digital Transformation and Smart FactoryAn engineering graduate with a passion for innovation, Frédéric Gagnon has been working in the manufacturing sector for 20 years. Since his early days with Merkur, he has been involved in numerous major projects related to the development and production launch of new products, the design and implementation of new plant technologies, and the improvement of business processes and overall performance for several large organizations. For the past 5 years, he has been supporting manufacturing companies in their digital shift and in the evolution of their management systems.
Your market is expanding, and orders are pouring in, but you’re finding it hard to keep up with demand? Are you convinced that you have the space and equipment you need, but feel that you’re not making the most of your capacity?
Likely, you’ll need to focus your efforts on upgrading your operational management system. This encompasses all your processes, technologies and strategies designed to make you efficient and effective.
In a context of turbulence and growth, your organization can reap a number of very tangible benefits from investing in the improvement of its operational management system.
Find out more about the benefits of this investment in this article!
READ ALSO: The Winning Combination of Operational Excellence and Intelligent Factory
Increase your speed of execution
As an organization grows, its processes and the use of its tools become more complex, with a direct impact on its performance. The number of operational processes increases, as do the number of employees, products to manage, technologies and processes to control.
The aim of a management system improvement project is to reduce the complexity of the various processes and tools and eliminate steps that do not add value. Also, thanks to the implementation of executive-level real-time dashboards, efficient processes and appropriate technologies such as connectivity solutions, decision-making is faster, as is the exchange of information across the enterprise. This in turn increases the speed of execution across the entire value chain, from customer order to delivery.
Improve your quality
The quality of products delivered, or services rendered, is the key to success for any organization. It is often difficult to reconcile maintaining product quality with business growth. The pressure of increasing orders, the varied demands of new customers or the development of new employees, in many ways creates challenges for passing on good practices and methods developed within the organization.
Developing an operational management system can significantly improve the quality of products and services delivered to the customer. To achieve this, a number of avenues can be explored: deploy digital tools to improve exchanges and collaboration, analyze quality indicators in real time or automate and robotize certain production stages to reduce human error. We can also consider standardizing processes to standardize working methods, or adding control points during execution to obtain feedback in a structured way, with the result of contributing to the dissemination of learning and continuous improvement within the company.
Optimize your costs
Cost optimization is a crucial factor in today’s global competitive environment. By investing in the improvement of its management system, the company will inevitably discover multiple opportunities to reduce its costs.
In fact, optimizing operational processes makes it possible to simplify or even eliminate complex, costly steps, by eliminating wastage of time or materials. Also, the right automation and robotization projects for critical production activities enable employees to concentrate on higher value-added tasks. Finally, thanks to the data and business analysis technologies available today, it is now possible to obtain real-time data on production costs for given orders, and even to anticipate variations over time.
Become agile, flexible and innovative
The agility and flexibility of the company’s operational management system have become imperative in order to react rapidly to new market conditions, customer demands and accelerating technological advances.
By being bold and creative, it is possible to implement innovative execution strategies and production technologies, and original digital solutions, while aiming to increase flexibility in production operations. Several benefits flow from these initiatives, including improved connectivity and the promotion of a connected factory. They foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement, while stimulating employee commitment. What’s more, setting up and maintaining an agile and flexible operational management system requires particularly effective coordination between departments, which must work together to bring about change.
Increase customer satisfaction
Complex processes or poor command of technology can inevitably affect how customers perceive a company. When information transmitted by the customer seems to get lost, when the product fails to meet quality requirements at the first attempt, or when deadlines and costs become unpredictable, this is a sign that something is not quite right.
Improving your operational management system allows you to optimize process efficiency, increase the quality of products and services rendered, and better control deadlines. Errors are reduced, departments work better together and communication with customers is smoother: you respond more precisely to your customers’ requirements. This boosts their confidence and satisfaction, as they perceive your organization as reliable, responsive and focused on their needs, which in turn fosters customer loyalty.
Conclusion
To respond effectively to growing market demand and exploit your full potential, it’s essential to improve your operational management system.
By simplifying processes, improving speed of execution and quality, optimizing costs and promoting agility, you can not only boost your internal performance, but also increase customer satisfaction.
Does your operational management system support your ambitions? At Merkur, our experts are ready to guide you through this process, helping you to improve your processes, integrate advanced digital solutions and implement an integrated management system that will support your ambitions. We are here to support you in your transformation or improvement projects, and to help you successfully achieve your objectives. Contact us.
