Technology Reset for OpEx

A complimentary PDF file of this content, with with additional information, is available for DOWNLOAD.

The ability to strategically manage and control a business, in a balanced way, is necessary to enable the business to be operationally effective and efficient for ongoing and sustainable growth.

Many organizations today remain^[1] data rich and information poor because most organizations have not formally developed and aligned a Data & Analytics Strategy with their business strategy.

When integrated and properly aligned with the needs of the business, a data & analytics strategy will compliment decision-making capabilities and empower the business leaders better manage the individual business processes for the necessary systemic business outcome(s).

A data & analytics strategy, integrated with and informed by the business strategy, will support, and/or strengthen the capability to visualize and process important information about the operational state of the business processes to identify operational constraint and take advantage of improvement opportunities that they would not otherwise identify.

 Measuring Business Operations ‘quality’

A business can be considered as an aggregation of business capabilities that people manage. A data and analytics strategy, interwoven with the business strategy, enables improved decision-making capabilities and empowers the business leaders better manage the individual enabling business processes for the necessary systemic business outcome(s).

Management Review (example)

What would a business strategy look like for Management Review of the business operations?

Informational can be capable of being compartmentalized and aggregated for understanding:

Visibility into the tactical and operational status of each business process, combined with the ability for the systemic aggregation of results, would be a powerful tool for business leaders in managing the capability of the business to satisfy stakeholder needs.

 Business Capabilities

A business must possess the ability or competency to achieve a specific purpose or outcome. Business capabilities are the competencies an organization carries out, or need to be able to carry out, to conduct its business and fulfill the Mission of the Enterprise. Business capabilities are enabled by the business processes that are cumulatively executed in pursuit of the fulfillment of each individual capability and ultimately the mission of the Enterprise. The ‘quality’ of each of the individual business capabilities will determine the operational capability to fulfill the stated Mission of the organization. This begins with an understanding of the effectivity and efficiency of each of the enabling business processes, within a given business capability.

Effectively Efficient 

Operational Excellence cannot be achieved without the consideration of effectiveness and efficiency in association with the operational performance of the organization.

• Effective involves "producing a result that is wanted."
• Efficient involves "producing desired results without wasting materials, time, or energy."

“Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right thing.”  - Peter Drucker

Measuring Business Process Effectivity (example)

Analytical algorithms are utilized to strategically  measure Process effectivity:

Technology Reset | QMS Technology (example)

Outdated technology solutions will inhibit an organization from moving forward decisively.

“85% of faults lie with systems, processes, structures and practices in an organization and only 15% is down to operator skill and it is the responsibility of management to fix this.”  – W. Edwards Deming

QMS technology platforms are now outdated in light of modern business process management technologies that enable the business to explain exactly how specific work is to be done to achieve the results that are necessary for each business process. It is no longer necessary to ‘force fit’ your business process structure into an outdated and/or generic QMS business process, with limited configuration capability, only to create significant ‘work arounds’ associated with gaps in a costly and generic and limited QMS technology solution that was pre configured by software ‘experts’, developed long ago and without any understanding of your business requirements.

“If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.”                                                                                                                                                                     – W. Edwards Deming

A RACI map was utilized to develop the unique for a complaint management business process and establish operational roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities:

Standard work QMS content (procedures, work instructions, etc.) can then be properly developed and established within fully configurable and less costly modern process management technology, enabling process data to can be utilized within an overarching analytical strategy.

“A bad system will beat a good person every time.” – W. Edwards Deming

[1] Peters, T. and Waterman, R. (1982), Harper & Row; In Search of Excellence: “Companies are data rich and information poor.”