Leveraging Response Management to drive operations performance
I recently wrote an article on this topic that I thought I would share here as well. With so much emphasis on compliance, accountability and operations performance these days, its a major struggle to proactively manage the key metrics within a company.
Frequent changes to demand, supply, capacity, and product can spread over a multi-site enterprise and global supply chain, creating ripples that may swell to a tidal wave by the time they hit the point of action—the moment just before execution when response decisions must be made.
Responding rapidly at the point of action can be difficult, but doing so in a way that aligns with corporate objectives is even harder. This is especially true when hundreds of these make-or-break decisions must be made throughout the enterprise on any given day.
While many organizations are increasing awareness of corporate metrics by communicating them more broadly throughout the enterprise, their focus tends to be historical—i.e., limited to a view of past performance. An inherent disconnect also arises because financial professionals and company management tend to examine metrics in terms of dollars and cents, whereas operations looks at them in terms of units.
To overcome these challenges, manufacturers must not only communicate what the key metrics are, but also link financials to operational metrics. More important, they need to arm operations with tools that facilitate proactive management, not just measurement, of key metrics at the point of action.
By developing a core competency in Response Management, manufacturers empower their staff to respond more quickly, positively impacting customer service metrics. And the ability to review and score multiple “what-if
