Operational excellence for optimized processes
Companies can only survive if day-to-day business runs smoothly – that is the opinion of many. In the process, long-term strategies are not infrequently neglected, but they are just as important. The remedy is to align the company with the overall strategy. This process is also called Operational Excellence, or OPEX for short. This task is performed by an Operational Excellence Manager, who is responsible for permanent and dynamic optimization. It is important that all systems and processes in the value chain are taken into account. The aim is to increase efficiency and focus on customer requirements and root cause analysis. Thus, operational excellence is the guarantor for the economic success of a company.
Operational excellence put into practice
The management focus of an Operational Excellence initiative changes over time. Therefore, there is a need to raise awareness of critical success factors and barriers to the OPEX initiative. Guidelines for designing, reviewing, and adapting an excellence program can provide this. Obviously, implementing an operational excellence initiative is about special management skills. Introducing a continuous improvement process for the first time requires different skills than maintaining a system in a steady state. Factory planning projects are particularly well suited for this purpose because they involve fundamentally new concepts. Comparing successful practices with less favorable ones leads to a summary of barriers and success factors.
Operational excellence is a permanent process
If you want your company to be successful in the long term, you have to apply operational excellence on a permanent basis. Continuously improving is the motto here, based on different methods, such as:
- Lean management (avoiding waste through efficiency)
- Operations Research (number-based support of decision-making, execution and control)
- Six Sigma (alignment on facts and data, customer focus and proactive error prevention)
- Total Productive Maintenance (for optimized maintenance)
- Supply chain management (optimization of the value chain as a whole)
Operational excellence integrates numerous corporate functions into the process in order to satisfy customer needs as efficiently as possible. But Operational Excellence also has advantages for the company and its employees. Old structures are dissolved and a dynamic process of continuous improvement begins. Employees can also be motivated by Operational Excellence, as stuck knots in the company are loosened.
Do you want to optimize the operational performance of your company?
At Bross, we help you with the topic of Operational Excellence and ensure that your awareness of critical success factors is also sharpened.
