Planning for the financial impact of real-time SPC software…

In his 1989 bestseller “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” Author Steven Covey popularized the phrase “Begin with the end in mind.” It is the second habit of seven he emphasizes for maximizing personal effectiveness. I believe this phrase can also be effectively applied to a team that is strategizing the deployment process for a corporate-wide rollout of real-time SPC software, such as GainSeeker Suite.

Beginning with the end in mind is a good starting point for this planning process. That’s why we made it the foundation of the Easy SPC Resource Kit. This collection of targeted topics is designed to help you and your team work  through considerations such as:

• Where and how to best use automated real-time data
• The impact you want it to have on key stakeholders
• The financial impact you want to have
• How you’ll best manage the deployment

Of these areas, financial impact is the best place to start. Clear articulation of financial goals is crucial to the success of the other considerations.

There are as many ways to frame financial goals for a GainSeeker Suite deployment as there are types of deployments. Each situation is unique, but the general tip is to know your audience and speak their language. If your corporate mantra is simply to “Increase revenue,” you will need to be prepared to address how GainSeeker Suite will help you meet that need. The Easy SPC Resource Kit offers examples of GainSeeker clients that have successfully defined their project goals and satisfied their financial goals.

Having said that, in general we’ve found that most bottom line managers rate one or more of these objectives high on their list:

• Increase Revenues
• Grow Operating Margins
• Reduce Asset Levels

The Easy SPC Resource Kit gives examples of how other clients have defined and met their financial goals. Furthermore, it provides a series of thought-provoking questions to guide you and your team through the key issues in each of these areas. For example, under the topic of increasing revenue, you might explore increasing operational capacity. Some questions you might to consider include:

• Is manufacturing capacity a governor on revenue?
• Does demand for your product exceed your capacity to produce it?
• Is there a direct relationship between revenue and productivity, efficiency, or quality?
• Is rework an “accepted cost” of doing business because “it has always been this way?”

Put your team together and open a conversation around these questions. You may be surprised at the number of ways quality impacts revenue, margins, and asset levels.

Where do you stand? What are the key financial drivers for your use of real-time data in your company? Please leave a comment, or  write to me at ejmiller [at] hertzler [dot] com. I’d love to hear from you.