Developing Global Manufacturing Operations
Manufacturing companies have started venturing globally to take advantage of low cost manufacturing, geographical location, resource availability and so forth. Developing and managing global manufacturing operations have continuously been a challenging task for company's world wide. Visit David Pulman GSK for more info. This article attempts to explore 10 most significant issues of concern, challenges faced, and potential solutions for multi-national manufacturing organizations as they start operating globally.
1. Management Philosophy
Management philosophy guides the stakeholders of the organization in providing an understanding of what the Company's operations are, where they are heading towards, and why they are in business. Companies need to provide a clear statement of their vision, mission and values to the stake holders. It becomes vital especially in a global company to dedicate thought and efforts in framing this philosophy, as individual companies may have slightly different focus, but the group as such should sail towards a focused destination.
Equally important are the business policies and strategies by which the Company targets to achieve its vision. As the company's grow and become multi-national, it becomes imperative to have a clear organizational structure at entity level and individual level. This would form the basis for better communication, development of collaborative operations, and effective decision making. Notably, organizations should adopt ways of proving its commitment to the strategies and philosophies, link their operational and tactical activities towards their vision, and continuously communicate them to their stakeholders.
2. Systems and Systems Thinking
Systems are procedural approach that channels the individuals, departments and the management in effective operations at all levels. An organization operating in different countries need to have a common system by which they deal with operations at same level in their entities. This provides a visibility for individuals from different entities in collaborating their work with each other. The concept of Systems Thinking evolved with the development of supply chain integration. Organizations that concentrate on the individual development of the entities often fail to notice the integrated links and the advantages they can extract off them. Systems Thinking would help look the whole network of entities as one organization, with one business and one objective, and focus on overall development across the supply chain.
3. Collaborative Operations
Collaborative operations help organizations take advantage in areas such as utilization of low operations cost, skilled labor, material availability, and so forth though it poses high demands on seamless business processes, interoperability, supply chain visibility, demand forecasting, and customer integration.
4. Branding
As companies go global, brand management becomes a key aspect. Customer's perception for a product varies with the country in which it is manufactured. This urges Multi national companies to concentrate on development of brand and strongly commit to their offerings. This becomes an issue of concern especially for companies that go global before creating a niche brand in the market. Multiple brands and multiple product offerings are to be handled with appropriate concern.
5. Sigma Level
Sigma is a statistical term to express how much a process varies from the target. Sigma level allows comparison of process performance through out the entire organization, provides figures on overall yield, and DPMO. Though industries have risen to the level of six sigma targeting 3.4DPMO, a lot majority of the companies lie in 3 sigma level where they spend at least 30% of its revenue on defects, corrections, reworks, and rejects. Global companies should have a focused roadmap on improving the sigma level and link them to their business strategies.
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