5 Manufacturing Challenges Revealed in 1000 Conversations with CEOs
Michel Babineau
Laser-focused on helping manufacturing companies do better | Digital Transformation | Agile Supply Chain | Manufacturing Operations Excellence | Smart Manufacturing Systems
Michel Babineau, here. Over the last twenty-five years in a consulting and managerial role, I have had the opportunity to meet hundreds of owners, CEOs, and presidents of manufacturing companies, and listen to their concerns, challenges and hopes. The On-Time Edge team has also had the opportunity to help a large portion of these companies improve their operations. Even though some challenges these executives have faced, or are still facing, are unique, a large number of them, dare I say the majority of them, are common across companies within an industry, and often across very different industries.
Here they are!
- Customer demand is unpredictable. It is very difficult to manage production to deliver on time without creating excess inventory and incurring significant unplanned overtime and expediting expenses.
- It is difficult to find and retain qualified labor. It is even more difficult to align their efforts with our clients and maximize their productivity.
- Organizations and their people have consistently struggled to understand and adopt technology. Hence it is difficult to use it as a competitive weapon to gain market share.
- New products take too much time to develop. Great ideas flounder while market opportunity slips away.
- The lead time of critical capital equipment is too long. Future production requirements aren’t “visible” soon enough in the business planning cycle.
Ever since founding On-Time Edge (formerly Celero-Optima) in 2004, my vision has always been the same: to provide our clients with common sense approaches and simple, yet powerful, tools that allow them to achieve their own operational goals within the shortest possible time.
Please follow me over the next few weeks/months as I will describe in detail how to best meet these challenges, and prevail in the journey to sustained operational excellence!
(BTW if you need help fixing one of these issues right away and can’t wait for my upcoming articles; tap on the keyboard or pick up the phone right away! https://www.otedge.com/ )
General Manager | Chief Operating Officer | Operational Strategy, Collaborative Leadership | Award-winning & 5X Author | Army Veteran
3 年Michel Babineau these are absolutely the critical questions, this past year has taught us anything is to be prepared in good times to whether the storm. In the past year I was able to reduce our lead times in equipment build by more than 30%, reduced turnover by 80% through coaching/mentoring and developing High Potentials and Next Generation Leaders, and support a growth of over 25% in our existing footprint during a pandemic. It can be done!