In Parts 1–5 of this series of articles, we have had a brief look at how structuring a manufacturing company as an efficient machine is a good way to go because we know how to build machines and get the most out of them. Making a company a machine solves a lot of problems but raises a few more. This final chapter will hopefully answer a few questions that you may have accumulated in your mind.
Q: Our company is founded on the creativity and responsibility of individuals. You are now talking about turning it into a machine. That is unacceptable to us. What do you say?
A: When you get into your car, you do not become the car - you operate it as the machine it was designed to be. Your company, although more complex in some areas, is no different. It is a delivery vehicle. One that hopefully delivers quality goods and profits. But the car goes nowhere without the driver. In your company, the people are the drivers. But what do you want them to drive? A bunch of departments run by megalomaniacs free of logic? Of course not. Build the machine and then hire the people to run it because that is what will make them and the machine work in unison and the people prosper. Machines do what humans design them to do - that gives humans more time to exercise their creative talents in improving existing machines or inventing new ones. In unified companies, managers do not have to put out fires anymore - in fact, their main purpose in life is to optimise the processes that are their responsibility.
People that claim that their companies are the people in them probably say that because it sounds warm and fuzzy to clients and investors (though extremely hackneyed). Companies are actually a bunch of processes run by people. The people are not the company - the processes are. The more elegant the processes and the more creative the people, the more successful the company. A unified company is one where the processes are complementary and pull together to achieve a common goal. The same goes for the people who run those processes. People who improve processes get rewarded. Those who do not ... well ... do not. It is all really very simple, logical and far more human-friendly than the traditional political and opinion-based systems in use today.
Q: The task of unifying a large company such as ours seems insurmountable. Not only are we fragmented with respect to our geographically distributed operations but each plant has its own way of doing things that range from accounting to process control. How are we ever going to tackle all these disparities?
A: The short answer is: one step at a time. Contrary to popular belief, the way to create a unified company is well known and proven. The difficulty lies in wanting to create a unified company. That is why company unification needs to be a top-down process that enlists cooperation rather than one that dictates change. But it needs to be driven.
Horizontal unification already exists in many large and global companies. The ERP layer of a company can communicate globally in order to optimise the use of production resources as well as to synchronise accounting, customer relationship management, HR and many other business processes. MES can synchronise, in the same way, information pertaining to production, maintenance, quality control and inventory management. Process control and SCADA solutions can now treat multiple, geographically distributed manufacturing plants as a single production entity that includes the centralised development and deployment of standards, the optimised use of computing resources and many other aspects that were considered 'islands of automation' only a few years ago.
The more difficult aspect of company unification lies with the vertical integration of these disciplines. But there again, there are many solutions to choose from in this day and age. Standards, solution vendor collaboration and an end-user driven market are all helping to create an environment where unified manufacturing companies will be the prevalent trend by 2010 (or thereabouts). It is probably engineering logic that will make unification work in the manufacturing and mining markets rather than in market segments where logic is not as prevalent.
So, to get back to your question, you can see that many solutions exist. All you have to do is to look at them critically in context of your own needs and, if you cannot think of a better way to go, start implementing those that make the most sense to you - bearing in mind that the first things to get right are your wealth generation and wealth-creating processes.
Q: We have had many 'flash-in-the-pan prophecies' in the past that amounted to expensive dead-ends. How do we know that what you have outlined is any different?
A: Because we are not trying to sell you on an acronym or a particular approach or product. What has been presented in the preceding articles is a reflection of reality that you can exploit to your own advantage. Company unification can often be accomplished without buying excessive amounts of hardware or software. If you look around, you will see the great strides that have been made in the direction of unifying companies - it is not even called company unification but application integration or some other term that has not yet really recognised the broader picture of what is really needed. But that does not mean that the functionality of available solutions is any less relevant or applicable. If you are the company CEO, what do you want to see on your PC screen when you get to the office in the morning? Probably something as shown in Figure 1.
You may then want to drill down to see what causes things to be good, bad or mediocre. How the information reaches you is irrelevant. The fact that it has been collated from many different sources is equally irrelevant. But the fact that it exists is vital because it will allow you to do something about your company's performance. The world's stock exchanges show similar information in realtime. Why should your company be any different?
This is not some kind of new 'prophecy' or 'product hype' but a reflection of what companies want and how to achieve it given available solutions and their trends. But given the biased emotional baggage of the past, some companies may find it easier to move forward than others.
Q: Most vendors I talk to have no reality of the concept of unified companies and focus on product benefits instead. What should I do?
A: As mentioned in the first article of this series, if you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail. So it is natural for ERP, MES or industrial automation solution vendors to think that what they have to offer will cure all their customers' ills. Being on the receiving end of these varied offerings, it is up to you to formulate your business and operational requirements for your company to achieve its objective. It is in the light of this that you will be able to evaluate the applicability of proposed solutions. Without this top-down approach, acquiring solutions becomes a hit-and-miss process where you can waste valuable financial resources and time.
For more information, contact: Justin Tweedie, Wonderware Africa, +27 (0) 861 WONDER (+27 (0) 861 966 337), [email protected] or [email protected], www.futuristix.co.za
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