Risk assessment of your company

We need not repeat that economic conditions and political uncertainties in SA, and abroad, will be with us for some time to come. 

Living up to our brand, namely, optimisation, which is imbedded in our company logo, we would like to offer you an initial evaluation of your company’s opportunities and threats, for you decide where in your business - be it your strategy, business architecture, e.g., technologies in use, information storage and retrieval, types of hardware / software, operating systems in use, finance, customer satisfaction and shifting customer expectations, innovative capabilities, or your business processes – your biggest need for rectifying / repositioning / optimising lies. 

This will be carried out at basically no cost to your company (terms and conditions apply), thus, saving you unnecessary expenditure.

Depending on the outcome, we can carry out assignments in any of the areas mentioned above, at negotiable fees.

Please visit our website www.primoconsulting.co.za for more information on our skills set and our team.

Some ‘real life’ examples of how managements’ can get use to ‘waste’

In the article ‘Positioning of your Company / Institution in the South African Environment,’ the writer listed the seven most costly kinds of wastes, as identified in the Lean Six Sigma methodology. In this article, the writer thought it necessary to list some real examples, to indicate how easily managements can allow costly kinds of wastes to become the order of the day (the writer will not bore you with details about costs involved!).

Major Conglomerate

A consultant was paid his consulting rate per hour, for an hour-and-a-half each month, for two years, just to renew his car parking ticket at the company’s open car parking area!

Manufacturing Company

This is a manufacturing company, which was regularly awarded major orders from renowned wine producers. Notwithstanding the aforesaid, the owner continued to rent a double story workshop, with the following consequences:

·             Their working week was reduced from 40.75 to 37.2 hours, due to time spent on the staircase (some product lines required going up the stairs three times per day!).  Furthermore, due to a lack of firm management, the rest of the lost time was made up of late arrivals, and taking longer than prescribed tea/coffee breaks.

·             Additional excessive walking due to the storeroom being on the first floor!

Furthermore,

·             Although there were many costly ‘reworks’ due to clients not being required to sign off specifications, this was not rectified.

·             No standard times existed for certain product ranges, so workers worked at their own pace; productivity improvements / time savings were thus never really looked at.

·             Proper job cards were not made out and, secondly, job cards did not follow products from one working station to the next, with time spent at each working station, not being recorded.

Note:

·                       This is not meant to be an all exhaustive list, but merely to show how ‘small’ kinds of wastes can ‘creep’ into an organisation.

·                       Similar kinds of wastes occur in administrative and other business processes too!

Positioning of Your Company / Institution in the South African Environment

It is surprising how few companies are in the process of positioning themselves to not only survive, but to prosper in the current and forecasted economic climate of South Africa, and with the disruptive technologies that see the light of day all around us every day, and, it is here to stay!It is unthinkable that the management of companies can think that they can survive without:

• A proper strategic plan, spanning at least the three-year horizon; preferably the five- and 10-year horizons too. 
• Enterprise architecture that supports the strategic plan, e.g., what kind of new technologies are required, and when, what information systems (and security systems) would be required, and when, organisational structural changes required, choice of locations, goals, etc. 
• Carrying out an analysis of the company’s financial position (current and foreseeable), customer satisfaction, and their shifting needs, innovative capability, and training and development of staff to meet changing needs. 
• Lean business processes (devoid of all forms of ‘waste’); major forms of waste are all forms of excessive conveyance, slow inventory movement, excessive motions, waiting time, overproduction, processing, and cost of poor quality. Note: The above is just as applicable in an office environment. 

As can be seen in the sketch below, all the above falls within our skills set, which we excel at!

The value proposition that we wish to offer is to facilitate the ‘renewal’ / repositioning of your company, and all the support structures required to meet foreseeable demands. In addition, we offer to do an initial analysis of all your business processes, be it production, buying, conveyance, accounting, etc. (that is normally where the ‘bleeding’ in the short-term is taking place), and table a business case of savings to be made, in any one of your business processes, which we undertake to achieve, free of charge*.

However, should you wish for us to carry out only one, or part of the facets shown in the above sketch, it could be arranged.

For further information, kindly visit our website www.primoconsulting.co.za or call us for a presentation.

*Terms and conditions will apply.

Turn around strategies for agricultural businesses

Lately one quite often hears in the media, at conferences and by word-of-mouth that agricultural businesses, are in need of a proper turnaround strategy. Having read the financial statements and reports of a number of agribusinesses, one finds it hard to believe, as the majority of companies are doing just that.

One can only come to the conclusion that, because the last six production seasons were tougher than the preceding 10 seasons, with the last three production seasons being particular tough, that especially farmers, expect that more can be done for them.

Recommendations:

It would appear that it is mostly farmers (there could be ’internal customers’ too) that feel the need for improvement, and it is important for all, agribusinesses to listen to the ‘voice of the customer’.

We, at Primo Consulting would strongly recommend that a three step approach be followed, namely:

·       Conduct a stakeholder analysis amongst all stakeholders to ensure that all new concerns are incorporated into the strategic action plans of the business (based on the assumption that their strategic plans are current and up to date) and will be addressed timeously and in the most effective and efficient way and, secondly that they

·       Re-examine the enterprise architecture with the aim to see that it is aligned to the strategic plan in the most effective and efficient way. Business architecture being the most important in the short term as it deals with

o    the ‘SWOT’ analysis that had been carried out

o    the goals that had been set

o    the organisational chart that had been decided upon as well as

o    the product range

should be addressed first.

·       Last but not least, we would strongly recommend that agribusinesses quite seriously, consider adopting the Lean Six Sigma management philosophy / methodology which was originally developed by Motorola, used by Jack Welsh as a central focus of his business strategy at General Electric and today it is central to Toyota’s Total Production System and in use by many other companies.

The reason for the aforementioned recommendation is that the agricultural sector will always experience good and not so good seasons, which speaks for itself that they must at all times, run a lean operation. Lean Six Sigma has exactly that as its aim, namely, to improve the quality of its products and/or services through the removal of defects/errors/all forms of waste. It also implies that the company is being managed with a ‘lean’ organisational structure and that all systems /processes are being run based on lean principles.

We suggest you that you visit our website www.primoconsulting.co.za for more details about our team and the aforementioned methodology. Kindly contact us should you wish us do a presentation to you.