Operations Innovation & Transformation – 3 Questions

by Stan Devries, Sr. Director Solutions Architecture, Schneider Electric| Invensys

On February 4-6, 2014, I posted a series of articles by Stan covering Operations Innovation.  He explained innovation as a quadrant; joining people, assets with efficiency and consistency in execution.

 

Stan reported that he had some excellent questions arise in regards to the quadrant, and called out 3 of them:

1. Can the 4 quadrant approach be applied to a single site?
2. The changes in the targets mentioned seem to be the responsibility of planning and scheduling; how do they affect Operations?
3. How does this transformation affect the solution's architecture?

The answers follow below...

Operations Innovation & Transformation – Flexible Teams, Part 5 of 5

by Stan Devries, Senior Director Solutions Architecture, Invensys|Schneider Electric

The 4 quadrants described in the article “Operations Innovation & Transformation – the 4 Types Part 1 of 5” positions the lower right quadrant as a strategy for using a team of human assets in a new way.

In this quadrant, teams of specialists (with the same or different areas of specialization) are grouped to provide value improvement to a group of physical assets, and the group of physical assets can be used as a “fleet” or as a “chain.”  This is much more than a passive “help desk.”  One example is where specialists use real-time benchmarking and other tools, working with new business processes with the physical assets and the dedicated workers, to unlock value of themselves and the physical assets. 

Operations Innovation & Transformation – Fleet Management Part 4 of 5

by Stan Devries, Senior Director Solutions Architecture, Invensys|Schneider Electric

The 4 quadrants described in the article “Operations Innovation & Transformation – the 4 Types Part 1 of 5" positions the lower left quadrant as a strategy for using a “fleet” of physical assets in a new way.

In this quadrant, a group of similar industrial operations (2 or more) adapt their performance objectives, business processes and accompanying hiring and information strategies to optimize the “fleet.”  The move is to unifying the industrial enterprise over multiple sites (in groups or as a whole), with a more holistic view in terms of operating strategy and performance management.

Operations Innovation & Transformation – Operations Control Loops, Part 3 of 5

by Stan Devries, Senior Director Solutions Architecture, Invensys|Schneider Electric

The 4 quadrants described in the article “Operations Innovation & Transformation – the 4 Types Part 1 of 5" positions the upper right quadrant as a strategy for governing business processes and teams of human assets in a new way.

In the upper right hand quadrant, managers and supervisors use consistent measures and business processes to adjust targets for specialists and other workers, using the industrial automation concept of a “control loop.”  One example of this control loop is where managers negotiate the next day’s production targets each day using the same business process for all specialists and industrial locations.

Operations Innovation & Transformation – Value Chain Management, Part 2 of 5

by Stan Devries, Senior Director Solutions Architecture, Invensys|Schneider Electric

The 4 quadrants described in the article “OperationsInnovation & Transformation – the 4 Types Part 1 of 5" positions the upper left quadrant as a strategy for using a “value chain” of physical assets in a new way:

In this quadrant, a group of similar industrial operations (2 or more) adapt their performance objectives, business processes and accompanying hiring and information strategies to optimize the “value chain.”  The move is to unifying the industrial enterprise over multiple sites (in groups or as a whole), with a more holistic view in terms of operating strategy and performance management.