Talking about operations management consultancies there are generally 3 main products a client can get, at least as specified with my first company I worked for - performance enhancement, management training and skills training. The first 2 are interlinked and compulsory, the latter optional.
Performance enhancement or operations improvement:
This part of the project will get the benefits cashed in. Consultants are allocated to specific areas and ought to develop them and implement what has been promised/sold to the client. I already talked about activity lists and manloading. That's one part of it.
Management training:
In order to make sure that those performance improvements "stick" with the clients' management (supervisors, managers and above) training needs to be given. The training programme needs to be tailor-made (or at least sold as such) to what the clients' specific needs are. The first few parts of the training are always the same modules though. But that's okay, those modules are vital.
Skills training:
Staff and workers get skills training. Projects like these might be "sales enhancement" programmes or "throughput optimisation" initiatives.
More detail to be found in further blog entries...
Showing posts with label Lean Management. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lean Management. Show all posts
Monday, 2 February 2009
Thursday, 29 January 2009
The Genetic Imperative towards Efficiency Improvement
Why on earth would anyone like to become a management consultant? This is a question I have been confronted with at quite some dinner party. My standard answer is that I am German and efficiency is a genetic default for us bunch.
The real answer though is another one. I, like so many others, am driven by improving situations, helping my clients to make positive changes, sorting out their inherent inefficiencies in their processes and organisations, and want to leave those organisations bearing in mind that I added some value to them.
At university, I studied Economics in Nuremberg, one of my focus areas was called "Lean Management", by Professor Pfeiffer. For me it was similar to going to church. I just loved it, absorbed every word, and knew that's where I want to be in my life. And funny enough that's where I really ended up. My first management consultancy company focused on operations improvement. Those were the hardest years in my life, but my learning curve was rather steep. It was thrilling climbing up there. And the air up there was thin.
The real answer though is another one. I, like so many others, am driven by improving situations, helping my clients to make positive changes, sorting out their inherent inefficiencies in their processes and organisations, and want to leave those organisations bearing in mind that I added some value to them.
At university, I studied Economics in Nuremberg, one of my focus areas was called "Lean Management", by Professor Pfeiffer. For me it was similar to going to church. I just loved it, absorbed every word, and knew that's where I want to be in my life. And funny enough that's where I really ended up. My first management consultancy company focused on operations improvement. Those were the hardest years in my life, but my learning curve was rather steep. It was thrilling climbing up there. And the air up there was thin.
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