A Better Method for Strategic Management

The aim of any good manager is to identify and meet goals that benefit the company as a whole. This is especially important in the manufacturing industry, where one change in process can affect an entire operation. In strategic management—the planning, monitoring, analysis and assessment of all aspects of an organization on a continuing basis—there are two essential components:

1. formulation of a sound strategy to direct a company, specifying its objectives and policies,
2. implementation of the suggested actionable tactics, taking into account the resources needed to execute plans and setting benchmarks that will measure efficacy.

The Importance of Strategic Management

A myriad of details from analytic insight reports guide the formulation of a strategy that helps management make intelligent decisions. Implementation of the finalized strategy becomes even more complicated, as it requires a large measure of adaptability to changing external forces as well as internal resources. As firms have grown more customer-focused, the need for adaptation has led to a reliance on reliable information on which to base decisions. Companies that make a plan and stick to it rigidly will soon find that market forces and customers are no longer on their side.

Planning concepts and theories, like lean manufacturing, have added another dimension to the practice of strategic management, as well. Companies do not store inventory, but rather produce them in response to specific customer orders. Lean manufacturing allows a firm to adapt to seasonal factors and market cycles. It also eliminates waste and excess-inventory situations that can cost a company in the long run. However, a manager needs modern tools to handle the mass of data and moving parts involved in any organization with multiple departments, plants, products and customers.

Planning Intelligently

Fortunately, planning and scheduling tools address the increasingly complex world of strategic management. Advanced platforms can collect and analyze operations data to suggest manufacturing plans (and project their outcomes) in real-time. Communication between business functions becomes collaborative, rather than linear, because these results can be made available to all managing players. Decisions to alter a schedule become more intelligent and correct because all the data is right there where it is needed, not hidden in an Excel worksheet, or in a report that won't be published until next week.

From top to bottom, employing strategic management bonded with a scheduling tool will assist an organization in making better production decisions, keeping customers satisfied, and accomplishing its overall goals.