The analysis and its role(s) !!!

There are still out there some managers who do not know the importance and the significant roles of the analysis; where it can be used, its benefits and the consequences in case it is totally neglected. This maybe depends on the following:
1. A part of managers do not have the ability to learn new things because they think that they already can everything.
2. They do not have sufficient information and knowledge about what analysis can contribute to.
3. They think it’s a simple task in which everyone can perform and there is no need to hire an expert and give him/her a full time job which can impact company´s budget.
The fact is the budget already will be impacted negatively when decision making is not based on an appropriate analysis. I want to highlight in this blog the role(s) of analysis, its importance, using areas, benefits and the consequences when it’s out of function.
Using areas:
Identifying and defining the business idea/plan
It’s very important to conduct an extensive analysis around business plan in early stage before the start to identify for instance customers segment, raw material source(s), expenses and costs, goals to achieve, profit margin, resources availability and competences, marketing, competitors etc. This analysis enables management/owner to take the correct decision.
Identifying and defining of company´s strategic goals
Companies have more or less similar strategic goals in which they strive for such as delivering in time, high product quality, customers satisfaction, environment friendly product, reasonable product price, strong competitiveness, increasingly profitability etc, however the difference(s) in these goals among companies might depend(s) on the type of the business branch. The identifying of the strategic goals enables the analyst to identify the correlation/connection with the elements/assets that must be maintained in order to achieve these goals and to have a sustainable economic growth.
Identifying and measurement of the gap between Mission and Vision
Since the strategic goals have been identified and defined it’s very important to analyze the current condition to be able to measure the gap in order to find out the problems and classify the causes behind them. Furthermore the problems are different and should be classified to find out the real cause by determining what area is related to such as technical, managerial, design, construction, organization and or human factors.
Identifying of chronic, technical and latent failure(s) and preventing them from recurring
The analysis could also be used to enhance business capacity and increase the productivity by identifying, eliminating and preventing chronic failures from recurring. It does not only mean technical failures but also everything that can impact company from not achieving its vision. Most of technical faults could be identified, analyzed and solved by the usage of FMECA (Failure Mode Effects And Critical Analysis), but in some cases RCA (Root Cause Analysis) or FTA (Fault Tree Analysis) must be involved, especially when talking about latent faults.
Improvement of process and quality
Process and quality improvement requires hardly and engaged work. Therefore a lot of information obtains and should be analyzed to be able to determine the suitable solution. Continuous improvement strategy focuses significantly on inspection, observation, measurement, test and analysis to verify the gathered information and data. Companies will gain a lot of money when identifying for instance the value-added, non-value-added -Waste, Customer-value-added , Business-non-value-added, the complexity within process by breaking down PCE(Process Cycle Efficiency)into small components part and lead & Takt –time etc.
Cost reduction
It’s essential that the company has a common system which connects and provides all departments within the company with necessary information. That means each department can display, record, report, and send work orders. In some cases and due to some reasons people cannot obtain information when it is needed. For example, what are the significant spare parts and what is necessary to be stocked in. However there are many unnecessary obsolete and new components which only consume energy, space and labor etc. The significant spare parts could be identified by the aid of continuously analysis and inspection. On the other hand unnecessary components and things could also be identified and converted into money. Moreover, the aim of analysis is to find the potential for cost reduction even in the other sectors such as traveling, document, machines, equipment, license, cars etc and not only within inventory.
Implementation or installation of a new system or machinery
It’s very important to conduct a comprehensive analysis before the installation or the implementation of any system or machinery. Firstly, to figure out if the implementation of the system or machinery would not impact operators and plant culture negatively and secondly it would give the desired function. Moreover, in order to avoid any problems that the company can face during project's life cycle decisions must be based on an extensive analysis which includes plant’s engineers, managers and operators from different areas . Furthermore other manufacturer, suppliers and vendors must be analyzed and evaluated to be able to make an assessment based on prices, quality, safety, support and other criteria.
For example, many companies have implemented CMMS, EAM-systems to simplify maintenance work, increase productivity, store information, enhance production process etc, but they have faced different problems such as technical faults, lack of support, the system does not give the desired function, its very complicated and difficult to use, does not meet company´s expectations etc.
Energy saving
It’s commonly that most manufacturing plants have heavy machines, motors, pumps, fans, compressors, FVD, lighting, heating etc. Often these machines and equipment are consuming more energy due to their installation, connection with the end user, work task, inefficiency, load, pipe dimension and voltage variation. Companies will therefore save a lot of money by reducing energy consuming within identifying these machines, equipment and improve the current condition by determining a cost-effective solution throughout redesigning, reconstruction or replacement with a suitable one which can give the desired function but with less energy consuming.
Outsourcing
Outsourcing is not always a cost-effective solution especially when the company has the ability to do this kind of work. Further, regarding service´s outsourcing companies will lose competences as soon as the consultant finishes his/her contract. Sometimes the consultant could face some resistance from operators especially when the project is about huge change within plant’s culture. It could be more beneficial if the company hire a suitable and qualified person who can fulfill this position.
Enhancement of the communication and the relationship among personnel and different departments
Most of faults, problems, and failures are partly related to a bad communication and or bad relationship among personnel themselves, personnel and management or among different departments. A Company sometimes faces no-man´s- land (gap), overlap and or interaction between two workstations. In general the relationship among departments is like Supplier-Customer relationship, while companies wish to achieve partner relationship. Often managers do not involve operators when decision making or they are missing motivation, encouragement and moral due to bad connection/communication with management. It’s essential to identify personnel´s responsibilities and authorities, however managers should understand that they all are sitting at the same boat and when the boat goes down everybody will go down too. By the aid of the analysis companies can find out if there is any need for redesigning, reorganization or reintegration among working areas to eliminate gap, overlap or and interaction. On the other hand the causes behind that people have bad relationships or communication with each other will be identified.
The implementation of a new maintenance system or the development of the current one
Its 100% based on company´s strategic goals, current condition, type of failures, operator’s competences, machines, equipment and culture. Companies will not succeed if its carbon copies a maintenance system from another company just because this company has achieved their goals. Although, there are no 100% identical systems, people, machines, equipment etc. Thus the implementation of a new maintenance system or the development of the current one must be based on the above mentioned factors. Additionally, the process must consider the following important aspects such as safety, quality, economic, environment etc.
For example, many companies have successfully implemented TPM and achieved their goals, but this could not be generalized, because TPM requires such culture that all people must be involved from the top management to the work floor which is not possible for all companies. Another example is, the usage of VM(Vibration Monitoring) system and where should be used and its purpose.
Maintenance schedule and planning depends strongly on MTA(Maintenance Task Analysis) to identify machines, equipment and facilities in place to be able to decide when and where to perform preventive maintenance, reactive maintenance and or predictive maintenance based on their condition, age, task, load and manufacturer´s recommendations.
Expansion or development
It’s very critical to claim that expansion is always positive, because there is no guarantees when companies grow they will succeed since some companies grow to death. Thus management has to predict all scenarios in which can face the company during the next phase. Management should have a holistic picture about company´s total productivity capacity, customers demand and market´s forces. However companies which do not take their customers needs into account, competitors and marketing impaction cannot stay longer in the market even if they have world best designer.
Business sustainability
How can a company know if its still strong in the market, its product(s) is still requested and customers are satisfied if it does not do a continuously researching and analyzing? It requires a continuously research to be able to know if the product needs to be developed, adopted, redesigned, reconstructed, or if there is an opportunity to establish the company somewhere else in order to find a new market and new customers etc. On the other hand it’s also important to know competitors offers, product price and quality and everything is related to the business to be able to take the right decision in real time.
Purchasing and logistics
Companies lose often huge amount of money due to fast and unplanned affairs regarding raw material, transport, spare parts, outsourcing, services, machinery, systems, technologies etc. There are often several suppliers, subcontractors, vendors and manufacturers at the market. Neveretheless, companies could reduce their costs, and at the same time achieve their goals by the aid of analysis through making a comparison and evaluating of a certain interesting offers.
Recruitment
I have actually written about this in my previous blog, therefore I will not go deeper in details. I would only highlight that companies will gain a lot if the recruitment process is based on an appropriate and objective analysis to be able to evaluate the right candidates.
Conclusion
Analysis has very broad using areas, but I have only mentioned the areas which I work with and am interested in. I have also mentioned some tools which can be useful within analysis, but there are many other out there. It’s an important work that can help management in decision making. Actually the difference between a good and correct decision is the “analysis”. People can succeed sometimes to make a beneficial business based on some facts or experiences without conducting any analysis. But I claim that it should be a simple task or it happens by chance. However in order to perform any task accurately and accomplish a reasonable result there is a need for a comprehensive analysis. Furthermore a complicated task(s) mainly requires data gathering, calculation, measurement, test, comparison, planning, observation, inspection, evaluation etc that are useful when making a correct decision.
Best regards
Hamid Al-najjar