Article
Advantage of consultants in Operational Assessment
Any organization has limited resources to achieve its goals, more so with the manufacturing industry. The dynamics of the manufacturing industry constantly keeps changing due the supply and demand variation. This has a cascading effect on its operations, and further on its cash flows. Thus, it is imperative that the level of efficiency has to be the highest in order to achieve the best possible outcome.
An operational assessment may help in identifying gaps between ‘what it is’ and ‘what it should be’. Inefficiencies creep into the system due to the mundane activities performed. After all, higher efficiencies lead to lower costs, leading to higher margins and thus leading to more business.
Moreover, methods have to be evolved over time in order to stay competitive. Such assessments are a must whenever there is a change in strategic objectives – like planned capital expenditure, increase in capacity, renegotiating contract terms etc.
This is where it would be beneficial to engage an external advisor or a consultant to determine the best possible solution.
Some of the advantages that external consultants can bring are:
Consultants or external advisors are not biased towards any particular group – whether the management or the operations team. Their sole aim is to increase the overall value addition to the process and work in the interest of the vision of the client. They work on the principle of ‘Trust, but verify’; thus, requiring them to go to the root cause of the issues.Secondly, they do not have any vested interest in the organization, thus having no reason to take any side or please anyone – this is the core principle of any reputed consultant. This factor allows them to directly report to the management, cutting any red tape, or filtering out any data or its analysis due to hierarchy.
Consultants thrive on being results-oriented and the main USP of all of them is being accountable for those results. Outsourcing your decision-making support to a third party ensures delivery of those results for the time or result-based monetary agreement. It builds accountability within your own company management due to the investments made. We usually see organizations using partial services with the hope that the internal team can carry forward the work, typically to save costs. Shielding of the consultants from the responsibility to achieve results potentially brings danger for both – the consultants themselves since they end up not delivering and the management that hires them since they do not achieve the expected ROI from engaging the consultants.
Consultants and external advisors have plenty of experience in executing projects in various sectors, and various organizations in the same sectors. Since every organization is unique in terms of its operations and cultural aspects, there is plenty of learnings they gather by working on these projects. The best practices across industries can be very well implemented in various capacities in an ongoing project.
In the short terms, engaging a consultant may look like an expense. But the real value addition starts showing up during the implementation phase. This value addition, obtained through a holistic but a neutral approach, can very well be a game changer in the operations of the firm.
