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Typical symptoms of poor management practices in (SME) Organizations?

Whether small, emerging medium  or large size organization, most of them have common  macro-level challenges like

1. Improving profitability
2. Sustaining the growth & Future fit
3. People Engagement towards growth

However, small and emerging organizations have other typical challenges apart from the macro level challenges. Those challenges arise due to lack of proper management practices and business / functional processes.

Let us list down some of the symptoms of poor management practices or processes that result in mediocre performance or survival challenges.

1. Struggle to meet the given delivery schedule on time and qty. This will be regular scenario every month
2. There is no structured planning on customer's orders. Most of the time, serving the customer based on the urgency of the customer on a daily / weekly basis.'
3. One of the complaints or frequently listened word (FLW) is " our planning person is not effective, or are planning is very difficult in our industries.
3. Inventory (RM+WIP+FG) accounts for more than a monthly requirement, still manufacturing lines come to a halt for want of material
4. Rework / segregation is part of daily activities  and those  are considered as  essential activities for delivery
5. For any quality problems, quality executive or quality manager  is expected to own and solve it
6. Quality is ensured through Inspection 
7. Making the operators to run the machines. Checking the quality aspects and taking actions are considered as idealistic and impossible
8.A permanent imbalance between feeder shop and final assy line. Neither aware of the imbalance nor the actions to improve
9. Typically the first week would be low production achievement and gradually increased to last week. During month end, all are busy.
10. Sometimes, previous month billing execution would continue even after first 5~7 days of the month and this continues forever
11.No clarity and communication about monthly billing/production target and actual at any point of date. That information restricted to the senior management team only
12 No performance drive on improving business / functional deliverables.
13.No structured reviews mechanism between the business head and the next level
14 Functionally I am right; but as an organization, we fail mentality across the level 
15 No Monthly business performance review by the business head
16 ERP system is either tried  or hold  for correction
17.Thinking that  ERP system will solve all our today's communication issues
18 No structured  HR policy on recruitment and compensation
19. New product development is given least priority. No structured cross-functional team reviews
20. No time for a celebration of small success and always  firefighting mode to serve the customer

The point is to relook at your organizational symptoms and work on eliminating or reducing the intense to prosper!

Why sustenance is important in workplace?

In most of the organizations, we can hear one common phrase “we have already implemented this initiative, but not continued or this will not work here”

Why do people come to conclusion as “no initiative will work in their workplace?". The reason is lack of consistency in implementation. 

In today’s internet world, there is not much ignorance of knowledge and know-how; it is only lack of consistency in implementation.

How this inconsistency will affect individual & Team?

When you implement some initiatives, not consistently follow it and eventually drop it, you are giving a subconscious message to yourself and team that you are not sensitive to results or incapable of execution. This inconsistency will impact the confidence of the leader at an individual level and encourage mediocre performance at the team level. The next time when you think of new initiative, old memory reinforces you about failure or low confidence pulls you down from taking action.The root cause for all consequence is inconsistency in implementation.

 So, in personal and organizational level, if you take any initiative, be sure that you are consistent in your implementation even though you are relatively slow in taking a decision. Ultimately your consistent actions push up your confidence and your consistent actions inspire others to follow. This is one of the traits of leadership, i.e. consistency in thinking; talking and doing.You are meant to be a leader for others!!!!

How SME's transformation are different from large size organization transformation?

SME 's are mainly different from large size organization based on the investment and sales turnover they make. Even within SME's , there are further classication as micro, small and medium size organization.

Recently Govt of India proposed to redefine SME's based on their annual sales turnover, replacing the current definition that relies on self declared investment on plant and machinery

According to the government’s new definition, businesses with revenue of as much as Rs5 crore will be called a micro enterprise, those with sales between Rs5 crore and Rs75 crore will be deemed as small and those with revenue between Rs75 crore and Rs250 crore will be classified as medium-sized enterprises. 

The above classification clealrly differentiates large size organization from SME's from turnover point of view.

However, apart from sales turnover, there are some other charactersitisc distingusihes the SME's from large size organization.

1. Most of the SME's are supplying to large size organization either as Tier 1 or Tier 2 vendor
2. Adding value to product with partial manufacturing content or assembly
3. Mostly scope is limited to manufacturing only
4. No banddwidth to design / development / procuring material at own identified source or reengineering on product design and material selection
5. Not much bargaining power on pricing 
6. Not much affordability to get the right talent and developmental efforts

Given the above context of SME's, the business transformational efforts are mainly on

1. Ensuring profitability or sustaining profitability through business process reengineering

2. Helping to stabilise the organization for sustainable growth by twisting business model and people engagement initiatives

How to maximize profitability in SME organizations?

Most of the SME organizations can be classified as either Tier 2 or Tier 3 level vendors to OEM. Those organizations are adding value to the final product either by way of partial manufacturing or manual content addition in the material. That is mostly the scope of the SME’s restricted to manufacturing or assembly and may not have much leverage on design, procurement aspects on the value chain.In some organizations, value addition is limited only to the manual work.

Unlike large size organizations, SME’s does not have the bandwidth to design and development of the product, RM selection and procurement, process planning and manufacturing, Assembly and Testing on its own.If the scope of SME’s on revenue is relatively smaller than large size organization, how can SME’s maximize the profitability?

Given below some of the proven methods from our experience with SME’s and the critical aspects of each method.

1. Increasing the volume 

2. Increasing the variety and customer’s base

3. Cost optimization from P&L analysis  

4. Rationalizing the product mix or portfolio  

5. Vertical integration  

6. Looking for premium products or market

7. Looking for premium processes

1.Increasing volume:

       One of the typical methods of increasing profitability is doing more volume as it covers up the overheads and there is a possibility of maximizing profitability.The prerequisite for increasing volume of a given customer’s product is the price and quality expectations to be met consistently.Most of the organizations are working internally on quality improvements, delivery plan adherence, and price optimization so that they can approach the customer for 100 % share of the business. Since the demand is a function of external parameters, there is a limited scope to increase the volume beyond a certain level.

2.Increasing the variety and customer’s base:

       One of the favorite ways of increasing the sales turnover, in turn, profitability is by expanding customer’s base and get more orders of the similar product family. For example, if SME’s has modern machining facilities, it looks for different customers and product range to maximize the revenue and profitability.

The advantage is that it helps the organization not to get into the risk of dependence on one customer and also helps the organizations to serve the different product varieties and customers to get more visibility in the market.The downside of this approach, over a period, managing multiple customers with multiple varieties leads to operational inefficiency issues.Most of the organizations fail to plan well and ended with operational issues like more changeovers, higher cycle time, higher WIP's, quality issues, lack of focus on time deliveries low productivity.However, for some organizations with better operational team and practices, this method turns out to be a better method of maximizing the profits

3.Cost Optimization from P&L Analysis:

This is an all-time workable solution, proof from recession or unfavorable external environments. Irrespective of existing customer’s base, volume, product mix and variety, some SME organizations are continuously working on waste elimination, re-engineering the process and identification of opportunities to save the cost of P&L analysis.For example, one of my known organization regularly saves 3-5 % in its conversion cost every year irrespective of volume or external condition only through continuous improvement programmes and finding opportunities to cut down the unnecessary expenses.

Another advantage of this methods, the organization develops the culture of cost consciousness as a way of life.

4.Rationalizing the product mix or portfolio:

This method is mostly last options or impossible options by SME organization as they are vendors to OEM customers and they can not influence on changing the product mix or portfolio.However, wherever the organization supplies directly to end customers influence to choose the right product mix as it maximizes the profitability significantly.

It requires active accounting and cost deployment practices, wherein the organization can precisely know the cost of goods sold for each product mix.Accordingly, the management decides the product mix be continued or dropped.

In one of my client, when we did products costing and selling price analysis, we came to know the some of the product ranges, the organization is making losses as the cost of manufacturing outweigh the selling price. The management took timely decision to drop some of the low-end products, thereby could able to release the capacity for the higher end as well as to increase the profitability.

5.Vertical integration:

One of the common practice prevailing in most of the SME’s over a period, after stabilizing the basic process and get the customer’s confidence, they get into vertical integration as a natural growth.This expansion gives growth and profitability advantages to the organization.

For example, an organization specialized in forging or casting is expanding the horizon to machining and assembly.

This method is workable once the organization establish themselves with the basic process and have a financial and technical bandwidth to expand vertically.However, this method requires continuous reevaluation of product cost and sales realization.

6.Looking for the premium product or new market:

One of the possible option for SME organization to look for premium product lines or new market whereby it enjoys the premium.It calls for expanding the marketing effort to find to find the niche or premium product lines and customers.

7.Looking for the special process:  

Rare and ultimate option for SME organization to get into the special process to enjoy the premium as this must be the entry barrier to others.

In today’s competition and free market environment, the organization can be healthy only by generating sufficient cash reserve through profitability.It is the business head or CEO's prime responsibility to revisit the model continuously!!

What must every SME business head know about his business?

As we are working with more SME organizations, we are observing two kinds of business heads or owners.One type of business owners involves themselves almost full time on managing all aspects of operational activities on a daily basis and not giving much focus on the business aspects of profitability and growth.The other type of business owners or heads delegate entire activities to second levels and not much familiar with business aspects. In both types of personalities, we see benefits and drawbacks as well. Only a few smart business heads able to balance the priorities between survival and growth-related activities.

The point is irrespective of the personal style of management, the business head must know some of the aspects of the business at a macro level, and in a fixed interval he must review along with his team. His macro level business acumen and reviews will help the organization to prepare proactively for any uncertainties or opportunities which impact profitability and growth.

The following business aspects the business head must be familiar and review frequently.

1. Profitability
2. Cash flow
3. Capacity constraints 
4. People capability and development
5. Next level growth plan 

1. Profitability :

He must have a practice of reviewing P&L once in a month along with the team. Reviewing P&L will give a fair idea about the healthiness of the organization regarding cost, product mix, and pricing

Also, he must be aware of his cost structure or value chain and its impact on the profitability.

He must have a clear idea of the product mix or customer mix which gives maximum profitability. This clarity will help him to focus on customer or product rationalization

2. Cash flow : 

One of the pain areas for most of the SME organization is poor cash flow management result into affecting day to day operations, sometimes, finding difficult to pay even salaries on time. This delay seems to be a regular event from the management point of view as multiple transactions happening across the supply chain, but from an employee point of view, these delays some time affect the morale and engagement. Better cash flow management is required to avoid hand to mouth situation of cash flow.

The business head must know his breakeven point, cash flow transactions, and payables/ receivables outstanding in a regular frequency through MIS so that he can intervene at right time with right people to mitigate the risk before it occurs

3. Capacity constraints : 

One of the competitive edges for the organization is speed and delivery flexibility, and this is going to be a major expectation from customers. The business head must know his organization constraint points and work continuously on debottlenecking or improving the capacity to stay ahead of the competition. The constraints could be anywhere in his operational and business processes.

Meeting the customer’s expectation on time must be one of the key performance indicators of business head

4. People capability and development : 

Today one of the significant challenges for SME’s is people management. It includes selecting the right people, compensating them at par with industry and retaining them. As most of the organizations realize the cost of replacement and training the new entrants, it is one of the critical priorities for business head to identify the people talent on time and develop them for cost efficiency and future fit point of view.As a business head, he must continuously invest in people capability development initiatives. 

5. Next level growth plan  : 

Since most of the team members in SME’s are working on operational issues and someone must think about sustainability, the growth of the organization. It is the responsibility of the business head to think ahead and work on the growth opportunities. To work on growth, he must be aware of the external environment, trends, customer’s expectation.

Organizational profitability and growth depend on the amount of time, the energy the business head spends in all aspects of business !!!

Holistic Lean System Thinking approach for business profitability

The objective of this presentation is to create awareness to SME business owners on the following. 

1.The reason why do your business struggle to deliver profitability? 
2. Solutions approach to improve profitability and growth through proven , holistic lean system thinking approach 
3.Case study examples of business transformation using lean system thinking approach.

https://www.slideshare.net/ganeshbabu7/holistic-lean-system-thinking-approach-for-business-profitability