Executive Analysis Tools:
Tools to make your business grow
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Executive Analysis Tools: Tools to make your business grow
By Andrei Kossyrine
© Xpress Software Inc. - All Rights reserved
http://www.xssoftware.com
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Making manufacturing more profitable is not a "one size fits all" solution. This change in thinking and operations is also not accomplished in a single step or procedure change. The following is one of a series of topics designed to enhance the profitability of manufacturing in general.
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Never have you had more information available than you do today. You can access reams of data through spreadsheets, databases and the Web. But do you have all the information you need, when you need it, to make informed decisions? Is it organized in such a way that you can measure your company's progress, spot trends, and plot a course for the future? A few tools are available that will put all the data you need right at your fingertips.
First, there's Executive Dashboard, a one-stop shop for information such as sales reports, industry news, financial data, all of which can be obtained via a single screen, without having to open other software applications. (Advanced versions of dashboard application can also be accessed through a PDA).
For example, the dashboard for Hamilton Sunstrand, a worldwide supplier of aerospace and industrial parts, includes headlines and links to the latest business news, including news specific to the aerospace industry; company organizational charts; and project plans. Honda uses a dashboard to track customer satisfaction with 1,300 dealers nationwide, information that determines incentive payments and that drives improvements and innovations.
An Executive Dashboard can also be an important component of a Web portal system, which can include several modules, each tailored to a specific company function. Rohm and Haas Company, a manufacturer of specialty chemicals, has three modules: an enterprises-services module that provides employee benefit and HR information; a business information portal, which is driven by each business unit; and a "community-of-interest" module, which allows employees in similar workgroups to share information.
In addition to Executive Dashboard, a company should consider other types of data analysis tools. These tools allow you to graphically display and analyze vital production and sales data, such as Sales Analysis, Manufacturing Analysis or Map Analysis.
Map Analysis, for example, can allow you to integrate data gleaned from spreadsheets, databases or other sources into a map in order to display geographic trends. You can also calculate market penetrations and locate untapped or underdeveloped markets. Think of it as a photograph of your business, bringing into relief where you have customers and influence, and where you are weak.
Manufacturing Analysis can be a sophisticated software tool that will allow you to graphically display and analyze each step of the design and production process. The program can help select the most cost-efficient processes and materials; provide quick cost estimates; calculate the cost per part of the product; and provide cost comparisons during the concept design. Using Manufacturing Analysis software, Meggitt Mobrey, which produces sonic fluid level sensors, reduced their assembly cost by 55 percent.
On a broader scale, Manufacturing Analysis can be a single source of information such as production levels, product volumes and manpower requirements for product lines. An automotive component manufacturer used Manufacturing Analysis tools to determine the capacity of all the required processes, the appropriate number of components and assemblies required, the manpower required to produce the desired volumes, and the utilization of the machinery. The company was able to foresee manpower requirements for the next six years as well as anticipate future capital expenditures.
The bottom line is this: The companies that are most successful aren't the ones that have the most information, but the ones that organize and make use of the data at their disposal to evaluate their performance, learn from their mistakes, and stake out a future direction. If you can't measure what you are doing, you won't know if you are succeeding; worse still, you won't know if you are failing.
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Since 1996 Xpress Software Inc. has provided
technical assistance in lean manufacturing methods,
computer systems and business process automation
to maximize manufacturing profits.
Visit its website www.xssoftware.com or contact
Andrei Kossyrine at andrei@xssoftware.com.
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