How Data-Driven Daily Management Drives Effective Execution

Winning the game requires you to manage the details in short increment time intervals. For a fast/short cycle time business, if you learned that you missed the day at the end of the day, it’s too late to do much about it. But if you had the ability to measure and address performance in hourly or shorter time frames, there’s time to take action to ensure you meet the day’s goals.

Our experience shows that managing the details—and building the systems and processes to support performance—will deliver at least 10% improvement in profitability.

That can make a major difference for your business. So what is preventing organizations from meeting this level of improvement? The three primary culprits are:

1. Lack of attention to detail.
2. Lack of visibility to the data in real-time or near real-time.
3. Inability to develop corrective actions or root causes and countermeasures to key misses.

While many systems today tell you the score and show you if you missed a target, they struggle to show you why you missed your target and what your organization is doing to address that miss. What you need is operations management software that goes beyond scorekeeping to provide you with the “why” and the “what” you need to know to truly impact business performance.

More data doesn’t necessarily equal more insight

Over the past decade, businesses have gotten much better at collecting data. Most have multiple systems in place—such as an ERP, CRM, MRP, and/or CMS –to record and report on various metrics in the business. But the truth is, that many still use spreadsheets and performance whiteboards to track productivity at different levels of the organization daily. Whether you run a manufacturing company, service organization, or distribution business—you’ve still got daily operations that require data for decision-making and effective execution.

Where does this data go at the end of the day? Does it ever get entered into one of the business systems?

Probably not.

Here are three challenges with data as it relates to effective execution:

1. Aggregation – How to capture, integrate, and manipulate data from manual processes and disparate systems.
2. Presentation – How to organize and present data into tailored views so that people in different roles and different levels can digest it, take action, and communicate to key stakeholders in a timely fashion.
3. Communication – How to improve communications and escalation processes by getting critical data in front of people who can remove obstacles and get operations back on track.

You may feel like you are flying blind if you don’t have the data you need to reach your goals. Data capture alone isn’t the sole game changer. It’s how companies understand and act on the data that matters.

Three key tips for doing more with your data:

1. Make sense of the numbers – Start with consolidating information from different sources, in order to make it easy to access and analyze. Our web-based operations management software, Dploy Solutions KPI Management, aggregates data captured by disparate systems and delivers it in a visible and logical manner. So instead of being overwhelmed by a bunch of information and numbers, operational leaders are better informed. They can quickly see and understand how their organizations are performing on key metrics on a daily or hourly basis, even down to the minute.
2. Get the data to the right people – Daily execution becomes even more powerful when you can escalate information to the appropriate level and roll it up to leadership as needed. This ensures that the people capable of acting on the data get it on time. The Dploy Solutions KPI Management System offers tiered accountability and timed escalations to ensure that the right people are notified in the right order so that the problem can be fixed at the lowest possible level. With capabilities like these, daily management systems bring only the unsolvable issues to a high-level manager’s or leader’s attention.
3. Solve problems and keep them fixed – When something goes astray, it is important to differentiate between one-off situations and systemic issues. With Dploy Solutions KPI Management, you can clearly tie missed performance to actions that can be taken to course correct immediately. In the case of key or ongoing drivers of missed performance, your team can work together to complete a root cause analysis and countermeasure activity plan to address the real reason behind the misses and prevent the issue from causing future problems for your business.

Mastering the fine details and implementing robust systems and processes for real-time data analysis and corrective action are essential for achieving and exceeding business goals. By overcoming the common hurdles of detail oversight, data visibility, and corrective action development, organizations can unlock significant improvements in efficiency and profitability. Embracing advanced operations management solutions, like Dploy Solutions KPI Management, enables businesses to track performance and act upon the underlying causes of any deviations from targets. This proactive approach ensures that businesses are not just reacting to yesterday’s data but are equipped to anticipate and address challenges in real time, paving the way for sustained success and competitive advantage.