It is the End of the Year, what is on people minds this year vs. Last year?

Sitting a coffee table in Convent Garden in London, the chilling winter wind blowing through me, but the dazzling lights of Christmas and the holiday season dance about me. I have the opportunity to absorb the discussions of the last week discussing with teams from around the world what is driving operational thought leaders in mining, transport, and infra-structure. Now I look up at dazzling lights my mind shifts to the thought of;”is there a difference in operational priorities this year vs. last year and the answer is YES!!!”

The economic outlook is “soft” and nervous; certainly infra-structure projects from governments are under increased scrutiny. Last year there was some optimism as things were turning, today for many they walking carefully, we are seeing commodity prices causing pull back in major/ mega projects. Also, we are another year into this final run on the experience of “Baby Boomer” and Early Gen X (born 1960 to 1970) moving on, and that experience going out the door.

Reflecting on the key themes underlying discussions in Operations Strategy as we end 2012:

·         How to increase the effectiveness of roles, so they are able to make more decisions. This is leading to active discussions around “decision support systems” more than reports, but an experience that will enable a holistic view on information in context and actions to be taken in a timely manner.

·       Opex cost tightening, that strategies are around reducing operations costs, through increased efficiency, the discussion is not on people reduction, but is around “energy” reduction. This is causing discussions on energy around how to align plant, equipment usage to low energy rate periods and bring this into the plant operational planning.

·         The Aging worker discussion has shifted or started to shift to how deal with people in roles for short periods causing limited experience. There is recognition that this is not just an age issue, but the nature of operational business and HR that people are moving locations, roles at an increased frequency compared with 5 to 10 years. Note that this has only started to be recognized but with recognition.  

·         Having people more aligned into effective work. This is an intriguing one, but there is a lot of discussion on what workers are doing in their 8 hours and how much of it is effective. This aligns with the shift towards focusing on “planned work” vs. “ad hoc, unplanned” work. This immediately provides benefit in safety levels, and efficiency.

·         The discussion of how to execute solutions of the complexity required, unifying many sites and systems, how to build and sustain standards, how to execute in a timely fashion at minimal risk when shareholders are constraining capital budgets. Yet everyone realizes the programs must go on, so a healthy discussion around how execute, modularization of the program into “bite size chunks” using multiple engineering teams. This discussion will grow in momentum in 2013.

·         With the drive down on Opex and Capex, there is an increasing review of the custom, unsustainable solutions running in the operations, especially MES, which traditionally had a significant customization. Companies are investigating programs to shift the cost or growing and sustaining the systems away, either by new solutions based upon off the shelf products, or outsourcing the sustaining of the system.

There are many other side conversations around information in the context, the unifying of data, potential to use “Big Data” concepts (see blog coming up in the coming weeks). There is  realization in the holistic view across the Enterprise Landscape, and the changing Operational Worker, I believe there will be a resetting of role definitions across the plants, as the “day in the life “ of Operational Worker (no matter the role) is changing significantly with the freedom mobility brings.

I am sure I have missed some points, but the key is the “outlook” is different, and the leading companies are considering different factors on when, what and how they will evolve their operational systems in order to achieve Operation Effectiveness.

All good food for thought over these upcoming holiday period.