Nexview Consulting - S&OP Consulting

  • About
    • Leadership
    • Vision, Mission, Values
    • Why Nexview?
  • Services
    • Overview
    • S&OP and Supply Chain Management
    • S&OP Readiness Assessment
    • S&OP Coaching
    • Training Courses
      • Training Overview
      • S&OP
      • Demand Planning
      • Combined Demand Planning and S&OP
      • Interactive Workshop SE Asia
      • Integrated Business Planning for Oil & Gas
    • Integ Bus Plng for Upstream Oil&Gas
    • S&OP for Upstream Supply Chains
    • Railcar Fleet Mgmt
    • Profit Optimization
    • Virtual Consultant
    • Nexview Online
  • Work
    • Approach
    • Clients & Industries
    • Case Studies
    • Operations Assessment
    • Change Implementation
  • Events
    • Next Public Course – Virtual S&OP
    • Executive Workshop
    • Conferences
  • Benchmarks
    • Key Topics in S&OP
    • Getting Sales Support for Demand Planning
    • Portfolio Review
    • How World Events Are Changing Supply Chains
  • Careers
  • Nexview Online
    • Clients login
    • Members
      • Login
      • Logout
      • My bookmarks
      • Update info
      • Member content archive
      • Bronze
    • Take a look/Join
    • Content archive
    • Blog
      • Sales & Operations Planning
      • Supply Chain Improvement
      • Supply Chain Results
      • Operations Assessment
      • Change Management
      • Organizational Effectiveness
    • Supply Chain Assessment Toolkits
      • Overview
      • S&OP
      • Demand Planning
      • Supply Planning
      • Procurement
      • IBP Upstream Oil & Gas
    • All eBooks
  • Contact

Four Reasons Why Assessments Are Important

assessment-compass
You know that you need to make improvements, and you are hearing good ideas and suggestions from your colleagues and material the media. You know what to do, it’s time to take action, let’s just do it. Stop and look before you leap. Think about these questions – Do I need help or buy-in from others? Is there a way to demonstrate a result? Am I sure key stakeholders have the same vision and expectation? Are people going to need to invest their time, or do something differently?

“Well yes, yes, and yes, but we had a meeting, leaders expressed support, and we’re aligned.” This is a great start and needed to launch an effort, but… Most work teams today are fully loaded, the days of extra staff to work projects are gone. When the next must have idea or business urgency comes up, or when there’s a disagreement, delay, or other distraction, will everyone still feel the same way, will your project survive?  Assessments are good for several reasons, here are the critical four.

1. Assessments create a common understanding of the as-is.

Not everyone on your team may be aware of the current state and existing gaps, it needs a tight summary, for people to react to, build on, and embrace. Not all will agree with everything, but you need enough.

2. Assessments define a common vision for where you need to get to and what your current gap is.

This would normally involve an evaluation of best practices, some benchmarking perhaps, and comparing your as-is. Even if it’s only half right at this stage, it’s building more common ground.

3. Assessments produce quantifiable business cases.

It’s important to define how results will be shown, define a baseline, and measure as you go. In the future, project activities can be tied back to specific benefit areas and challenged when they don’t. Plus, when a challenge arises, you can ask leaders if they want the money or not.

4. Assessments invest stakeholders and create momentum for change.

Assessments are much easier than change implementation (i.e. getting someone else to do something differently). Gaining consensus and involvement through the assessment will help build momentum for when the hard part comes. Ask for little things first.

Having said all this, it doesn’t mean parts of the assessment and parts of the implementation can’t occur simultaneously, it doesn’t have to be rigid. Each situation is different and process improvement teams need to stay flexible. For example, quick wins can be implemented in parallel with more detailed analysis around a business case. Why wait? Just make sure you capture the impact. Assessments are the foundation for the larger construction, if you take shortcuts, just make sure you understand and communicate the risks.  

 

 

You may also like

  • Improving the Supply Chain “Front End” – Supply Chain New Year’s Resolutions, Part 1 of 3Improving the Supply Chain “Front End” – Supply Chain New Year’s Resolutions, Part 1 of 3
  • Why Your S&OP Initiative is on the Back BurnerWhy Your S&OP Initiative is on the Back Burner
  • Speed Up and Simplify the Budgeting ProcessSpeed Up and Simplify the Budgeting Process
  • Revitalize Your S&OP Process
  • Is AI Good for S&OP?Is AI Good for S&OP?
Share

Filed Under: Change Management, Operations Assessment

Tweets by @nexviewconsultg

Book – S&OP Results Tips, Traps, & Tools

Free eBook – Our Implementation Methodology

Featured Articles

  • "10 Tips for S&OP Sponsors" - APICS Magazine
  • Journal of Business Forecasting
  • Supply Chain Quarterly
  • Nexview Whitepaper
  • Journal of Trading Partner Practices
  • Nexview Overview Video
  • Nexview Online – Content Archive
  • Ideas – Blog Posts
  • Clients & Case Studies
  • IBP for Upstream Oil & Gas
  • S&OP and Supply Chain Training
  • S&OP Self Assessment Toolkit
  • Company Overview Flyer
  • Values
Share
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us
follow us on LinkeIn
follow us on twitter


Copyright © 2023 · Nexview Consulting, LLC ®

X

Forgot Password?

Join Us

Password Reset
Please enter your e-mail address. You will receive a new password via e-mail.