Strategic Planning
Part 7 of 7

 The Lean manufacturing, PPT Plus,
"Back-to-Basics" e-Training Package 
Lean Manufacturing Solutions

Increase the effectiveness of your
Lean Manufacturing Training Program
Lean Manufacturing Simulation Game 

A Complete Strategic Planning Package

Once all the remaining functional strategies have been developed and all conflicts have been resolved, a cohesive, linked, and integrated set of functional strategies are in place which should consistently support the corporate objectives.

Performance Measures

Few areas have blossomed as much in the last decade as the application of performance measures. Traditional perfor­mance measures in the financial arena are generally too gross, too late, and unable to identifying the real opera­tional and strategic problems. A host of new non-financial performance measures has evolved to solve or, at least, reduce these deficiencies.
Performance measures should be applied in three general areas. First, some should directly measure critical com­pany goals and objectives. This insures the achievement of the critical goals and objectives or early warning that something needs attention.

The second family of performance measures relates to the specific strategic initiatives the company hopes to achieve. Primary in this family would be performance measures that measure important competitive advantages directly. For example, if delivery lead time was considered a critical competitive advantage, then it should be measured di­rectly.
The third performance measure family involves tactical issues which will support competitive advantages. For example, if delivery reliability was an important competi­tive advantage, then master production schedule perfor­mance might be a useful performance measure.

Performance measures should have a target value or goal and a time frame for its achievement which will focus the improvement efforts.

Conclusions

Much of the problem concerning weak U.S. manufacturing competitiveness revolves around the loss of status, influ­ence, and strategic voice of the manufacturing function. In many companies, no other function has filled that void.

Finally, a sound strategic planning model which might minimize this loss is seldom implemented. Manufacturing's focus only on short-term operational goals feeds a vicious cycle destined to continue crippling the firm's manufactur­ing competitiveness.

The status and influence of the manufacturing function must be elevated. It must be brought back into the strategic planning process. Senior manufacturing man­agement must distance itself from the day-to-day opera­tional activities and concentrate on the longer-term strate­gic issues.

A strategic planning model similar to the one outlined in this paper must be adopted to link the corporate and all functional strategic plans together. This will create a cohesive structure and insure that the important competi­tive advantages and resulting corporate objectives are achieved through coordinated functional teamwork.