Five key factors for improved operational decision-making
Day to day operations comprises a series of decisions leading to actions. The higher the complexity of consequence, the more care needs to be taken to ensure the direction is optimal for safety, efficiency, and productivity, as well as managing the company’s reputation. Typically we see operations teams tackle critical decisions through external data points (such as time of day, flight radar, tide data and weather, as well as internal sensors and protocols) to look up known metrics and evaluate the situation. The teams may also be communicating across time zones, languages, and cultures to reach a decision. Of course, even with reams of process and workflows, consistency of approach and continuity of direction can be challenging.
Operational Management aims to create a precise operational environment, minimising management oversight and reducing inconsistency and delay. When time pressure is on, operators can get information overload with multiple inputs and, conversely, there can be difficulty in accessing the right information - even logging into needed-but rarely-used systems can prove challenging. Miscommunication or misunderstanding due to language or cultural differences, or the human desire to close the problem, can all lead to missed elements or rushed solutions. So how can you overcome these challenges and make improvements?
Create smoother workflows
The first step is to evaluate the operational workflows. Management teams can help create smoother workflows through process engineering by identifying the following elements:
All regular workflows
Environmental factors
Situational factors
Understanding whether the situation is static or dynamic
You can ensure relevant assurance is applied by identifying the high value and high consequence factors followed by identification of the high volume decisions, where the focus is on efficiency and consistency.
Application of technology in this stage is far more than just “workflow” but allows analysis of the number of interactions - time spent on tasks and number of touch points, amongst a host of other analysis that can be applied to give insight and evolution.
The five factors for success
Once you have identified how to create a smoother workflow, you can work out the most efficient way to aggregate the data. This can be done either through a system, such as industrium’s, where you can access all the required elements in one platform, or ensuring you have dashboards and links set up and approved. Finally, you can apply your operational norms and limits to those factors to give operators parameters for their decisions and identify if a greater level of consideration is required. Are you in the right gear for the situation? How do you escalate and de-escalate your management team decision cycle?
Here are the five key factors you need to improve your decision-making:
Leadership and direction
How is the operation directed, especially out of hours, is there a clear understanding of intent and plan?
Communication & information
Up, down, and across - how do people communicate, how are languages considered? How is information accessed, and monitored for change, aggregated, and made available for timely decisions?
Organisation and resource
What is the structure? Is the team able to change up through the gears when required?
Process and activity
All operational delivery activities and workflows. How are they connected or interdependent, what is the priority of effort and the primary goal?
Assurance and review
Completing the above is the start of that journey. How do you check for consistency, information availability and improve?
The use of technology enables us to bridge between all these elements of this management system, giving leaders greater insight, control of direction, assurance and updates against any ongoing operation or crisis. It enables better communication and a closer working environment, even going to the level of auto translation and logging. There is no limit, but as with all technology systems currently, a robust framework to build around makes a far easier deployment. Ultimately, technology gives you the opportunity to aggregate, simulate, analyse and then apply learnings to continuously improve decision outcomes. This is the premise behind industrium’s approach to product development.
Operational decision-making is complex and reliant on multiple variables. We'll be continuing a series of articles looking at this in more detail, considering management models, application in the operational environment, and how to collate information in a usable and efficient manner. Keep an eye out for our next blog.
You can find out more about the intelligent technologies industrium are pioneering for operational decision-making here. You can also get in touch.