Strong business analysis in manufacturing will help simplify processes, reduce costs, improve sales and enable high quality software and systems to be built. Poor business analysis will only hugely hinder these elements, can constrain the business within poorly designed systems, technology and software that limit innovation programs, reduce flexibility, increase budgets and reduce profits and constrain growth. So what are some of these costly mistakes and how do you avoid them?
Mapping out the wrong requirements
Classic business analyst mistakes include:
- Lack of executive direction
- Poor management interpretation of what the business needs
- Technical fixes and software definitions defined at too low level
No matter where in a manufacturing business you sit, from finance or sales to operations or planning departments, to overcome these issues senior management need to buy into projects or innovation programs and give direction on what the business needs. Managers then must clarify and truly understand the requirements before gathering ideas and information on how best to innovate and drive the business forward. If for instance the business direction given is around “putting right NPI (new product introducton) problems” the rationale and benefits associated with this improvement need to be clearly understood. When the project is completed it could result in low level software fixes or a larger systems overhaul, however the right solution will be in line with what the business requires. Without clear guidance however business analysis can turn into a costly exercise producing little more than inferences on how the business ought to work.
Believing that infering correctness against current business models, will innovate the business
Infering what ought to happen in a manufacturing business, as opposed to designing and successfully rolling out manufacturing business models that work, are different things. Yet if the business requirements are not clearly understood by business analysts and software engineers this is what can and often does happen. A key step to understanding why failures occur is because requirements are “second guessed” rather than being clearly agreed. If the direction is not clear or not understood it will not take long for a project to veer off course. So for example whilst a requirement is understood to be about making planning and scheduling improvements, managers may rightly look at training and education processes or software patches as an answer, however the business may require a review of the 18 month planning schedule and in turn the impact on simplifying master plans, lowering the amount of detailed planning and re-planning required and therefore reducing both planning and operational costs. The answers are not the same thing and only one drives business innovation!
Failure to consider functions and departments
There are numerous modelling techniques that analysts can use however by ignoring what happens at functional and job role level is a costly mistake, yet many business analysts use analytical tools that do not consider current business hierarchies, or how models will work to enable and ensure new processes will be adopted and how functions are accounted for. Designing a new process to develop master planning schedules will clearly affect a planning department, however how these plans are built and used will also affect many other functions and job roles within a business and will include changes to business data, that in turn can affect transactional system processes, business functions and management reports.
Ignoring data analysis
Since data is used in every business function it cannot be ignored as part of an innovation program yet it is often ignored in process design. This is because some business process models do not consider detailed data analysis in the same way they do not consider business functions. Or some business analysts do not understand data analysis or system design. Without the correct data however the business will not function efficiently or effectively so it is a mistake to ignore it. Changing sales information for example will affect the performance of sales and operational planning processes, impacting operational activity, order fulfillment, manufacturing cost and profit.
Not looking to the future
It is a mistake to concentrate heavily on how the business currently operates as opposed to what the business needs to be doing. Business analysts focussing on current operations will continue to patch up problems as opposed to making stronger innovation changes. For example by making a change to automate data collection in a manufacturing operation to save some managerial time only makes the current business process slightly more effective with some time savings. Whilst useful, more powerful innovation programs however will consider stronger business benefits based on business direction e.g. improving data collection that lead to actual business cost reductions, use of managerial time enabling business growth to be fulfilled, rationalising of business information to reduce IT costs, creating information that ensures regulatory and business compliance, etc.
These are just some classic business analyst mistakes.