5 Quick Steps to Strategize for 2021
The year 2020 increased financial strain on businesses. As we recover, here are a few recommendations to put a plan in place, so your team can get through the next set of challenges.
Your team should address challenges daily, arriving at solutions that not only address the issue at hand but prevent it from recurring. For example, monetizing inventions, identifying multiple avenues, increasing working capital and improving cash flow to manage risk through negotiated contracts.
Here are things to think about as you gather your team together to strategize:
- Match supply and demand as close to 1:1 as possible. The marketplace will get tighter, and forecasting is increasingly challenging, so supply flexibility is critical to recovery or sustained performance.
- Perform an honest assessment of your business in nine critical areas: management, sales and marketing, human resources, finance and administration, operations, engineering, materials, quality, and program management. Use the results to develop a roadmap to close the gaps that are exposed.
- Focus on financial health. Get your debt under control, manage working capital, gauge capital performance against investment, and then redirect strategically. Stabilize the business by being brutally honest about your position and not waiting to correct course.
- Drive efficiency by looking past equipment, technology, and people to process. Adopt a “go see” mentality and look for physical and transactional waste. Improve/update your manufacturing software that promotes workforce optimization. ERP [Enterprise Resource Planning] and MES [Manufacturing Execution System] cohesively integrates every department within your organization, creating a connected workforce that can efficiently work together to serve your customers best.
- Sustainability Regrind, Reuse, Recycle. Molders, material suppliers, and mold builders make sustainability a top priority. Well aware of the growing concerns surrounding plastic recyclability and sustainability, these CEOs/owners have taken steps to be at the forefront in addressing these issues. They believe success is not simply measured in dollars and cents. It is the satisfaction of knowing that they help their customers deliver revolutionary products – and that their end-users benefit greatly from their involvement.
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