Transformation and Acceleration

Controlling and anticipating the uncertainties inherent in a major industrial program optimizing its costs and planning, and guaranteeing that documentation is in compliance are major challenges for manufacturers. Depending on the size of the project, the development phase or the specific industrial context, several methodologies need to be implemented: structuring the organization of the project and resource management, drawing up and managing execution schedules, defining management indicators and monitoring milestones, or even value analysis and designing cost-effective critical systems, etc.

The growing complexity of organizations and their ecosystems is leading to economic and human costs. Simplifying decision-making, operating methods and interfaces has therefore become a priority in the industry to improve the efficiency of organisations. Simplifying not only means reducing complexity, but also harmonizing processes, clarifying roles and responsibilities (both within teams and between BUs, jobs and/or regions), and promoting accountability and agility within teams. 

The abundance of data, new technologies and artificial intelligence are redefining industry paradigms. This revolution is opening up unprecedented horizons for creating new products and services, listening more closely to customers, optimising the way organizations operate and making more effective decisions thanks to in-depth data analysis. However, it is important to ask the right questions: what are the relevant use cases for your sector and your business? What level of maturity have you reached in terms of using your internal data? How do the new tools fit into your existing IT architecture? What skills need to be developed? 

The economic world is changing, and so are the skills needed to navigate the industrial world. New professions are emerging, while others are disappearing. This calls for a proactive approach from managers to not only rethink business processes, but also to support talent within organisations:  

• accurately identify the future skills that will be essential to implementing your strategy tomorrow;  
• assess the team sizes needed for today’s and tomorrow’s projects (workforce planning);  
• plan and manage the effort required to achieve your objectives.  

The need to transform companies is not new, but the speed and frequency of these transformations have accelerated considerably. Whether we’re talking about a reorganisation, the introduction of new working methods or the adoption of a new company-wide tool, change management is an imperative that should be considered one of the project’s key components from the very start. To ensure team buy in, you need to be able to listen to them, explain the individual impact of the transformation, and make the change concrete.  

Sometimes a company is missing one crucial cultural attribute (empowerment, calculated risk-taking, the performance mindset or customer focus, for example) and the entire implementation of a roadmap gets bogged down. Beyond quantifiable results, there are methods to create the conditions for engagement and to bring about long-term changes in individual and collective behaviour.