Problem Solving is your Operations Superpower

🔊 Do you Problem Solve in your business❓
If you are not, you are missing out on the savings and improvements it can bring. Even when you don’t think you have problems to solve. Sounds strange I’m sure problem solving is the 1st step to improving your business and it can be used to either
💥Solve Problems
💥Improve Performance

I grew up in the Manufacturing industry in Ireland. Things were very tight, there was no choice but have everything running like a steam train. China was starting to become popular for outsourcing. We had to compete and we could only do that by problem solving

💥And that is problem solving everything💥
And this started by asking questions

✅Why throughput efficiencies were only 85% and not 90%?
✅Why our quality metric, right 1st time, was only 90% and not 95%?
✅Why our sales conversions were only 75% and not 85% (even though target was 65%)?
✅Why our customer retention was only 80% and not 90%?

Problem solving, was not just used to solve problems. It was used to improve performance, even where we were exceeding targets. See problems are opportunities in disguise and at the time, there was no margin for error

To this day, I use problem solving to continually improve performance and I’ve used it in many different scenarios

✅Why our customers don’t buy from us (and how to remove these issues)?
✅Why our customers don’t stay with us?
✅Why our lead times are longer than the competition?
✅Why our suppliers are too expensive?
✅Why our suppliers lead times are too long?

And then the more traditional uses to improve efficiencies and to stop issues repeating

At its fundamental level, problem solving creates capacity in your business. The more issues you solve in your business (All areas). The more time you have to do more things

So guess what that can give you❓

✅Room for more sales in your operations
✅And when you get more sales, it’s double profits
✅As you are fulfilling them without adding resources

Essentially you have taken the 1st step in scaling your business and that is doing it without scaling your cost. Problem solving is an essential element of your business development and success journey. The more you do it, the better your performance

If you have any questions, please let me know

Have a great day

#futurestateacademy #systemsthinking #business #opportunities #success #sales #manufacturing #quality