An Operational Assessment is designed to help companies gain a clearer understanding of their current situation through the trained eyes of experienced professionals with the expertise to identify what is working well, what isn’t, and identifies areas that could be made more effective and/or efficient by the application of process improvements or technology. We start by identifying the Financial Drivers that impact your company. Generally, these are things like Revenue, COGS, Inventory, Fixed Assets, and others. Each Financial Driver is assigned to one of three financial metrics which we categorize as Growth, Profitability, and Capital Utilization. We then align them with the appropriate Business Process as well as Supply Chain Processes.

A Gap Analysis is conducted to determine any potential gaps in performance. When gaps are identified, we conduct Business Process Mapping to link the financial performance gaps to the underlying activities, tasks, and KPI’s. A comprehensive Business Impact Assessment then links the business processes needing improvement to RightFlow™. We then develop the Business Case to establish the Total Cost of Ownership, ROI, Risks, and Critical Success Factors. When the Assessment is concluded, you will have a clear roadmap of where you must go, you will understand the costs associated with the journey, and have an unambiguous picture of the return you should expect from the effort.

The benefits of an Operational Assessment go further than the obvious financial implications. Assessments today are critical because Supply Chain Management isn’t a competitive advantage anymore. It is simply ‘table stakes’ in the battle for tomorrow’s customers and profits. No longer can companies install software to ‘check the block’ and gain the highest and best performance for their business. Leading companies are now scheduling Operational Assessments periodically to meet several specific goals.

First, a Triennial Operational Assessment (TOA) helps companies maintain focus on the efforts to continually improve and adapt to the ever changing business environment. Employee turnover, changing priorities, and other factors often cause organizations to lose sight of the objectives they worked so hard to achieve. The TOA is excellent for validating past decisions, identifying the need for change, and making ‘mid course corrections’ without excessive rework or disruption. Second, many companies have found that an Annual Assessment (AA) in support of their Internal Controls and Review program is a cost effective method of having independent verification of compliance, risk, and material impact within the supply chain. We base the AA on your ICR program guidelines so you can be sure that it meets your needs. Third, any company considering making changes within their supply chain should consider an Initial Assessment (IA) as a starting point. It provides the road map you need to avoid the all too often found obstacles in the implementation phase of any project.