Exciting Times for Strategy Deployment Ltd

 
 

Spring is in the air. A new season is upon us, and strategy is uppermost in our thoughts here at SDL. We are a global organisation and we have long been thinking about how best to support our customers across all the different time zones. And so, our outgoing CEO Lewis Phillips has taken the bold initiative to establish a presence in APAC, based in Seoul, South Korea. The opportunities for growth in the region, has had the team talking for some time about such a move, and Lewis is uniquely placed, being fluent in the language of the region to make this bold step. This decision has not been taken lightly as you can imagine, as it effects not just Lewis but also his young family. We wish Lewis and his family all the best as they set up not just a new regional office, but a new life too. We thank Lewis for his guiding hand at the helm during his tenure as CEO and look forward to supporting him as he grows our presence in APAC.

That leaves a vacancy as CEO.

But not for long, there was an obvious candidate in our Head of Sales, Steve Matthews. We are privileged to welcome Steve to the role of CEO to drive the business forwards with his wealth of experience, sound thinking, and high principles. Congratulations Steve, we can’t wait for the next chapter!

“Excited and proud to have been asked to step into the CEO role here at SDL.

I have been working with the business for over 5 years and after such a challenging few years we are taking positive action to push us towards our long term objectives, some of which had to be put on hold while we battled and survived.

I’d like to thank my predecessor, my great friend and my colleague Lewis Phillips who has selflessly uprooted his family to set up our APAC office in Seoul, South Korea where we feel there is so much potential for our growth in the coming years.

Our global customer base will continue to expand and be supported with our operations now covering APAC, EMEA, North and South America. We are truly a global business.

I hope to develop on the foundations laid by Lewis, and Claire Phillips before him, and take SDL to the new heights and the help write the next chapter of our story.

We have lofty goals, great customers and a great team to help us achieve them.

Thanks Lewis and team SDL for your trust and faith.”

Steve Matthews - CEO, SDL

Consider the cauliflower...

It is perhaps no surprise that we have used the month of January to draw your attention to how we may be able to improve the setting, tracking, and execution of your New Year goals, targets and (ahem…) resolutions. Well…it is January.

The keeping of resolutions translates to the challenges customers face in keeping on top of their KPI’s in an ever-changing market or business landscape, were they not able to rely on a system that is flexible, agile and can respond at will to the needs of it’s users. Customer complaints, missed deliveries, non-fulfillment of orders, availability of parts, products at the right quality and the right price. In addition, we struggle in the UK with the lasting legacies of Brexit such as endless import complications, and soaring prices. Any of that sound familiar?

So, does your system turn on a pin, or does it move with the glacial speed of an oil tanker?

Let’s consider the cauliflower. Week in, week out, come rain or shine, one of our team has a real hankering for cauliflower cheese as a hero side dish to their Sunday lunch. No shock that along with a whole slew of other fresh produce, the quality of said cauliflower in the current economic climate is noticeably diminished.

The prices, however, are not.

We live in a time of ever-changing metrics, measures and KPI’s. Standards are redefined fluidly in response to global instability, supply chain issues, financial crisis. How can we continue to measure the quality of our producers? How do we track produce through customs?

How are YOU managing the speed of change in a perfect storm of resourcing issues, global economic crisis, Brexit, consequences of the war on Ukraine, an increasing energy crisis and the revolving doors of British politics? Can you make an agile response to such rapid change with the tools that you have? Do you have an accurate view of your business performance when the market has shifted by the end of a working day? Are you measuring up-to-the-minute accurate data?

Are you sure?

Back to the humble cauliflower. If you will, an analogy, a metaphor for business performance: standards lowered to compensate for supply issues; use by dates become guidelines only; ‘fresh’ produce sat rotting on the shelves; measures of quality reduced by as much as 50%; significantly reduced acceptable, usable produce; smaller poorer products ‘picked early’ to meet demand.

Empty shelves.

Here at SDL, we can’t claim to solve a global crisis, but we can significantly improve how you set, track, measure and execute on responsive KPI’s in a fluid and shifting business landscape.

One might even say immeasurably so.

The Seven Wastes of Christmas

 
 

As the Christmas holiday approaches rapidly, the team at SDL can’t help but take a lighter, more joyous train of thought, along with plenty of Christmas jumpers, discussion over favourite Christmas movies or songs, and whether brussel sprouts will be featured in our Christmas menu.

So instead of the twelve days of Christmas, we got to thinking about the seven wastes instead. We can look back with a modicum of pride that our partner solutions have been successfully deployed time and again to counter the seven wastes of manufacturing: Transport, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Over-processing, Over-production and Defects. That isn’t just good business for us, it’s good news for our customers too.

As a number of our customers are in tier one automotive you can imagine that implementing an integrated digital system with a high focus on lean methodology can be game-changing. We can even go one better with the additional “waste” of over AND under utilisation of resource.

So with a tool that has the potential to goal-set, track, report on, give you full visibility and ELIMINATE waste in all these areas, whatever your operation, you’re going to want to get in touch with us here at SDL. With a range of business models to suit the size of your organisation that’s got to be worth at least an initial chat.

Now… far be it from us to suggest that a solution like ours could be deployed to great effect at the North Pole, offering better utilisation of elves and reindeers, with an beady eye cast over toy processing, production and defects, and tracking transport and motion to get the big man home before Mrs Claus has too much cause for complaint. No. We wouldn’t dream of suggesting that we could give Santa and his workshop a leg up in the lean stakes, but at this time of year we’d be lying if we said that there hadn’t been a few water cooler “What if…” discussions!

Don’t wait to see if old St. Nick will bring you our solution as a surprise gift this year. Make it Happen Here

Kaizen. Good things never die.

kai·zen

[kʌɪˈzɛn]

NOUN

kaizen (noun)

a Japanese business philosophy of continuous improvement of working practices, personal efficiency, etc.

 Trends are typically cyclical. When you discover your teenager is listening to tunes from your childhood, or your “Mom” jeans are suddenly noticeably absent from your wardrobe, and TV programmes long since decommissioned get that ratings-busting reboot, you know that good things never really die.

This is certainly true of Kaizen, a term first used in the 1980’s to denote change for better, for improvement. Our professional services team have recently reported the increased usage across our Tier One Automotive customers of this globally tried and tested business practice. Kaizen lends itself to lateral and hierarchical change across a whole organisation, enterprise, or even industry.

We have recently seen examples of Kaizen being used for 3–5-day workshops to address bigger recurring issues that require formal sign off. But the strength of the Kaizen philosophy means that we are also seeing it deployed to make small almost instantaneous daily changes; simple ideas for improvement that can be implemented in less than a day with easy approval. For example, in manufacturing, spotting a hazard and correcting it before anything happens that may pose a risk to an employee. Tackling an easy fix to prevent an incident occurring that may have a significant economic impact, with a “just do it” attitude.

Fortunately, @Strategy Deployment Ltd we have a product that dovetails perfectly with Kaizen. Should our current customers choose to go down the Kaizen route we can easily flip the i-nexus solution to support them as they plan, execute, and track their CI goals.

With software that is so adaptable to several working methodologies, change can be realised without a radical infrastructure overhaul, or any considerable financial implications.

We go further. Let us connect you with our Strategic Partners @Enterprise Kaizen to ensure your kaizen activities are driving sustainable growth and predictable performance improvement.

 Kaizen. Good things never die

#kaizen #continuousimprovement #changemanagement