Proudfoot News

There’s no question that big data and artificial intelligence are transforming business processes, and procurement is no exception. In the past, global sourcing was a costly process that was only effective for businesses with a global presence. Thanks to digitization, it is now available to every business at a fraction of the cost of the conventional approach. This allows even a small procurement team with limited resources to discover and evaluate thousands of new suppliers within seconds, giving them a far greater chance to find higher-quality and lower-cost material sources.

Not only is strategic sourcing much faster with digitization, it also requires much less effort. Cloud-based solutions can be developed with no investment in IT infrastructure, and since evaluating candidates and processing each stage of the funnel is highly automated, sourcing initiatives that used to take months can be completed in weeks. Procurement professionals are unburdened to focus more time on their value-adding core tasks.

Whether you want to drive more competition within your existing supplier base or quickly develop suppliers for a new market segment or geography, digital sourcing has become a proven solution.

But how can you ensure the anticipated returns from your digital investment?

Many SG&A improvement initiatives and cost-reduction measures look like a success on paper when in fact tremendous value was left on the table. For some, it was because the strategy lacked a sufficiently granular evaluation of opportunities and trade-offs. This alone is enough to undermine the benefit of hitting a savings target while sacrificing far more than necessary in the process.

But another opportunity often missed is when the strategy doesn’t take into account the value of the interrelationships between people and processes, and the potential of these interrelationships to generate future value within the new organizational design.

Trade tariffs are especially problematic for heavy equipment manufacturers, as many rely heavily on cross-border supply chains.  The tariffs could represent an increase in costs of production by 6% for agriculture and construction equipment and 7% for mining equipment, according to an IHS Markit/AEM report. 

Many equipment manufacturers are not able to pass the rising cost of steel to their customers. But the costs have to be offset somehow, leading many manufacturers to look for fresh approaches to eliminate longstanding supply chain inefficiencies and increase productivity.

Most manufacturers⁠—even successful ones⁠—aren’t seeing anywhere near the levels of productivity that their operations are capable of. It’s not for lack of trying; when embarking on a continuous improvement journey to drive excellence in productivity, manufacturers often experience steady progress in the beginning but eventually run into a wall. After all the quick wins have been exhausted, it can become increasingly difficult to capture substantial productivity gains as the project progresses.

How do you go beyond low-hanging fruit to reach that next level of productivity?

The results from implementing a continuous improvement program can diminish over time for a number of reasons.

It is critical to keep up with your competition’s ability to bring new and innovative products to market, yet many companies suffer from excessively long and costly engineering cycles. Most engineering programs aren’t reaching the levels of productivity possible due to a range of issues. 

How do you enable your engineers to deliver better results at a lower cost?

The first step is to initiate an Engineering Productivity Opportunity Assessment. This two-week analysis shows you your engineering program from all perspectives, giving you a granular view of inefficiencies across all facets. It charts a course to unlock your engineering team's true potential by addressing your pain points at the root of the problem.

Sometimes challenges can stem from engineers spending too much time on admin work or getting involved in unnecessary meetings, but in most cases underperformance is due to the compounded impact of many interrelated problems which requires a holistic solution.

For many businesses, improving contact center performance and efficiency represents one of the fastest ways to achieve significant cost savings and revenue growth. Crucial to the success of every contact center is creating a healthy balance between outstanding customer service, employee satisfaction, and cost efficiency. Accomplishing all three of these goals in the most efficient way possible can seem like a big challenge, but it’s an even bigger opportunity to maximize your return on investment in this critical function.

So how do you enable your contact center to deliver better results at a lower cost?

In June 2018, Angus Maclean, a leader in Proudfoot’s Global Building Materials Practice discussed next-generation Target Operating Models (TOM) with Global Cement Magazine.

Some things take time and that’s the case for the consulting industry icon, Proudfoot, as they announce the next step in the transformation of a 72-year-old consulting brand with the introduction of their all new leadership team line up in the US.

McKinsey’s 2018 transformation survey casts a dark shadow on the odds of your transformation success: They quote a 74% failure rate. They ask if yours is ‘doomed to fail?’.  We’re embarrassed for our industry when we read these results. With statistics like that, I almost want to ask, ‘why bother at all?’ But I know transformation doesn’t have to fail.

Let's face it, 2016 doesn't look any easier. With the stock market in turmoil and oil prices plummeting, it is safe to assume global CEOs in almost every industry will face a daunting combination of external fiscal pressures, competitive forces, misguided strategies, ineffective business plans and lackluster improvement efforts. In the aftermath of this perfect storm, companies will struggle to reach their goals. 

As the old saying goes, the only constant in business is change. Inevitably, all organizations will at some point need to evolve by implementing a more structured and radical change program. There are several reasons for this including increased competition, lack of stakeholder confidence, reputation of the business at stake and technological advances.

Achieving significant improvement in financial and operational results requires the following elements that promote organizational change:

Critical to the success of every bank is creating a healthy balance between outstanding customer service and employee satisfaction. Establishing a customer-first mentality starts with developing a framework of processes, systems and behaviors that support the customer experience.

Safety nowadays is just as relevant in the oil and gas industry as it was 10 years ago. And, while the industry continues to make great strides to reduce the amount of job-related injuries, the reality is the same safety policies and procedures that have been in place for years are simply not enough to prevent fatalities. Based on our depth of experience working with oil and gas executives,

Alexander Proudfoot would like to congratulate one of its Advisory Board members, Ozires Silva for winning the Personality of the Year Award from the Sales and Marketing Leaders of Brazil Association (ADVB). 

The ability to run operations at full capacity, and then sustain them, is a major challenge for the mining industry. Vital tasks, such as crushing and transferring minerals, are suffering because people and equipment are not being utilized properly. The end result is low productivity and the high costs that are associated with it. However, our recent findings show that it in many cases it is possible to increase productivity in mining between 20 - 40%, reduce supply costs between 10 - 15% and cut energy costs by 2 - 10% through effective asset management.

Last week, Alexander Proudfoot had the privilege of participating in this year's Kaiser Permanente Corporate 5K Run/Walk and Fitness Program. Approximately 80 employees from Proudfoot and its sister company, Kurt Salmon, participated in the event.

Knowledge transfer a must

In the natural resources industry, companies are faced with the daunting challenge of maintaining current production levels despite an industry-wide shortage of skilled workers. For example, the lack of college graduates specializing in mining operations