“The end result didn't tie up with the project objectives”, “bad service delivery” or “the operations don't reflect the organisations' strategies and objectives” have become common phrases in South Africa today. Across service sectors the person assisting the client seems to react in opposition to the strategy mapped out on the wall as part of the organisation and department's vision and mission. Often the workforce is blamed and in some instances fingers are pointed at the decision-makers drafting the strategies. However, more often the external complexities (such as current economic influences, labour regulations, socio-economic responsibilities etc.) and a lack of translation of strategy into executable processes are the main cause for misalignment.
The Fourier Centre of Excellence in Complexity (CEC), fully endorsed by the Innovation Hub Activator, focuses its effort on taking the organisations' strategies and translating them into optimised processes and organisational structures that efficiently support the product/service offering of the business. Measures are also put in place to allow the organisation to track progress and create a controllable environment in order to ultimately result in resilient operations.
The Fourier CEC was established as a result of private enterprise, academic institutions and research partners that joined forces in an effort to develop a model towards achieving operational excellence in complex reality, commonly found in South Africa. The consortium comprises of Fourier Approach, an industrial engineering consultancy, and the University of South Africa (UNISA).
The consortium developed an Operational Excellence in Complex Reality model and related methodologies that assist with the design, development, implementation and measurement of operational processes within a complex environment while striving to realise the organisational strategies in a resilient operation.
The model highlights that in order to translate strategies into resilient operations, a properly designed organisational structure, innovative processes and well-defined products and services are required.
Organisational structure includes the structural design, job specification and alignment of people to the available positions. This interacts with the process innovation which consist of a planning phase (aligning processes with strategies), design and improvement phase (design, improve, validate and automate processes) and a measure and control phase (defining KPIs and business intelligence).
According to Professor Ren'e Pellissier, Chair of the Department of Business Management at UNISA: “The aim with this model is to develop an overall framework and underlying methodologies that will facilitate process innovation and organisational development, given a formalised strategy within such an organisation.”
The Fourier CEC's initial offering is in the form of a consulting service, taking the client through the process of design, innovation, implementation, measurement and control, towards resilient operations with specific, but not exclusive, focus on state and semi-state organisations. The Fourier Centre of Excellence in Complexity is also available to assist in the operations after the optimisation process has been completed, in order to ensure that the organisation is stable and resilient. Future offerings will include the Fourier Operational Excellence manuals and guidelines towards excellence and sustainable operations.
According to Kobus Fick, CEO of Fourier Approach: “Fourier is proud to be part of the Fourier CEC consortium and Activator; our main focus will be to establish a blueprint organisational development lifecycle that organisations can use to achieve resilient operations. We want to train other consulting companies to implement this framework with their customers, using their products and services, since this model does not bind itself to technology or practice. It is a framework to achieve resilient operations.”
For further information contact Fourier at www.fourier.co.za or phone (012) 667 3232.
Share