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What do you do?
Through my company, Initiate Action,
I
help other companies achieve new heights in materials and
spares inventory management performance. I am the Principal Consultant
at Initiate Action and the developer of the process and tools that are
applied.
How do you do help companies improve their results?
We
work to improve the skills and understanding of key
personnel and develop the management processes that influence the materials
management and inventory performance.
Everyone understands that for lasting success the work must be done by your
team members as this is the best way to get them to ‘buy into’ the results
and change their mindset about what is possible. We achieve this by not
bringing in a team of consultants and by working with the client team to
identify and then make the changes. I know that everyone says this but with
me I must do this as there is no one else! (You may know that previously I
was
a Principle for a global consulting firm, 5,000 consultants and 65 offices,
so I know all about bringing in a team of consultants and the failings of
that approach.)
So, you do things like JIT?
JIT is just one of 7 actions that that can be applied to
materials and spares inventory management. What we do is help
companies determine which approaches are best suited to their situation.
So what do you do?
For inventory review we apply an approach I call
Inventory Process Optimization™,
this involves a combination of management review and individual parts
review. The parts review is completed using the 7 Actions for Inventory
Reduction.
My approach helps teams establish their independence and helps them see
the solutions from their own experience. Really I am providing the
process for them to discover the real potential in their inventory.
So you do training?
We do some training but mostly our success comes from
working with the client to identify and implement changes to their own
systems. Improving awareness and understanding through training is just a
part of that.
So you work with all types or inventory?
No we specialize in MRO, materials management, and spare parts
inventory.
How are you different to other providers?
It comes from a combination of things:
-
Our focus is on
implementing improvements, not just identifying them. (That’s why the
company is called Initiate Action.) Our competitors, for the most part,
are looking to sell software.
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We understand that the
key to our clients’ success is in skills and process development.
Software solutions don’t provide this they really just recalculate the
result; they don’t aim to change the system of management.
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We are specialists in
this area this is not an ‘add on’ service, this is what we do! Our
principal, Phillip Slater, has written several books on inventory
management, is a regular speaker at conferences, and even does training
for the Production and Inventory Control Society (apics).
-
We provide a range of
services from consulting to training to implementation. This includes
Implementing new inventory management processes, modifying existing
processes, developing stock policies, optimizing inventory and safely
reducing inventory levels.
-
Our approach is about
preventing problems rather than just correcting the effect of past
problems. If you don’t take preventive actions then the old problems just
return again.
If you rely principally on one person
how can you service a company of our size?
They key is the way I work. By involving your team,
rather than bringing in a team, I ensure a skills transfer and this
helps deliver lasting results. The thing to remember is that your team needs
a combination of skill and process improvement not necessarily more people.
Also, when appropriate, we can pilot a program and then
train your people to roll it out across your organization.
Finally, because we have developed a Global Partner Network we have access
to other companies that we have trained in the application of our processes.
But my team are all busy.
Sure
they are but aren't they always busy? The issue is priority and getting the best from your time and
money. If you go for a quick and dirty solution that doesn’t change the
team’s behaviors and skills then you will keep getting the same result.
They key question is - how important is this to you?
I am not sure about working
with a small company.
The advantages of this
are:
-
You deal directly with
the principal and decision maker, this makes us more responsive and more
flexible in delivery. Consulting firms lack this because they all
focus on employee utilization.
-
You aren’t paying for
people to learn the consulting business.
-
Our approach is
tailored we are not providing ‘off the shelf’ packages. Many people don't
realize that big firms need to use standard approaches as a way of
maximizing the efficiency of their team, not your team!
-
Our expenses will be
less because you are not paying for a team of people.
And at the end of the
day you are paying for value and results, not quantity and size.
Also with respect to size, all
large companies are really made up of smaller operating units and the best
way to work through that is to establish ‘clusters’ that work on a program
together. Each cluster knows that the others are going through the program
and we are able to then take the learning from one cluster and apply that to
another.
What about working with a
guy from Australia?
I
have been providing consulting services all over the world since 1994.
During that time I have worked in more than a dozen countries from Europe,
the Middle East, throughout Asia and in North America. This really is no impediment to
a successful project. The 'travel issue' is also something of a myth.
The costs of travel are much lower these
days than they have been in the past and it would be unlikely to be even 10%
of the total cost of engagement – even less if you only consider the ‘extra’
over flying in a local consultant!
Also, when I was with global consulting firms I
ran programs across Asia and North America, including Australia, China,
Japan, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Canada, Mexico and the
USA. For those programs I had teams working across locations while I
provided the operational insight and leadership. In short, I have experience
in successfully running programs simultaneously across a number of different
countries.
What about risk management?
Anyone engaging an external resource needs
to consider the risk issues associated with that engagement. Can they do the
job? Will they do the job? Will they engage or alienate my team? Will they
leave me hanging of there is a problem? My response is that as a known
entity with a global reputation for successful outcomes Phillip Slater is
perhaps your lowest risk option for addressing materials and spare parts
management issues.
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