Becoming a Best in Class Shipper – 10. Operational Excellence

Some companies have strong leaders with good strategies and good systems. Unfortunately, they don’t put the pieces together and therefore deliver less than stellar freight management results. In other words, the execution isn’t there.  Projects are identified but they don’t produce the desired results.

Some companies seem to adopt a “flavour” or “mission” of the month approach. They hire a consultant to adopt lean manufacturing, lean logistics or balanced scorecards. The tools to make these systems work are never put into place properly and before you know it, they criticize the consultant, move on to the next consultant and don’t accomplish much of value.

While these companies may be able to generate pretty reports, the programs were ill conceived in the first place. They don’t produce results. This can lead to the “blame game.”

Achieving operational excellence is not about sexy slogans and programs. It is about teamwork, communication and commitment. There has to be an identification of the root causes of the problems. There has to be a commitment from the leadership to fix the problems. The company leaders must stay the course to fix the problems. They cannot assume that since a program has been put in place, the results will come automatically.

There have to be ongoing team reviews, an honest and open exchange of ideas, and incremental improvements that can be supported by actual results.

Leadership is also critical. Some leaders simply set goals that are unrealistic and unattainable. If the company has an inherent culture of fear, nobody has the courage to tell the leader that the targets that have been established do not inspire support since everyone knows they won’t be accomplished before the projects are launched. In other words, the results must be demonstrated by the numbers and not be delusional or aspirational in nature. To become a Best in Class shipper, companies must put in place the ten principles outlined in these blogs and ensure that quantifiable results are measured and achieved over time.

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