Many industrial equipment companies, like other manufacturers, benefited from the recent market upturn. But a softening global market is reversing that upswing, forcing OEMs to reexamine their operating costs and capabilities in response to shrinking demand.
During the upturn, capacity constraints made it difficult for OEMs to keep pace with surging demand. As a consequence, they faced the dilemma of investing in new, cost-intensive facilities or squeezing more out of their existing assets to remain competitive. According to Accenture research, many planned on pursuing the latter.
在当今正在削弱的工业设备市场中，采用相同的方法来从当前的运营中获得更多的作用，这比以往任何时候都更有意义。决定从现有资产中提取更多资产以在当前业务环境中占上风的OEM在他们之前有许多选择。一种选择是复活卓越的运营团队，这些团队明确专注于优化运营和提高盈利能力。
Integral to making operations more proficient, particularly at times of market decline, is managing costs. During the last downturn, our research found that leading industrial companies did not arbitrarily cut costs for short-term gain. Instead, they strategically reduced them to allow the organization to reinvest in product innovation and market expansion to remain competitive in the changing market. It is an approach that is still valid today, and should be part of an operational excellence team’s focus.
As companies rebuild their operational excellence teams, they should do so by charging them with a focus on specific areas where lean production principles can be applied. These key areas include:
Cost.When demand was high, OEMs faced the challenge of keeping their cost-per-unit basis steady. Continuing that practice will be more important than ever. Transparency also should be maintained in managing costs to identify hidden opportunities to reduce them and channel cost savings into driving growth.
Capacity.Whether the market is strong or not, operational excellence teams should continuously evaluate the status of their organization’s capacity to be prepared for any significant market shift. This includes identifying major constraints in the manufacturing process, and devising solutions to eliminate or minimize them to adjust or increase capacity where needed, in a way that will be profitable.
Automation.Increasing the use of automation also can improve efficiency and productivity. For example, completely automating production lines can provide manufacturers with a wide range of information not available from a non-automated process to increase efficiency and output. This includes having information about production starts and stops, slowdowns, downtime and quality issues. Applying digital and other technology solutions to operations and assets can further aid efficiency and productivity.
Asset reliability.卓越运营团队还应专注于确保资产的可靠性，以最大程度地减少停机时间并保持资产尽可能高效地运行。应用分析（尤其是预测分析）可以帮助OEM连续监控和预测其资产的可靠性。有了这种智能，他们可以组织和安排维护活动，以对生产产生最小的影响，并积极识别并避免潜在的昂贵分解。
Profitability.To aid profitability, teams will need to concentrate on the most critical points in the value stream, where their efforts can generate the biggest bottom-line returns. Achieving this will require that companies provide them with specific profitability and value targets to meet.
The recent shift in the industrial equipment market has reinforced the fact that change is constant and is becoming a normal working environment. OEMs that can apply strategies such as operational excellence to prevail no matter the market conditions will continue to succeed.
>>安迪·霍华德，richard.a.howard@accenture.com, is managing director of the Automotive and Industrial Equipment Group atAccenture.
