Control - the third step in POCM
In a series of articles Pat Sheridan talks about the various aspects of the management function under the headings of plan, organise, control and motivate (POCM). If you are responsible for the work of others and for achieving any kind of preordained results then you are, in fact, managing. Whether your title is manager, supervisor, team leader, charge hand or superintendent, you are actually managing and POCM applies to some degree. In this article we look at control, the third step in POCM.
Review
So far in this management series we have looked at the process of management in terms of planning and organising. The plan details what we are going do, when, where, how, who and the associated costs. Once these are clearly detailed the process of making it happen begins. This is the organising phase which we covered in the last article, i.e. putting into place the resources required to achieve the objectives detailed in the plan.
Once these resources begin to be employed incrementally (generally they do not all happen simultaneously), it is necessary to control the results arising from each factor put in motion. This process allows the manager to take corrective action when the targets set for the factor indicate a result which is less than that required. In other words the manager is controlling each activity.
The Control Activity
The Control activity has several ingredients such as monitoring the performance of the resource and taking corrective action when the performance drifts from the standards set or ideally before the performance drifts. In fact this control function begins with monitoring. It is important to have a wide variety of monitoring practices, procedures and systems in place and which suit the activity, to ensure that any possible deviations from standard performance are identified speedily to enable corrective action.
Monitoring identifies the issue and the control action is aimed at bringing the performance back in line.
These monitoring and control functions must be focused on external influences, sub contractors, outsourced services, sub assembly or hub services, external warehousing and supply chain, the market trends, customer or client base trends, as well as on internal departmental activities.
There are simple and complex monitoring and control systems depending on the company complexity and circumstances. The manufacturing process can, for example, have automated monitoring and control features which minimise quality or technical problems and costs by measuring and identifying each aspect of the process and sending signals of performance drifts. Such systems can even take direct actions either by modifying the automated process or shutting it down where the deviations could cause damage or loss.
The Control Process
The control process begins at the planning stage (all the POCM phases interrelate). Being able to monitor, control and modify must be related to what we determined we would do and what the circumstances now demand that we do.
The following are the key steps in the control process:
- Determining standards of quality, volume, cost, delivery objectives, etc. These should be the key contributors to the success of the service or manufacturing as defined in the plan.
- The various forms of measurement to be applied to determine performance against these preordained standards. This is an information requirement. What information do we need to measure against our standards and how and where do we get this?
- The frequency, priorities and the complexity of the monitoring and control processes to be utilised in relation to the performance comparisons needed.
- Determining the point-of-change triggers for each function or activity. In other words how far do we allow deviations from standard to drift before taking corrective action? There may be a range of considerations such as cost, ease of adjustment, etc. This is the crucial aspect of the process - deciding what to do when things are about to go wrong. This could be anything from a simple tooling adjustment to a major shift in the original plan. For example, major changes in the original plan because an order that was being processed had to be abandoned as the client due to take the product went out of business.
These control process activities apply in some shape or form to all business activities including finance, manufacturing, sales, engineering, warehousing, human resources, etc.
As stated in the organising article flexibility is an essential feature of management. Being able to make beneficial changes, when circumstances demand, can mean the difference between success and failure.
The sophisticated control systems which have evolved over the last twenty years, emanating initially from the high technology sector, are complex by necessity as there are so many variables involved involving high cost and therefore potentially high loss. They cover the process through planning, monitoring, control and delivery of raw materials on a just in time basis. Many companies now use control systems designed and supplied by external specialists such as SAP. The organisation APICS (the Association for Operations Management) have developed diploma programmes on a range of allied planning and control techniques such as Materials Requirements Planning (MRP), Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP), etc. Using the various approaches, companies can develop their own computer model to suit the company’s manufacturing environment.
Statistical process control models allow companies to have a structured approach to on-going analysis and improvement of any process through the capture and analysis of key process information.
Summary
As you may assume there is no end to the level of complex and sophisticated techniques and systems which you can develop and apply to monitoring and control of work. The important factor is to make it practical. In other words the information feedback loop should be a fast as possible for any activity to allow for a rapid response where change is needed. As mentioned in the last article, Organising - The Second Step in POCM, the control phase demands that you organise again or reorganise and even change the plan. Nothing should be cast in stone with regard to a plan. The plan is the best estimate at the time as to what the company needs to do. Being able to react effectively to market changes, competitor initiatives, new technology, etc must be a consideration and a key feature of the companies planning, organising and controlling activities.
