1 March 2007

A true growth plan: Global collaboration

By Jim Pinto

Businesses today face increasing pressure to boost innovation, accelerate time to market, and reduce costs. To compete on a global scale, manufacturers must keep finding more and better ways to streamline collaboration between globally dispersed product design and manufacturing teams.

The concept of global collaboration has expanded significantly during the past decade. A plethora of software tools is now available for all phases and stages of business processes. Because technology continues to accelerate, control concepts such as feed-forward, as well as feedback (once considered only the realm of arcane process-control theory), see use in business processes. Examples include: Feed-forward to alert downstream operations of innovations and changes in materials and processes; and feedback to stabilize the supply chain.

Today, companies are no longer competing as isolated entities. Modern business processes involve different organizations, both within a company and across many companies, linked together in a value network or extended supply chain. Activities must be coordinated among functionally and geographically dispersed groups, alliance partners, and outsourced facilities. Business systems must synchronize between customers and, in some cases, customer’s customers; distributors and sales channel partners; materials and sub-product suppliers; outsourced and/or contract manufacturers; distribution, warehousing, and transportation logistics partners; and maintenance and service providers.

Collaborative software is a big thing these days. However, the obvious advantages are just now coming out. This is because successful implementation is not trivial; it involves getting people in many different locations, with disparate priorities and needs (and often-different cultures and languages), to cooperate meaningfully. Without total commitment, from management down to operating levels, collaboration only gets lip service and does not lead to anything more than the futility of remote blame.

Consider another trend in recent years—offshore outsourcing. This is really just a form of global collaboration. It includes not only manufacturing, but extends to innovation, design, engineering, and other functions. It is not relevant whether the work is outsourced to a local or globally remote organization, owned by the company, or completely independent. The results are the same.

Today, collaborative enterprises with global scope are winning the game. They streamline end-to-end business and supply chain processes, distribute information across various businesses to boost mutual responsiveness, agility, and customer-centricity.

Related links:

• InTech e-News – Become proactive in the global environment:
  http://tinyurl.com/2a74dc
• Global Collaboration—Worth Striving For
  http://www.automationworld.com/view-2068
• InTech e-News – Hard truths about globalization
  http://tinyurl.com/26tnkx

Behind the byline

Jim Pinto is an industry analyst and founder of Action Instruments. You can e-mail him at jim@jimpinto.com or view his writings at www.JimPinto.com. Read the Table of Contents of his book, Pinto’s Points at www.jimpinto.com/writings/points.html.