During the recent OpEx summit, one of our operational excellence experts participated to a panel discussion titled "Unlocking the Secrets to Successful OpEx Programs" alongside other experts Azeeza Sunmonu, EMEA Head of Commercial Operations & Excellence at GE Healthcare; Maritza Helfferich, Senior Manager Brand Communications Operations at Adidas; Sachin Sankpal, Head of Group Excellence of Digitalization at Vynova Group; and Philippe Lefranc, Global Head of Strategy and Program Delivery, External Affairs at Philip Morris International.

The persistent and pervasive challenge of food loss within agri-food supply chains is a multifaceted issue that has far-reaching implications for the industry's economic sustainability and the global food ecosystem's resilience. This white paper is a pioneering exploration into the complex labyrinth of food loss, offering innovative insights, actionable strategies, and a comprehensive understanding of the intricacies of this challenge.

A number of global phenomena have impacted – and are still impacting – all markets and businesses in 2024. These include: the Covid-19 pandemic; wars in Europe and the Middle East; extreme weather conditions; the decreasing birth rate in industrialized countries; the acceleration of migration flows; and the acceleration of digitalization – in particular the introduction of AI. All of these are likely to continue, presenting consumer goods companies with a number of challenges.

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We wanted to share with you a conversation that took place last week regarding the CSRD, Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, between an executive of an industrial company and an EFESO consultant.

Le 8 novembre 2023, les Assises de l'Industrie, organisées par L’Usine Nouvelle, se sont tenues aux Salons de l'Aveyron. Un événement majeur qui a permis aux acteurs industriels de réfléchir et débattre sur la réindustrialisation en France.

The automotive industry is in the middle of the biggest transformation ever. E-mobility, autonomous driving, connected vehicles and much more require a recalibration or even transformation of entire business models and supply chains. In addition, companies have had to contend with highly volatile and complex demands and supply markets in recent years - and there is no real end in sight to these challenges.

On October 6th, EFESO hosted an insightful executive event around the theme of greenhouse gas reduction. It served as a dynamic forum for industry key players to address solutions to implementing sustainable, long-term strategies within the challenging context of Europe's ambitious sustainability agenda.

Cost-out management & becoming future ready often seem to be contradictory, but they are not in fact, both embody the central demands of our time.

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Companies are increasingly calling on consultants to improve their industrial operations. “Our integrated approach to working on performance improvement, digitization, human dynamics and sustainable development, help our clients build a sustainable industrial future,” says Didier Brackenier, Managing Director at EFESO Management Consultants.

Every chemical company has safety rules, analysis tools, dashboards and a keen awareness of safety processes.

Industrial leaders around the world recognize that sustainability can no longer be overlooked. Climate change has been on the agenda since the 1980’s but it hasn’t necessarily changed the way we do business.

The use of hydrogen as a fuel is not a recent phenomenon. Major OEMs were investing in this technology back in the 1990s but it remained an enticing mirage, never quite within reach. Now, however, it could become a major factor in the fight to slow down climate change.

Création de valeur ajoutée et d’emplois, exportations, souveraineté dans des secteurs stratégiques, pour toutes ces raisons la France a besoin de muscler son industrie. La réussite d’un projet industriel connait différents déclencheurs. Roberto Maroncelli, DG et Jean-Marc Giraudeau, VP au sein du cabinet de conseil EFESO France, nous les dévoilent.

When creating your plant strategy, you should be asking yourself the following questions: are my maintenance and reliability efforts providing a tangible and consistent competitive advantage?

A scenario of lights and shadows

The world of the vehicles and mobility is experiencing a very delicate phase, of profound and rapid transition to a future that still presents highlights and shadows, and plenty of uncertainty.

Russia is a leading player in Titanium industry for aerospace via its company VSMPO-AVISMA, main supplier of all western OEMs and engines manufacturers.

How Industrial Operations are transforming the way we live and work

In a recent interview Bruno Machiels & Luca Lecchi, co-CEOs of EFESO Management Consultants discussed how industrial operations and human ingenuity are totally transforming the world we live in.

The Covid-19 crisis has left its mark on the aircraft and defense industry, with the decline in activity changing the break-even point for firms across the sector. Nonetheless, the industry held out well in 2020/21 due, in particular, to State-guaranteed social and financial assistance programs which limited the number of bankruptcies.

Companies with Synchronized value chains will dynamically adapt and respond faster to the “new normality”. The competitive gap between those companies leading the Sync race, and those yet to get started is only set to grow wider. It’s time for busi­ness leaders to embrace Sync and capitalize on the opportunities that synchronized end to end operations can bring.

The positive impacts of Predictive Maintenance are broad and should be considered holistically, argue EFESO Management Consultants ’s Erik Weytjens & Sebastian Grundstein. Adopting these ‘rose garden rules’ will ensure that success is visible right across your business.

Businesses are built on Strategy – a long term plan, created for the company to reach a desired future state, envisioned as business goals and objectives.

Privacy, digital democracy, data value, monetization, ownership, blockchains, cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence, … Every activity on the Net leaves traces and user information. Constantly connected devices involve privacy risks. Rules and transparency needed to manage the Digital Society.

Digitization has been transforming the fabric of modern industrialization for three decades. The benefits brought by digitization in improving productivity and in creating new businesses are overwhelming. Therefore, the process of transformation will continue and likely will boost in the next decades.

Today, almost in the last quarter of the dramatic 2020 year, many organizations are not only at risk financially, but are at risk of losing their relevance, of becoming the dinosaurs of our modern world. COVID-19 has launched Digital and Technology with an amazing speed in the top 3 on the priority list of the CEO's. The speed of development of Digitization and Technological progression (DigiTech) is accelerating. It not only changes the Tech side of organizations. It also impacts leadership and people systems. In this article I will guide you through Five Imperatives of DigiTech Leadership I have identified.

What learnings can we gather from the experience of Covid-19 and what will we change in our legacy business models?

This pandemic crisis, having “frozen” current business models, is creating a significant disruption to the worldwide economy. The impact varies from sector to sector, some exceptions being e-commerce and life sciences but, overall, it is trending towards a global recession. How far and how long the recession will be is the question that we all have. What is clear, is that this new “shut-in” economy requires change. Fast and deep. 

The new capabilities offered by Digitalization are significantly changing existing Supply Chains. It would be unwise to consider digitalization just as a performance boost of existing activities. In fact, digitalization can be the first step to new Value Propositions, new Value Chains and even New Business Models. But, it is not possible to identify these new opportunities and implement new business configurations while still looking at the business with today’s understanding. To do this would hide the real potential of a new technological business environment. The best way to understand new Value Propositions is by using a helicopter overview of business ecosystem trends jointly with a review of newly available digitalized solutions. A cross-industry perspective is also recommended.

When is a CMO not a CMO?

by Hugh Williams

Contract Manufacturing Organisations (CMOs), particularly in Asia, are facing some interesting times and challenges. In their own countries, they are looking at how to respond to growth, different buying practices in China, and an ageing and maturing market. In the West, they have to satisfy growing complexity and an increasingly complicated demand model that is looking for much faster delivery, smaller batch sizes, and customer centricity.

How we can build a state of the art manufacturing exploiting the whole potential of Technology and Digital solutions

by Filippo Mantegazza

Last week I attended the yearly show of digital and manufacturing 4.0 at the #HM19. I had the chance to visit and, as anybody else, I was really impressed by the level and numbers achieved by Technology. Today the industrial and logistics environments can really take a big step forward. The technology is ready, available and more accessible than before. All the consolidated companies are continuously progressing, and new companies are rising to the challenge. Digital and Virtual Reality are developing dramatically and increasing the depth of process management and productivity and widening the manageable horizons.

Operational Excellence programmes were, and still are, important components on the management agenda of companies from many different industries. According to a study recently carried out by EFESO, in partnership with ICIS, more than 75% of the responding companies rate OPEX as a top 3 or top 5 agenda item.

The book "WCOM™: why you need more than Lean" captures the reasons why 5 global enterprises (St. Gobain, L’Oréal, Groupe Bel, Tetra Pak and Bemis), with combined revenues of over 100B€, have adopted World Class Operations Management (WCOM™) in more than 1000 plants across the world.

7 winning strategies identified and described

Is it possible to create lasting value in today’s food industry? Is this something that you can still achieve? The added value created by the food industry in mature markets like Europe as a whole is mostly stagnant, if not actually decreasing.

Identifying 8 forms of human waste

The book ‘Performance Behavior’ (by Neil Webers) describes how an organization can link performance to behavior to minimize waste and optimize performance behavior.

Why You Need More Than Lean

A new book about World Class Operations Management (WCOM™/WCM) has been released.