Operational Planning and Process Improvement Consultant
I am a Mechanical Engineer with a background working with both civilian and military organisations. I’ve worked on submarines, helicopters and jets, but now I work with the Business Process Framework, improving the operational performance of organisations. A common question I hear is how does my background relates to what I do now with the BPF? My response is that not much has changed. A Mechanical Engineer uses known, proven principals to design/modify/improve a machine, like a submarine or a helicopter; now I do exactly the same thing, but instead of a machine, I use the proven principals of the BPF to make improvements to an organisation. I’m a Business Engineer!
Often the challenge is not identifying the appropriate strategies, or even the use of the tools in their identification, but the implementation of a new way of thinking. The Principals of the BPF often challenge the current paradigms in an organisation, and it is these that stand in the way of a company meeting its true potential. Implementing a change can be the biggest challenge, but also the most rewarding, of which I have had much experience in my time working with the BPF. I have been involved in the roll-out of the BPF at two companies, Anglo-Gold Ashanti and Anglo-American.
Primarily specialising in the front end of the process, namely the Strategic and Operational-Planning. This has involved development of strategies for the operations through the modelling of the process, informed selection of feasible and appropriate strategies, and the development of achievable work schedules to ensure consistently stable operations that much more reliably meet their targets.