Improving the organization means intervening at different levels:

• Understand the alignment between strategic priorities and structures, processes, people and management tools;
• Define the organizational structure by clarifying articulation, objectives, responsibilities, reference processes for each function and defining the coordination mechanisms between the different units;
• Map the operational or support processes (As-Is) and reconfigure them (To-Be) to ensure efficiency, that is, ability to maximize output while minimizing committed resources and adapting their effectiveness, that is, adequacy of results to the needs of the external (or internal customer);
• Size structures correctly both quantitatively and qualitatively;
• Provide the organization of personnel management systems to guarantee that the new structure produces results over time (job description, performance assessment systems, skills assessment systems, position weighing, remuneration systems,  employee  satisfaction surveys).

What we offer

NoE offer an integrated approach that blends general management skills, specific methodologies such as “lean office” and “organizational network analysis” that are proprietary software for organizational analysis and performance management.

How do we work: The project phases

• Step 1. Insight into the competitive environment and identification of the business priorities
  Objective: define the company’s framework and explain the internal (strategy) and external (competitive context) factors that help to determine the current organizational structure also through the analysis of the main economic and financial indicators.

• Step 2. Organizational Analysis and Business Process Mappings
  Objective: conduct an analysis of the current organization (structure) and of the main business processes to support the next phase of assessment.

• Step 3. Assessment of the level of sustainability of the organizational model
  
  Objective: assess the level of sustainability and efficiency of the current Organisational System in terms of distance or inconsistency between the current state of the organisation and the desired future state (also in light of the strategic directions and competitive environment).

• Step 4. Design the macro structure and coordination systems
  
  Objective: Redefine the organizational structure to align it with the strategy. In the design phase of the organizational units, we follow some key principles such as the allocation of responsibilities on consistent and coherent working areas, the adequate span of control, the description of the interrelations and coordination mechanisms with other units.

• Step 5. Lean Process Reconfiguration
  Objective: Redesign processes to improve performance. This phase, consistent with the Lean approach, typically results in a series of actions aimed at eliminating waste and focusing the organization on value-added activities. Examples of actions to be implemented are:

  • Eliminate permissions and/or redundant controls;
  • activity automation;
  • centralisation of responsibilities on specific operational areas;
  • outsourcing of tasks;
  • rationalization of reporting;
  • standardization of procedures;
  • definition of Service Level Agreement;
    …

• Step 6. Structure dimensioning
  Objective: to properly size the structures according to the real resource needs. Our approach to dimensioning is based on a model that integrates data on:

  • workloads on different processes;
  • historical productivity;
  • ongoing operational improvement programs (automation, outsourcing, etc.) and is supported by a proprietary tool.

• Step 7. Implementation of personnel management system
  Objective: Equip the organization with tools to ensure that the alignment between strategy, organization, and people is maintained over time. The effectiveness of personnel management systems is measured by the ability to reward results, skills and behaviors in line with business expectations.

• Step 8. Accompanying the implementation of change plans
  Objective: support companies in the implementation of the improvement proposals developed in the previous phases, through our technical assistance structure for both the management part of the change plan (PMO), and for the part directly related to the technical aspects of the improvement plan (streamline).

In globalized markets, the competitiveness of companies very much depends on the ability to govern all production and distribution (Supply Chain) by effectively integrating their processes with those of suppliers and customers.

The NoE experts are able to support companies in optimizing the Supply Chain throughout the cycle that starts from the reception of the customer’s order and ends with the delivery of the final product or service. The main areas of intervention are:

• Production planning and control
• Procurement management models
• Optimization of vendors
• Definition of quantity of stocks
• Internal and external production capacity management, bottlenecks and prioritizing
• Restructuring of the production model according to the Lean
• Manufacturing and Theory of constraints (TOC) methodologies
• Staff size
• Production localization choices
• Monitoring and improvement of production efficiency and service level

What Operations Management is

Operations Management refers to the systematic design, implementation and continuous improvement of all the company’s processes intended to create and distribute products and services.

The effective logistic-production system:

• is strategically oriented and has an integrated design. It optimizes logistics flows, spaces, organizational structures and effectively integrates all indirect functions. How? By systematically eliminating waste in every area and activity of the company.
• is in sync with customer. Customer requirements and specifications are the reference point for all of the company’s processes and for suppliers.
• creates value for the customer and is clear to everyone. The entire value creation chain is focused on customer needs: processing times are shortened, waste becomes more evident and continuously combatted, and improvements become understandable and measurable.

For years, using innovative methods and a joint work approach, NoE has supported the client company in the implementation of operational excellence by systematically developing and implementing solutions, efficiently changing organizational structures and processes, and successfully motivating employees.

What we offer

A systematic and integrated approach to continuous improvement.

Operational excellence depends on the effectiveness of the underlying production system.

Many local optimization initiatives give rise to isolated, though sometimes significant, victories over production waste, which however often do not lead to an improvement of the system as a whole.

At the end, a cost reduction or a timely improvement of the service offered to the customer will not produce resounding successes that are consistently reflected in a better quality and service. These weaknesses can be overcome through a systematic and integrated approach to improvement, which is based on an analysis and an integral re-design of the flow of value whose DNA can be summarized in the following principles:

• Listen to customers’ needs and translate them into your business goals
• Make the recommended improvements
• Achieve performance that exceeds your customers’ expectations

How we work

Our experience shows us that to succeed in change we must always consider three elements.

1. Shop Floor Management:
   • Things are done on site
   • Things are done together
   • The results achieved and the deviations (problems) are evaluated
   • Every deviation (problem) is followed by a corrective action
   • 2. Standardization of processes
2. People Values:
   • We involve all people
   • We make people grow
   • We make people autonomous

Project Steps

• Step 1 - Listen to client needs and translate them into business goals

  We always encourage the companies we work with to put themselves in the customer’s shoes, learning to see the product/service in a different way.

  Measuring the customer experience is the key to understanding the difficulties the customer faces, identifying them, ordering them by importance and dealing with each of them.

  Nevertheless, the company needs clear objectives, which make it possible to measure the results obtained and trigger the process of problem solving (improvement actions)

  It must be done in a systematic, concise, efficient and realistic way. (op. It must be done systematically, concisely, efficiently and in a way that is aligned with real needs)
  Everyone must participate in this process. We call it Hoshin Kanri:

  • Definition and application of strategic objectives
  • Definition of the activities, interventions and priorities in line with the objectives
  • Creation of KPIs and of an aligned measurement system

• Step 2 - Standardize and stabilize upwards performance
  
  Value is the result of a process that must be studied and defined. Any activity that does not generate value from the customer’s perspective is “MUDA”; therefore it must be reduced or eliminated.
  All value-generating activities must be industrialized (definition of standards) so that they can be successfully performed by properly trained people every single day. This is the only way to obtain standardized and waste-free processes, that are the least costly.
  

• Step 3 - Support the results and continuously improve them
  
  In excellent companies, continuous change is the business process that creates the competitive advantage. The absence of this process opens the door to deterioration and progressive worsening, ultimately creating a competitive disadvantage.
  The key resource in the improvement process is the staff, so it is necessary to implement a managerial system that pays great attention to people, constantly stimulating them to grow and always challenging them with new and ambitious goals.
  

NoE will be at your people’s side every day. Our goal is to transmit to your employees all our competences with continuous “on the job” training so that your staff becomes autonomous and effective in the shortest possible time, providing them with innovative methods and experiences that make this path of improvement autonomously sustainable over time.

The need for careful, informed and preventive management

The crisis that has troubled world economies for years has had major repercussions for companies, which in many cases were thrown into an operating context profoundly changed from the past. The market difficulties added to the difficulties of financially supporting the company and of ensuring staff levels.

The availability of always up-to-date and well-structured managerial, economic and financial information, together with the ability to simulate the evolution of possible operating scenarios, is crucial to enable companies to consciously make decisions, take appropriate and timely corrective actions, react and withstand difficulties encountered, and even to seize new development opportunities.

Paying particular attention to realization costs and the time required for activation, NoE aims to help companies set up and start personalized, simple and pragmatic models intended to process the most appropriate and suitable information to support and guide the strategic and operational management of the company, as well as manage the related economic, financial and assets-related aspects.

Industrial plans for restructuring and/or reorganization, systems and models for administration and management control, planning of financial flows and treasury management, feasibility of investments and sizing of working capital, budgeting and reporting systems, monitoring of the structure and sustainability of debt, are all tools that enable the company to facilitate the interaction between the various functions, to make management analysis and operational decision more efficient and effective, to set strategic decisions by simulating their effects in different scenarios and contexts, to make communication processes with external entities – primarily the banking system and investors in general – more effective.

What we offer

NoE intervention is carried out following a typically “managerial” protocol, with a direct presence “on site” to support the company’s operating structure, by combining consulting methodology with management skills, to give clear, immediate and practical responses to client needs. NoE professionals operate directly “on site” during all the phases of the assignment: design, implementation, consolidation.
In specific cases, upon client request, they can also take on real management roles within the corporate structure to better oversee the most sensitive and delicate areas in order to achieve objectives and project results.

How we work

The process that leads the company to finalize its own planning and control model, together with its own cash flow forecasting and treasury management system, is based on 4 macro operational steps.

• Step 1 - Critical analysis of the current situation
  
  In the first step, NoE professionals support the client in identifying the operational and organizational problems related to the commercial, production and financial objectives that the client intend to pursue.
  

• Step 2 - Development of guidelines for information management
  
  In this second step, the intervention of NoE focuses on identifying the “sets” of information that, in relation to the problems identified with the client, can better guide its strategy and operation, as well as finding the tools and ways of processing and using this information, always with an eye to limiting time expended and costs to the client.

• Step 3 – Implementation of solutions
  
  In the third step, Noe professionals guide and test the implementation of the information tools defined and previously agreed to with the client, to lead and improve the management and the “performance” of the corporate functions involved in the project that are administration-finance-control, operations and supply chain, human resources, commercial, etc.

• Step 4 - Consolidation
  
  In the final step, NOE ensures the effectiveness of the information tools, by verifying their assimilation by the corporate team, so that it can guarantee the maintenance of achieved results..

State of crisis and need for change

The need to devise a new organization and new business model, as well as new markets and products, is often perceived by the companies when the symptoms of a crisis that negatively affects the company’s economic and financial performance are significantly evident. The ability to promptly identify the causes, define an effective recovery plan and promptly implement the necessary interventions are key factors in the management and success of change within any company.

NoE aims to help companies to identify their critical issues, redefine their objectives and implement solutions. Internationalization processes, development of new markets, repositioning of your business, reorganization of management and operational processes, evaluation of investments, models for financial planning, acquisitions and integrations, as well as generational transfers are all quite complex and delicate challenges for any company.

Therefore, they must be evaluated and managed with the utmost care and competence, even making use of specialised professionals who can guarantee the necessary support and interaction with staff who are more suited to the governance of the company in periods and situations of stability.

What we offer

In a restructuring plan (Turnaround), NoE undertakes directly primary roles in management and coordination in order to implement the action plans defined and agreed upon with the stakeholders.
In a reorganization (“Transition”), NoE provides the company with “transition” managers that will help the company in revising business models, redefining organizational structure, as well as in the management and operational reset of the company.

How we work

The process that leads the company through a restructuring or reorganization plan is based on 5 macro operational steps:

• Step 1 – Critical analysis of the current situation
  
  During this first step, NoE’s professionals work alongside the client to analyse strategies, business areas and models, to assess sales, industrial and assets structure, as well as to identify operational and organizational issues, with regard to the sales, production and financial objectives that the client intends or needs to pursue.

• Step 2 - Development of guidelines and targets of the change
  
  This second step is the focus of the intervention of NoE. Our professionals define and share the guidelines for the restructuring or reorganization plan with the client, by identifying specific objectives, actions and timelines for each profile in sales, industrial, financial, and organizational activities.

• Step 3 – Analysis of financial sustainability
  
  In the third step, NoE focuses on the evaluation of the financial resources necessary to support the intervention plan by drawing up the business plan, forecasting cash flow, developing the financial and capital structure and evaluating the working capital. In this step, NoE’s professionals also act as a “negotiating” interface between the client and its main financial-related external parties: banks, suppliers and customers.

• Step 4 – Implementation of solutions
  
  In this step, NoE’s professionals guide the implementation of the procedures above to steer the change of the company organization according to the set objectives. At this stage, they also proceed to work out correct staff sizing, as well as rationalization of structural, general and administrative costs, and to finalise any extraordinary transaction identified as additional elements of the intervention plan, such as sale of branches of the company and/or of financial stakes, split-offs or capital injections.

• Step 5 – Consolidation
  
  In the final step, NoE ensures the effectiveness of the action plan by verifying its assimilation by the company team, so that it can guarantee the maintaining of the achieved results.

Warehouse logistics

A proper logistic organization of the warehouse should enable the reduction of handling and storage costs and improve the level of customer service.
The warehouse is increasingly becoming a strategic area of the company in which products are customized according to the needs expressed by customers.
NoE makes its skills and experiences available to companies with the aim of designing or improving:

• layout of the logistics site
• structural elements (storage systems, tools and equipment, automation)
• organisation (roles, tasks)
• processes (activities, procedures, operating instructions)
• materials management (types of acceptance checks, allocation criteria, withdrawal methods, inventory management)
• method of identifying materials and traceability
• physical and information flows
• information systems (WMS)
• logistic accounting system (profit and loss account)

Distribution Logistics

A correct sizing of the company distribution network and a proper management of all types of transports should enable the customer to be reached with timeliness and cost-effectiveness.
NoE supports companies in designing or reviewing the distribution network and in evaluating shipping companies, in particular:

• in the organisation of the distribution network
• in the design of transport modes
• in the optimization of costs and pricing
• in contractual and regulatory consulting
• in transactions and negotiation with suppliers
• in the introduction of transport management software: selection and implementation support

Logistics outsourcing

The outsourcing of logistics is an expanding process which however does not always lead to the achievement of the expected results and this is because a preliminary scientific and consolidated analysis process is not always done and then followed.
NoE supports companies in the complete outsourcing process, right up to the start-up of the identified solution:

• in the analysis of economic convenience and technical feasibility of outsourcing / insourcing
• in the selection of suppliers
• in the definition of technical specifications
• in the evaluation of technical and economic proposals
• in negotiation and transactions
• in the definition of the supplier’s control system
• in the management of the outsourcing / insourcing projects