These are the activities that define strategy and long-term company direction. The most senior level leaders are relied on here to analyze company data (that should be produced in “Report” and “Follow-Up”, to make strategic decisions. The outcome of these decisions will then drive the “Plan” phase of the business process cycle.

Here the strategy laid out in the “Forecast” activities is broken down into department specific tasks and processes. It is also important to begin to break down long-term KPIs and goals into shorter term benchmarks that align with the greater corporate strategy.

In my opinion the most critical area of operations to get right is “Execute”, which are all the processes surrounding the day-to-day activity. The best production plan ever created won’t work if you cant produce at your best efficiency. The best sales strategy of all time won’t work if you can’t onboard customer checks efficiently. The perfect rolling stock utilization plan won’t work if your fleet is disorganized.

The operating tools in this category are used to give assignments, relevant information, relay daily/weekly goals and current standing, and to motivate those that perform the day-to-day activity. Also, critically, here are the tools needed for short interval control. When designed and installed properly the tools in this category empower your workforce to make systematic and data-driven business decisions at the point of activity.

This category of operating tools should give you short-term view of plan actual variance. These will be the tools necessary to create corrective action plans, root cause analysis, and any other data needed to amend short-term plans.

Follow-up shares a lot of characteristics as “Report” however with longer term implications. Data synthesized here is used to adjust long-term strategy.