Operation's Role - Support Sales

As the roles of the various groups within a company are reviewed, we find that all too often, the Operations groups forget their role. Operations, in my definition, consists of procurement, stored, manufacturing and shipping. The core definition of these areas is to obtain, build and ship high quality products on-time, every time. The interface to Sales is the link most conveniently forgotten link, and with this loss come a litany of excuses. "It will cost too much....", "That will take too much inventory....", "We are understaffed to handle that....". The list goes on and on. There are many reasons why company relationships between Sales and Operations is allowed to decline, none of which are acceptable for the long term health of the customer relationship, and ultimately, the long term health of the company performance.

I propose a different relationship be established, one where the goal of operations is to exceed the performance expectations of Sales. In this type of relationship, Sales will ask for the impossible. My automatic answer is not "Yes", but is at least, " We will analze and let you know". After this answer, a real and agressive analysis of operational capability to fulfill the Sales desire must follow. The answer may still be "No", but alternatives can be presented to Sales, which will give them a lot more answers than they would have had originally. You have then turned Sales into the internal engine which is driving improvement in the Operations group. Being willing to be challenged and to work toward solutions is the first step to excellence.

I have personally setup and seen in action such an operations group. Our first response was to find a way to help Sales succeed, instead of saying "No", as a test of Sales resolve. Often the sales opportunity evaporates, yet the strength of the relationship with sales is improved each time an opportunity can be filled. In the end, Sales knows that they can count on the Operations group to do its absolute best to help them and entire company win. The result is far happier customers and far less organizational energy consumed in internal strife.

By no means is the generation of this type of group or relationship easy, but it is worth the effort to implement and the continous effort to maintain. It takes humble but agressive leadership of Operations and understanding in Sales to achieve this level of achievement.