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Global economic
cycles are best witnessed in the Metals & Mining sector. The impact of
economic downturns is very heavy on many companies leading to closures,
acquisitions, mergers.
Organizations
cannot significantly influence market pricing of metals. Price volatility is
the direct result of mismatch in demand-supply economics. In May 2010, Tata
Steel announced shift to quarterly price contracts from existing semi-annual
price contracts to keep up with the price volatility of input materials.
Arcelor-Mittal announced the same just a few days earlier. Short-term pricing
is more sustainable than long term contracts as the volatility cannot be
influenced by them.
When available
capacities are significantly lower than expected demand, prices have an upward
trend in anticipation of shortages. Increasing prices motivate investments for
capacity expansions. When available capacities are more than supply, when
availability of material is more than supply, prices have a downward trend.
Excess capacity in industry leads to survival of the fittest. Organizations
with operational excellence can keep operational costs at a minimum, stay
afloat in downturns.
Operational
Excellence for Metals & Mining projects
While
organizations can rarely affect external pricing, they can most certainly shape
up their costs, infrastructure and organization agility to react to changing
market environment on their own. When Operational Excellence becomes a
strategic competency of Metal & Mining organizations, they can respond to
external changes quickly, easily and in their own favour more effectively than
organizations not practicing Operational Excellence.
Aqua Management
Consulting Group, with its tried and proven skills can set up a roadmap for
your organization to transform it to an agile company with Operational
Excellence in all the business it does with internal as well as external
customers. And we don’t stop at the roadmap delivery. We partner with you in its
roll-out to ensure that you get the maximum benefit in this cultural change
management exercise. Low-hanging fruits
are typically – Logistics, MRO Sourcing, Production Scheduling and Material
Planning, Sales & Operations Planning, Operations Management.
Project Planning
& Management
Capacity
expansions, and Post-Acquisitions Transformations need a planned approach best
handled by as Project Management experts. Project Execution for capacity
expansions often make or break organizations. The Metals & Mining industry
has Project Management expertise equated with technical expertise leaving a
large scope for potential benefits in non-technical areas of the project.
Project
Procurement and Project Logistics are a significantly critical area of project
execution which can keep the project in control when given its due focus. Spending
adequate time on project planning is under pressure as it is expected to get
things started on the project site than spend time in the project office.
Aqua Management
Consulting Group’s can help Metal & Mining organizations to execute
projects using the best practices in Project Management while also remaining
focused on non-technical aspects. We get Strategic Sourcing done for Project
Procurement without the need of you to divert your essential human resources on
these activities. You can rely on us for Project Logistics to ensure that the
procured machinery / resources are suitably available at the site. We ensure
that the project remains in control.
Organization
building
While Metal
& Mining companies have the best technical resources, the alignment of
organizational goals and departmental targets during organic growth may leave
much to desire. Organization structures for Procurement, Operations, Sales,
Accounts, Human Resources and IT may have a cohesive inter-dependency for
transacting daily business. It is necessary to maintain measurable
organizational goals and have it aligned to organization structures.
Aqua Management
Consulting Group performs Organizational Capability Audit & Benchmarking to
help you realize the true potential of your organization and identify
detrimental / conflicting targets & incentives. We partner with you even
for setting up green field projects in need for organization building so that
your goals can be achieved.
Strategy
Choosing and executing a business strategy for
Metals & Mining companies can be as open as the mind is. A sample strategy
may be to have captive mines to cater to 100% of production capacities, or
ensure technical competence of organization remains unmatchable, or to be able
to have the best predictions of future prices of finished goods, raw materials
and predict impact of government & environment policies. Whatever be the
style of functioning of the company, Aqua Management Consulting Group can shape
up the best business strategy to fit need of your organization and also remain
executable.
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