Menawat & Co. - Profit Mapping

Profit Mapping

About Profit Mapping

Profit Mapping is a set of methods and tools for business analysis with embedded technologies from four different fields: metabolic modeling, differential geometry, nonlinear systems theory, and lean accounting. They help you conquer the complex dynamics of your operations for dramatic and sustainable business improvement.

Profit Mapping: A Tool for Aligning Operations with Future Profit and Performance, McGraw-Hill, 2006.

From the Book:

Driving Operational Excellence with the Right Insights: Success only comes with operational excellence that is properly aligned with strategy. The challenge is knowing what actions to take and when to take them - navigating without knowing the impact of your actions on the bottom line is a risk you can't afford to take. Profit Mapping delivers a forward-looking management decision tool that allows you to proactively navigate business strategy and execution.

Holistic Strategic Business Unit Focus

Customer value defines a Strategic Business Unit (SBU). In operational terms, an SBU contains operations strung together in one or more workflows to produce and deliver the desired products and services. In management terms, it is an organizational unit where process and financial results accrue and overall business performance can be unambiguously judged.

An SBU focus has several advantages. It is customer driven as opposed to an inwardly focused definition that reinforces functional silos. It facilitates analyzing problems from several perspectives to help balance the needs of the various stakeholders. As an SBU contains all direct and indirect operations, it provides tremendous visibility into operational and financial details and performance. The impact of changes to any part can be seen across the entire SBU. This helps avoid "local optimizations" that may not collectively benefit the SBU. It also facilitates real cost reduction rather than cost shifting.

SBU Characteristics

A company is an integrated network of individual parts and time-dependent activities
People and culture control the integration of individual parts
The dynamic interactions among its functions are time-critical
Profit Mapping methods and tools quantify the complex dynamics of your operations for dramatic and sustainable business improvement

Predictive Operational Analytics

Profit Mapping and our associated ProFIT-MAP software are the first in a new class of Predictive Operational Analytics solutions for the operational planning, improvement, and optimization needs of organizations of all types and sizes. The software is forward-looking and dynamic with integrated financials to help take the complexity and risk out of decision making.

Article Coming Soon (anticipated release January, 2010)

Predictive Operational Analytics: A Holistic Systems Approach to Manage, Improve and Optimize Business Performance

Predictive Operational Analytics is the convergence of business methods, systems thinking, and business intelligence software for rapid decision making to maximize performance and profit. In this article, we describe the individual elements of Predictive Operational Analytics and present its practical application using Profit Mapping methods and tools.

Continuous Improvement and Lean Systems Thinking

Learn more about how Profit Mapping dramatically improves lean operational and business outcomes. See our recent e-Article: Achieving Rapid Business Success with Lean Thinking: A Holistic Systems Approach, October 2009.

From the Introduction: Although many companies have benefited greatly from lean implementations, there is growing dissatisfaction among many executives. The problem, as it often occurs with any business philosophy over time, lies in dogmatic adherence to the tools without a deeper understanding of the underlying principles. If your only tool is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail. On the other hand, when lean principles are your guide, then every challenge is an opportunity to apply the right thinking, solution approach, and corresponding tools.

In this article, we provide a foundation with methods and tools to deploy lean based on holistic systems thinking. We analyze the reasons behind the executive dissatisfaction and present a solution with the following five attributes:

1. Focus on a Strategic Business Unit (SBU) and its goals
2. Measure value and define course of action through SBU goals
3. Find and eliminate appropriate waste
4. Make decisions with quantitative dynamic analysis at rapid speed
5. Use a systematic methodology consistent with lean principles
6. Nurture people to sustain and regenerate knowledge

Using a systems framework ensures that lean solutions contribute directly to the business goals. The systems approach to lean is intended for progressive middle and senior managers who believe they should get better business results with lean. Many such managers have experienced disappointment due to flawed deployments that did not create business value in the past. With a systems approach executives gain insight to improve their success with investments in lean initiatives and programs. Lean practitioners benefit from renewed emphasis on the business context of their efforts. Systems thinking facilitates more balanced and effective collaboration among executives and practitioners in targeting, prioritizing, and executing their efforts for maximum business impact.

Figure: The Toyota Product System House. Lean success, as enjoyed by Toyota Motor Co, has eluded most Western companies. Recent studies have documented and identified various causes for this abject failure. Click on the above e-article link to continue reading the article.

Additional Testimonials

Management strategy books abound, but very few focus on making sound decisions about how to execute to best achieve a strategy.

Julie Fraser, President of Cambashi Inc.

...prioritizing the best product or service platforms to launch can be a challenge even for the most innovative organizations. Profit Mapping offers a systematic approach to selecting the platforms that will generate the greatest value while also ensuring linkage with the company's strengths.
Sarah Miller Caldicott, author of Innovate Like Edison

In Profit Mapping, Anil Menawat and Adam Garfein marry the manufacturer's lean knowledge with their business intuition for lifelong success.
Kathleen Menillo, Society of Manufacturing Engineers

What Others are Saying

Profit Mapping is packed with management insights that are of value and immediate relevance across many types of business, including our own manufacturing operations.

Shankar Kiru, Chief Financial Officer, Diversified Machine, Inc., a Carlyle Group company

Profit Mapping provides tools to link process, products, resources, and policies for effective and dynamic decision making to achieve desired results. The book focuses on "execution" rather than strategy - on getting it done better.
Yogen Rahangdale, former President, COO, & Vice Chairman, American Axle

In our first year of operation we used Menawat & Co's Business Execution Profile technique to plan our growth strategy. Since then we've experienced very strong growth, and plan to use their Business Dynamics tool to chart the next phase of our development.

Michaela Gerweler, Owner, MG Technical Ceramics, Germany

Profit Mapping should become a universal tool at the shop floor level; it's an integrated methodology for improving profitability in manufacturing and acquisition planning.

Anthony F. Griffiths, Corporate Director and Independent Consultant

Profit Mapping is a very valuable tool for the manufacturing industry. It combines process improvement initiatives with financial analysis for bottom-line improvements.

Dr. Pulak Bandyopadhyay, General Motors R&D Center