Is optimum organization the result of a sum of optimal processes?

Is not the development of standards contradictory to the flexibility required by organizations?

Should all or part of the processes be outsourced or internal control of processes be retained?

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Participants at an Ifra conference on industrial organization attempted to answer these and other questions with answers highlighting their own experiences.

To that end, participants said achieving overall corporate objectives should have a higher priority than achieving the objectives of individual departments within an organization. It’s only by refusing to obsessively focus on a particular process that it’s possible to achieve a global result, said Malcolm Craig, a consultant at Cpsychol.

“Stop investing in maintenance,” he said. “Invest in reliability.”

The performance of the processes is dependent on their reliability. If traditional maintenance is considered something of a sport, fixing something that is broken does not increase the level of reliability of the processes in the long term.

Standards: a language

ISO 9001, AdsML, CIP4: Behind these acronyms are today’s and tomorrow’s standards.

The ultimate purpose of a standard is not so much to obtain uniformity as to harmonize processes.

Benoit Binder, who oversees quality at La Depeche du Midi, said standardization lets organizations link processes to those people most responsible for carrying them out.

“We draw attention to the fact that a process is a black box offering an added value and linked to the other processes with which it interacts,” he said, adding that La Depeche du Midi relies on ISO 9001 standards to map out key processes.

“The evaluation of the performance of an organization, seen through this model, can therefore be done locally (by process) or globally (by all processes),” he said.

Binder said the idea that a process results in an “intrinsic” performance is not new. “What becomes increasingly complex is the synthesis of the data. The past 20 years have seen a dramatic explosion of machines to produce data (computers), but unfortunately machines for producing evaluations are not yet widely available,” he said.

Thus, he said, if companies want to measure the performance of their processes, they have to “get away from data in favor of information,” Binder said.

Adapting skills

At Edipresse, the publisher has adapted processes to keep pace with technological and organizational changes, said Michel Berney, manager of the newspaper printing division.

Case in point: the emergence of digital workflows. Edipresse is installing a new editorial system, from Eidos Media, that will require layout editors and prepress workers to significantly change their tasks.

“We must adapt to suit both the technological evolution and the new demands of the market,” he said.

“We will witness the emergence of new professions,” Berney said.

“Following in the wake of new takeovers, new production units have come about, in particular new printing plants and new integrated prepress units. It is now important to harmonize these sites.”

In response, Edipresse drafted a new organization adapted to meet future demands, Berney said. The new structure has eight departments, ranging from technical support and ad design to page makeup and image management.

The prepress department, in its traditional form, will disappear in favor of the new structure, he said.

“We can call upon a comprehensive technical and operational structure that is adapted to the new needs and (thus) offer a full range of services to our customers,” said Berney. “We also expect significant improvement in productivity and profitability.” 

Luc Jonqueur (jonqueur@ifra.com) is an Ifra consultant based in France.