Operational planning: what is it and how to do it in the company?
With a plan, companies can guide the actions that must be carried out step by step and provide support to teams. In order for teams to be well guided, operational planning is carried out .
The workflow established in each area guides employees in carrying out their tasks, ensuring that the system adopted is as efficient as possible for the company’s reality.
Furthermore, organizing activities avoids wasting time, money, productivity, among others, which can affect the achievement of strategic planning goals.
So, to ensure that your company gets where it wants to go, it is essential to establish an internal organization so that the areas collaborate with each other, forming a well-structured unit.
Continue reading the article and understand what operational planning is, its importance and how to do it.
What is operational planning?
Operational planning is the process that defines and documents a company’s internal workflow, listing the methods and systems used to manage the different sectors and ensure the progress of activities that will enable the achievement of programmed management objectives and goals .
This way, each department (Sales, Marketing, Finance, Purchasing, Human Resources) will have its own process manual with all the details regarding the tasks that the sector performs step by step, the tools used, those responsible and the like.
Those who take the lead in this definition are the managers who actively participate in the preparation of the company’s general strategic planning and pass on the objectives linked to their respective sectors to other employees.
Companies that are just starting out create their plans from scratch. Those that are already active make improvements with each planning cycle to stay up to date and grow.
In other words, operational planning can be improved over time, for example, by eliminating unnecessary steps, modernizing the production structure, improving the inventory control system or updating the purchasing system.
The larger the company, the more complex the operational planning. However, a small company with lean processes must document its work routine so that the flow is optimized in an organized manner, ensuring good knowledge management .
How to do operational planning?
The creation of operational planning is carried out in stages applied in each department, guiding the process of definition or updating according to the objectives that will be worked on in the new management cycle.
Check out the step-by-step definitions that must be made to perform the work correctly:
1. Analyze the objectives related to the sector
If your company uses the SMART method to define goals related to the strategic objectives of work periods, you certainly have specific, measurable, achievable, relevant definitions with defined deadlines.
This information must be passed on to the sector team, ensuring that everyone is up to date with the objectives they will be working towards and, therefore, organize what needs to be done.
2. List or review the sector activities
The next step in operational planning is to list or review the sector’s activities . Remembering what the tasks are, the indicators and how they are performed helps with organization and possible changes that can be made.
This is an excellent time for the team to brainstorm points for improvement, such as what is working, what is not, and how to improve process modeling.
3. Define the workflow
The third step in operational planning is to define the end-to-end workflow for each activity and who is responsible for executing it.
The objective is to document how the sector works, what resources are used, how information is documented, tools and the types of analyses performed.
To facilitate visualization, use the flowchart to organize the progress of processes. The tool also makes it easier to evaluate the efficiency of the workflow, guiding improvements.
4. Divide the budget
The company’s annual budget is established so that each area has an amount available to make investments that contribute to achieving the proposed objectives.
Therefore, dividing the monthly budget is part of operational planning, as improvements identified in the organization of the workflow can be implemented, whether by improving machinery, increasing the maintenance flow or including a new management system/software.
Important: keep an eye on your budget so that it is well distributed and stays within the projected margin, avoiding unplanned expenses.
5. Establish who is responsible for each task
Within operational planning, it is essential that each activity that makes up the workflow has positions responsible for its execution .
The definition is important because it avoids deviations in function and makes clear what each employee’s role is within the area, allowing the team to maintain focus and productivity on a daily basis.
6. Share the planning with the team
The final step is to present the operational plan to the entire team. Generally, the manager takes charge of the task, sharing the results of the analysis, the flowchart, how the work will be monitored, new tools and more.
The goal is for everyone to be on the same page, know who to contact to deal with each issue and follow the updated flow, maintaining productivity and better managing work time.