The processes and methodologies

Systems thinking is about challenging the current way of thinking and asking the right questions to reach an overall objective or goal, while ensuring everyone is moving together to achieve this objective or goal. It sounds simple enough as it is not a new concept and it does not have to be reinvented. Let’s take hockey as an example: The rules that teams have to adhere to stay the same. However, it is how the coach and team put various combinations together that allows the team to score more goals. The same can be said about systems thinking.  “Systems thinking is not new. It is about asking the right questions to achieve an objective or goal while at the same time, taking people along the journey.”

Why systems thinking?

Systems thinking is about reductionism; looking at a problem holistically while, at the same time, decomposing the problem into more understandable parts. The essence of systems thinking methodology is to involve the human dimension early on in the analysis. Alpha Concepts therefore includes individuals and teams from the very beginning of the journey. Systems thinking is the vehicle through which Alpha Concepts transforms organisations to the organisation’s desired future state.

What it means to you:

Systems thinking is a holistic problem-solving methodology with people being central to the analysis. The objective is to develop a purposeful system that can adapt itself to its surroundings.

Systems thinking enables you to:

• Take a holistic view.
• Involve the human dimension early on in the analysis.
• Identify self-defeating systems and use reductionism to move towards purposeful systems.
• Allow the development of a problem solving approach, as the people in the system solve the problem.

Why Alpha Concepts systems thinking methodologies?

• We are well experienced in systems thinking – we have completed more than 20 systems thinking engagements with blue chip companies.
• We are thought leaders in this space and wish to refer you to our white paper downloads.
• We enable our clients to become self-sufficient systems thinkers.

Alpha Concepts systems thinking tools:

• Rich picture analysis.
• Wicked and messy problem analysis.
• System hierarchies.
• Objective matrix.
• SWOT analysis.
• Numerical evaluation.
• Cape Town root definitions.
• Road maps and action plans.

What we do:
Alpha Concepts services include:

• Systems thinking on boarding through case studies, winning the hearts of people.
• Systems thinking facilitation of a real challenge facing your organisation.
• Training of our clients in systems thinking methodologies, thus assisting clients to become self-sufficient.
• Graphic extracts depicting some of our concepts are shown below.

Feasibility

Systemic top-down-approach

People knowledge processes

Value creation

Click on an image above to view the full diagram.

Consulting engineering
Alpha Concepts is able to provide all our clients with seamless, timely and responsive engineering design services and solutions. Our consulting engineering services span the areas of mechanical, industrial, project management, information systems, as well as facilities and plant maintenance. We are currently expanding our services to the electrical and civil engineering arenas.

What is consulting engineering?
Consulting engineering is a professional service that provides independent expertise in engineering, science and related areas to public and private sector companies including basic and manufacturing industries developers and construction firms.

What it means to you:
Alpha Concepts’ consulting engineering service provides services and support for all phases of a project; from study, planning and design, to preparation of plans and specifications, construction observation and contract administration. We make an on-going effort to develop an awareness and understanding of the latest technological trends and concepts so that each of our client’s needs are met.

What do we do?
Alpha Concepts combines the best of systemic decision-making, engineering design and project management as one portfolio offering. Alpha Concept’s cornerstone to success is to take the human dimension into consideration from the beginning of the analysis. Working as a team allows a comfortable, open line of communication between all design team members which is fundamental to ensure a project is completed on schedule and within budget.

Reverse engineering
What is reverse engineering?
Reverse engineering enables the duplication of an existing part by capturing the component’s physical dimensions, features and material properties. Reverse engineering is done when products are no longer commercially viable to manufacture and the OEM has discontinued the product. In such cases, the end user may opt to re-engineer the product and manufacture it.

What it means to you:

• Reverse engineering allows you the option of sticking to the products you have without investing in newer technologies. However, this should only be done for critical items and not for high volume production.
• Reverse engineering is done to generate engineering documentation for existing products for verification, authorisation and quality purposes.
• It may also include the replication and improvement of existing products.
• Reverse engineering activities may be required on products that are no longer manufactured or commercially viable to manufacture.

What do we do?

• Alpha Concepts offers wide-ranging solutions in the area of 3D scanning, reverse engineering and manufacturing drawings which makes us trusted partners of choice.
• We have mastered various processes to improve reverse engineering capabilities. Our capabilities include expertise in handling 3D laser scanning, AutoCAD digitising, 3D CAD modelling, FEA analysis, rapid prototyping and 3D animation or visualisation, to mention a few.
• Through the reverse engineering process, we extract the digital code of physical objects that may have insufficient design documentation, or that require CAD data for modern manufacturing methods. The scanning process allows a component to be quickly and accurately digitised and reverse engineered.
• We have developed a manufacturing health check assessment that is depicted in the graphic above.

Alpha Concepts approaches project management from a systems thinking perspective. We ensure alignment of the human dimension, after which we transcend towards a contracts perspective ensuring that projects are delivered to client requirements. Project management is covered from a wider systems perspective looking at both internal and external stakeholder interests. Alpha Concepts’ approach covers the entire project life-cycle, from sales to execution. We move from the traditional Linear Waterfall Model of project management towards more modern techniques encompassing Vee and Spiral Models. We also include concurrent and parallel processing of information flows instead of the mere aligning of tasks through design structure matrices. These new approaches have proved to reduce project risk, project slippage and project cost escalation. Another important aspect is trust within project relationships, which we cover quite extensively. Special attention is devoted to:

• Systemic decision thinking.
• Early involvement of the human dimension.
• Handover from sales to project management.
• Contract management.
• Project organisation.
• Project structuring and design structure matrices.
• Project models: Waterfall, Vee and Spiral models.
• Project risk and uncertainty.
• Project governance, monitoring, performance and KPIs.
• Knowledge-sharing, communication, training and education.
• Trust, co-operation, leadership and behavioural aspects of project management.
• Project portfolio management.
• Project maturity models.

Why project management?
Project management encompasses the management of resources (people, time, money and products) required to deliver a complete engineering, procurement and build solution as determined by client requirements. It is the vehicle through which any product, service or operations is delivered.

What it means to you:
Project management combines knowledge, skills, project management tools and techniques to manage activities that will deliver results.

Project management enables you to:

• Make effective use of people, money and time, thereby saving cost.
• Be inclusive in your approach as it ensures stakeholder involvement and communication.
• Predict delivery of scope, time and budget.
• Exercise preventative management by effectively managing risks, issues and quality.
• Be selective in your implementation strategies by employing controls, solutions selections and scope management.

Why Alpha Concepts project management?

• We are skilled professionals with 100 collective years of experience in project delivery.
• We work with our client’s team to ensure that the project is fit-for-purpose and size-to-need.
• Our methodologies are internationally recognised and guarantees results.
• We move a project forward in a considered manner, which means our client’s team benefits from continuous up-skilling.
• We are highly skilled at implementing information technology (IT) systems.
• We have managed projects in a diverse number of industries.
• Our expertise includes the establishment of project management offices.

Alpha Concepts project management tools:

• PMA@Alpha
• 360° assessments
• RiskWizard
• SimCAD

What we do:
Alpha Concepts services include:

• On-site programme management.
• On-site project management and consulting.
• Setting up project management offices (PMO) for clients, with all related services.
• Project health checks.
• Project risk checks.
• Recovery of projects in jeopardy.
• Mentoring project managers.

Enterprise engineering
Enterprise engineering looks at the fundamentals of operating in a global economy. Alpha Concepts explores the adoption of modern technologies to develop competitive advantages for our clients. Special attention is devoted to:

• Enterprise re-engineering.
• Computer integrated management.
• Enterprise resource planning.
• Information management- operations of the firms and their data.
• Aligning operations and business strategy.
• Selected topics in technology and operations management.

Process management:
While some companies may be aware of isolated cases in information flow which may require repair shooting and the introduction of stand-alone solutions, Alpha Concepts applies both horizontal and vertical views to assess potential bottlenecks. The results of the assessment, which utilises proven methodologies and techniques as well as state-of-the-art evaluation and maturity tools, allows for cost-effective remedies, either throughout the entire value chain or task specific.

Why process management?
Process management is more than just mapping a process. It facilitates an in-depth understanding of the end-goal by ensuring that each ‘link’ in the process chain has a grasp on his or her own responsibilities within the context of a shared focus on a predetermined end-result.

What it means to you:
Process management facilitates performance improvement of processes. This results in cost and time savings, and improved service, as people and processes align to move in the same direction. By identifying opportunities for improvement, it assists you in finding the edge in your market.

Process management enables you to:

• Identify points of inefficiency by highlighting duplication, variation and unnecessary steps.
• Identify gaps in processes.
• Implement change.
• Achieve delivery of strategic goals by aligning operations with business strategy.
• Improve communication by ensuring that team members all know how and what they are supposed to do, and what each person’s exact role is.
• Visualise your process at a glance, thereby providing clear guidance as to where improvements are required.
• Source solutions from within as the unpacking of processes encourages team participation and sparks ideas, thus automatically linking your team to the changes that are needed to achieve goals.

Why Alpha Concepts process management?

• We adopt a systems thinking model to process management.
• Our involvement of the human dimension and highly visual storyboard-style techniques produce immediate buy-in from our client’s team.
• We are able to extract value early on in the process yielding early gains and thereby winning the hearts of stakeholders.

What we do:

• On-site systems thinking workshops focusing on real challenges facing our clients.
• Inclusion of concepts from engineering design and business process management.
• Use of data-mining and analytic capabilities adding robustness to data-rich discussions.
• Implementation of the Alpha Concepts methodology, which has proven to be successful at other blue chip clients. We wish to refer you to our case study downloads.

Globalisation is continuously placing pressure on organisations to not only gain competitive advantages, but to ensure that these advantages are maintained. Organisations need to enhance their agility to stay abreast of changes in the environment, technology and other processes or influences. The race is a continuous one in order for organisations to remain relevant and profitable.

There have been instances where organisations have embarked on business process management (BPM) initiatives to gain competitive advantages. These organisations invest in resources like people, time, money and innovative technologies, and expect to see returns on these benefits in realistic time periods. However, in most cases BPM initiatives have been criticised to take too long. The Alpha Concepts team has developed a hybrid of soft and hard system approaches to BPM to allow early extraction of critical business processes which, when improved, will lead to quicker benefits.

Why business process management?
Organisations consist of different sections, or functional areas, linked together and called business processes. Business processes are the channels through which different sections of the organisation communicate with each other, both internally and externally.
Internal links are between the different sections of the organisation and external links are between the organisation and external partners, like clients, suppliers and other stakeholders.

In many organisations the linking of processes are complex and requires management, control, monitoring and coordination; in other words, the management of the business process, namely business process management. The ability of an organisation to make its business processes lean and efficient, is what will create competitive advantages and thereby give organisations a market edge. The Alpha Concepts team has developed a systemic thinking approach to business process management which will enable organisations to outperform their competitors.

What it means to you:
A focus on business process management will enable our clients to improve their services to end-users resulting in better client satisfaction and revenue growth. The Alpha Concepts approach to BPM is to improve the capacity for revenue generation.

Business process management enables you to:

• Improve the capacity for revenue growth.
• Improve client satisfaction.
• Be better than your competitors.
• Strive towards a path of progressive operational and service excellence.

Why Alpha Concepts business process management methodologies?

• We are experienced practitioners from the ICT, electrical and electronic industries and have done many BPM initiatives with blue chip companies.
• We are thought-leaders in business process management. We wish to refer you to our white paper downloads.
• We use a systemic problem-solving approach that enables our clients to become self-sufficient in transforming their organisation towards a journey of progressive operational and service excellence.

Alpha Concepts business process management tools:

• BMA@Alphaconcepts
• 360° Health check evaluation of your BPM function.
• Development of a road map for progressive BPM excellence.
• Simulation tools to show improvements from the ‘AS-IS’ to the ‘TO-BE’ situation and providing of robust predications for BPM improvement.
• Adoption of systems thinking methodologies encompassing a holistic approach to BPM.
• Road maps and action plans.

What we do:
Alpha Concepts services include:

• BPA@Alphaconcepts
• BPMheath checks and evaluations.
• BPM facilitation of real challenges organisations are facing.
• Training of our clients in systems thinking approaches to BPM methodologies thus enabling our clients to become self-sufficient.
• Data mining and predictive analytics.
• BPM simulation modelling.

While classic operations management focuses on the elimination of variability, service management accommodates client variability. In service operations clients are key inputs and sometimes processes in the system. The difference in service operations is the breaking down of the trade-off between service and efficiency. It is about understanding the five types of variability:

• Arrival variability: I want it NOW!
• Request variability: I want it MY WAY!
• Capability variability: Serve me as I am.
• Effort variability: Serve me, not self-service.
• Subjective preference variability: Understand my idiosyncrasies.

Alpha Concepts adopts a systems thinking view to service management; a holistic approach towards a journey of progressive service excellence is used to transform organisations.

Why service management?
South Africa is an economy driven by a large service portfolio. These services encompass the areas of government parastatal organisations, shared services within major organisations e.g. IT, supply chain management, human resources, financial services, legal and services provided by tourists organisations, to list a few. People are all too familiar with the non-delivery of services within their environments. A focus on services management from a systemic perspective will allow our clients to extract more value from service operations and benefits to end-users will be realised.

What it means to you:
A focus on service management will enable our clients to improve delivery to end-users resulting in better client satisfaction and revenue growth. The Alpha Concepts approach to service management is to improve the capacity for revenue generation.

Service management enables you to:

• Improve the capacity for revenue growth.
• Improve client satisfaction.
• Be better than your competitors.
• Strive towards a path of progressive service excellence.

Why Alpha Concepts service management methodologies?

• We are experienced practitioners from the service industry and have done many progressive excellence initiatives with blue chip companies.
• We are thought-leaders in this space. We wish to refer you to our white paper downloads.
• We use a systemic problem-solving approach that enables our clients to become self-sufficient in transforming their organisations towards a journey of progressive service excellence.

Alpha Concepts service management tools:

• SMA@Alphaconcepts
• 360º Health check evaluation of your services organisation.
• Development of a road map for progressive service excellence.
• Simulation tools to show improvements from the ‘AS IS’ to the ‘TO BE’ situation.
• Adoption of systems thinking methodologies with classic operations management and service management methodologies.
• Road maps and action plans.

What we do:
Alpha Concepts services include:

• Service management heath checks and evaluations.
• Service management facilitation of real challenges organisations are facing.
• Training of our clients in service management methodologies, thus enabling our clients to become self-sufficient.

Supply chain management is an integral part of organisations. Having the right goods and services at the right time and at the right price is definitely a competitive advantage. Balancing client requirements to internal operations and external service providers and suppliers are critical to ensure a streamlined supply chain exits throughout an organisation. Alpha Concepts’ approach to supply chain is all encompassing from clients to suppliers and internal operations.

Our supply chain engagement includes:

• Organisational requirements for supply chain management.
• Supply chain trends.
• The importance and speed of information.
• High speed logistics.
• Supply chain models.
• Lean operations.
• Procurement and logistics.
• Project procurement and logistics.
• Warehousing and distribution.
• Forecasting.
• Enterprise resource planning systems.
• Sales and operations planning.
• Supply chain metrics and productivity improvement.

Strategic sourcing management
Why strategic sourcing management?
Spend analysis, sourcing, supplier performance management and sourcing solutions; organisations should source differently for every category. Some are critical to direct costs and manufacturing processes, and others are categories which can be very hard to access, for example time and resource management. Alpha Concepts clients have found that not all categories can be addressed with the same sourcing technique, and not all tools are equipped to address the unique needs of each category or sourcing approach.
Your organisation cannot afford to compromise and take shortcuts with any of these categories: constant pursuit of new and creative processes, and tools that will support the operational goals in finding the best way to approach each of your sourcing categories and keep costs contained, are essential.

What it means to you?
Addressing a sourcing category has multiple components:

• Price.
• Quality – product specifications.
• Service levels – shipping lead times and costs, on time performance.
• Sustainability initiatives.
• Other waste reduction efforts.
• Cost reductions.

Why Alpha Concepts strategic sourcing management?

• We are skilled professionals with proven experience in strategic sourcing management.
• We take time to work with your team to ensure that we understand the change impacts for your business.
• Our methodology employs the best techniques in the field and delivers results and achievement.
• Our methodologies are internationally recognised and guarantees results.
• We are highly skilled information technology (IT) specialists.
• We have managed projects in a diverse number of industries.

What we do?
Alpha Concepts services include:

• Assessment of a company’s current spending (what is bought, where, at what prices?).
• Assessment of the supply market (who offers what?).
• Total cost analyses (how much does it cost to provide those goods or services?).
• Identification of suitable suppliers.
• Development of a sourcing strategy (where to purchase, considering demand and supply situations, while minimising risk and costs).
• Negotiation with suppliers (products, service levels, prices, geographical coverage, payment terms).
• Implementation of new supply structure.
• Tracking of results and restarting of assessments (continuous cycle).

Quality management systems
A quality management system (QMS) is a collection of business processes focused on consistently meeting client requirements and enhancing their levels of satisfaction. It is expressed as the organisational structure, policies, procedures, processes and resources needed to implement quality management.
Early systems emphasised predictable outcomes of an industrial product production line, using simple statistics and random sampling. By the 20th century, labour inputs were typically the most costly inputs in most industrialised societies, so focus shifted to team cooperation and dynamics, especially the early signalling of problems via a continuous improvement cycle.
In the 21st century, QMS has tended to converge with sustainability and transparency initiatives. Both investor and client satisfaction, as well as perceived quality are increasingly tied to these factors. Of QMS regimes, the ISO 9001 family of standards is probably the most widely implemented worldwide.

Why quality management systems?
Quality management is the process of controlling, ensuring and improving quality; both in business operations and productivity. If clients are satisfied, chances are they feel they are receiving high-quality products that are constantly improved in order to keep up with the ever-changing times.

Products and services are important parts of quality management. No matter what a particular organisation sells, quality is a necessary part of it. Clients expect good products and services and want to know that their hard earned money is going towards something that will not only benefit them now, but will also last for a long time.

In today’s global marketplace, many organisations are utilising ISO 9001 as a platform to build their quality management system.  For many companies, registration to ISO 9001 is key to securing and maintaining global business.

What it means to you:
Business success may simply be the extent to which your organisation can produce a higher-quality product or service than your competitors are able to do, at a competitive price. When quality is the key to your company’s success, quality management allows organisations to keep up with and meet current quality levels, exceed your consumers’ expectations for quality, retain employees through competitive compensation programmes, and keep up with the latest technology.

Quality management systems enables you to:

• Become more cost-effective.
• Improve client satisfaction.
• Gain a leading edge over your competitors.
• Improve product and process quality.
• Provide a passport to the global market.

Why Alpha Concepts quality management systems methodologies?

• We are experienced practitioners in the QMS and ISO 9001 industry, and have done many QMS and ISO 9001 initiatives with various companies.
• We have developed an ISO 9001 QMS within 3 months.
• We use a systemic problem-solving approach that enables our clients to become self-sufficient in transforming their organisation towards a journey of progressive operational and service excellence.

Alpha Concepts quality management tools:

• QMA@Alphaconcepts
• 360° Health check evaluation of our client’s QMS function.
• Development of a road map for progressive QMS excellence.
• Development and implementation of an ISO 9001 based QMS system.
• Continuous improvement techniques.
• Data collection and analysis.
• Development of road maps and action plans.

What we do:
Alpha Concepts services include:

• QMS health checks and evaluations.
• Training of our clients in systems thinking approaches to QMS methodologies enabling our clients to become self-sufficient.
• Data collection and analysis, development of road maps and action plans.
• Development and implementation of an ISO 9001 quality management system.