So often business owners make decisions based on intuition, luck, or the Magic 8-Ball. As a small or midsized manufacturer, there are so many factors that can affect your company’s profitability, both inside and outside of your control. How do you make proactive decisions for the betterment of your company when you don’t know what’s going to change, or which parts of your company need to adjust to meet current demands?

At the Oregon Manufacturing Extension Partnership (OMEP), we’re big advocates of total system thinking. This method of analyzing a business enables a holistic view of what’s working across systems in your company. Like a puzzle, your strategy, suppliers, systems, customers, and material transformation are all pieces that must interlock successfully for growth and profitably. When you explore each piece of your company’s puzzle, you can build a plan for proactive change.

Sometimes it’s helpful to visualize these systems with a tool called a spider diagram. This tool allows leaders to measure each piece of the company, and build a plan for success. The diagram looks like this:

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