Five top findings from PEX Report 2022’s global survey
Uncover five of the most prominent trends identified in PEX Network’s annual, flagship report, including an increased focus on enterprise-wide transformation
Add bookmark
PEX Network’s The PEX Report 2022: Global state of process excellence has highlighted process trends on challenges, investment and top solutions and methodologies. In this article, we wrap up five of the top findings that were drawn from the extensive global industry survey that formed the basis of the survey analysis section of report.
Have your say on the trends for the next 12 months and be part of the global discussion by taking part in our 2023 State-of-the-Industry Survey for OPEX and Business Transformation, of which the results will be featured in The PEX Report 2023.
1. There was an increased focus on enterprise-wide transformation
With regard to the scope of process excellence (PEX) and operational excellence (OPEX) deployment within the surveyed organizations, The PEX Report 2022 marked an increased focus on enterprise-wide transformation from The PEX Report 2021. In 2022, 44 percent of survey respondents identified enterprise-wide transformation as the current scope of OPEX and PEX initiatives, as opposed to 35 percent in 2021.
Cathy Gu, event director, OPEX Week: Business Transformation World Summit, noted: “It is an encouraging trend, it shows transformation programs are dropping from the C-suite and one of the key success factors for enterprise-level transformation is to have direct support from CEOs.”
Peter Evans, former director of service and performance management for shared services at the LEGO Group expanded on this, explaining that this trend is a result of the increased experience of successful PEX programs in senior stakeholders.
This means that CEOs and other stakeholders require less convincing of the efficacy of enterprise-wide transformation efforts. This was further proved in the report, which showed that CEOs are the main sponsors for transformation programs for two years in a row, in The PEX Report 2021 and The PEX Report 2022.
2. Productivity, efficiency and driving growth as top focuses for OPEX
The primary goal that organizations assign to OPEX initiatives, the improvement of productivity and efficiency, has not changed since industry experts were surveyed in The PEX Report 2021. While the number of respondents who stated this has decreased from 63 to 59 percent in The PEX Report 2022, it remained the number one response. It was closely followed by those who viewed OPEX as a mission-critical strategy to help the organization to drive growth, manage turnaround and deliver strategic objectives.
As José Manuel Escobar, continuous improvement manager at DHL explained, it is important to nail down the focus of OPEX initiatives: “We have a great opportunity to take OPEX to a new level and be aligned to strategy by sharing what the focus should be on the process level, while management set their plans on technology, investments, projects and workforce.”
Read PEX Network report: Leveraging intelligent automation to link strategy with process improvement
3. Change management remained the number one solution supporting OPEX initiatives
Change management has kept the number one spot for solutions that were applied to support OPEX initiatives, despite the number of respondents who stated this having dropped from 56 to 45 percent between The PEX Report 2021 and The PEX Report 2022.
Maneesh Subherwal, executive director of business transformation, commercial bank at JP Morgan Chase & Co. explained that change management has become critical to OPEX efforts in hybrid-working models.
He noted that this was due to the fact that the internal rollout model of new products, campaigns and strategies that used to be conducted in town halls has “turned on its head”.
“You have gone from a very functional, sequential model to a fragmented one – this is a key area where change management is needed,” Subherwal remarked.
Read PEX Network report: Mastering change in hybrid-working models
4. Data analytics and business intelligence have become the top priority for OPEX investment
According to 43 percent of those surveyed, data analytics and business intelligence were the primary solutions that organizations were looking to invest in until mid-2022. This marked an increase in focus compared to The PEX Report 2021, when data analytics and business intelligence came second behind digital transformation.
Survey respondents explained that the application of data analytics is particularly attractive as it removes much of the need for guesswork in transformation initiatives and because it is the most critical way that OPEX success is measured. DHL’s Escobar affirmed that this was “very good news” as he believed that a data-driven mind-set would enhance the effectiveness of OPEX work.
Related: PepsiCo’s global PEX senior director on why data literacy is critical for process mining
5. Cost and budget limitations remained the top challenge
Cost and budget limitations remained steady as the top challenge for OPEX practitioners, dropping only slightly from 37 to 35 percent between The PEX Report 2021 and The PEX Report 2022.
OPEX Week’s Gu explained that the challenge here stemmed from the need for OPEX practitioners to prove the value of their process initiatives. This is despite the fact that efficiency gains that have been made as a result of past initiatives will have solidified the efficacy of the process, especially if the result has been a positive return on investment for stakeholders.
This may seem surprising, since we are now seeing more buy-in than ever for process initiatives but, despite the fact that CEOs and senior stakeholders now need less convincing than in the past, this does not mean that cost and budget limitations will have been lifted, as the value will still need to be proven.
Have your say on the major trends in process and operational excellence and contribute toward our 2023 flagship report by taking part in our 2023 State-of-the-Industry Survey for OPEX and Business Transformation. You will enter our draw for one of five US$50 Amazon vouchers.
