Today in this competitive era of globalization, being different in the market is the highest business priority. Standardization is the key to success and growth. Standardization of processes, people and technology can be a winning strategy for organizations.
Working in silos ultimately results into lack of control over operations. With standardization organizations can achieve cost saving, manpower productivity improvement, increased customer satisfaction and improved competitiveness. Not standardized processes result in higher maintenance costs and unpredictability of results even with slight variation in situations – both of which results into higher cost of operations. Standardization on the other hand ensures reliability, certainty, consistency and flexibility of operations.
McDonald’s is the best example of how an organization has standardized the processes to an extent where the core focus of the organization is on finding solutions to core business priorities like product development, growth and marketing. McDonald’s is no longer “manufacturing” a burger, but instead customers are experiencing the service side of a standardized operations. This is achieved along with reduced manpower costs and consistency of product and experience – which ultimately builds brand value for McDonald’s.
Will the well-known and favourite Indian snack – Vada Pav be able to create the same brand equity as McDonald?
Vadapav is believed to have been invented in 1966 by a Mumbai resident, Ashok Vaidya, who opened the first vada pav stall opposite the Dadar railway station in Mumbai. This was often a quick, inexpensive snack for the workers who passed every day on their way to the textile mills in suburbs such as Parel and Worli in Mumbai. Vada pav was in a short span of time very popular among the Mumbai residents. Vaidya still is a Mumbai icon. There is a documentary film made on him, called Vada Pav Inc.
The strikes through the 1970s and 1980s ultimately led to the textile mills’ terminations, as a result, many former mill workers opened vada pav stalls of their own.
There have been several instances where initiatives like Jumbo King have been made but none of them have been as impactful as McDonald’s. There is nothing even at the national level in India for vada pav. This is because of lack of standardization. Lack of standardization leads to variations. This, in turn, leads to waste of time and energy. There needs to be standardization of processes and products. The whole process should be standardized in such a way that it is independent of the location or people.
Standardization is the most strategic, yet simplest way to achieve differentiation for the organization. Repetitive and non-value adding work can be eliminated to a large extent saving the energies of the organization for more strategic initiatives. This is applicable to any industry, be it Auto, Pharma, Chemical, FMCG etc. Team Faber has been working with clients across geographies and industries on process standardization. We have worked with teams to maintain a balance between standardization and customization so that organizations remain competitive.
Written & Compiled by Faber Mayuri
