Leadership
at all levels of a company is fundamentally about making decisions. These
decisions can span the range from higher-level strategic initiatives for the
organization, all the way down to a specific focus on what customer work to
accept (and what not to accept) and how to tactically accomplish this work in
the most efficient, performance-focused manner. In between these two points
there is a myriad of operational and tactical decisions that link strategic
direction, results, and ultimately value creation - the goal of strategy. Today
a key strategic question that many organizations face deals with not only
technology, but social, and even political undertones: “what will be the
impact of AI on our business and how can we leverage this strategically for
value creation?” This paper presents the concept of the SOT, Strategy,
Operations, Tactics, alignment framework, through the introduction and
practical integration of Artificial Intelligence capabilities of a major
transnational industrial manufacturer of wind turbines. Utilizing PMI’s
framework for AI, the paper analyzes specific areas affecting business
functions and organizational development along the hierarchical SOT framework
from top organizational leadership, to major project middle-managers, to
tactical line supervisors, in the quest for efficient value alignment and
creation throughout the hierarchy of the organization. A key area identified
where we have demonstratable results is within customer requirements
identification and allocation in large value industrial project orders relating
to wind turbine project manufacturing and infrastructure; this was identified
as a critical point where the organization was able to leverage AI so that
external customer expectations on performance, delivery, and costs, align with
internal organizational stakeholders’ business expectations and functional
necessities and efficient & effective capabilities. Initial improvements
realized include an approximate 24% faster project build/delivery rate with a
decrease of change orders, down 13%, within the first 18 months of AI
capability introduction within the SOT organizational framework. Within this
newly-integrated SOT-AI system, we also consider scale effects that impact
multiple SBUs with dispersed production control, procurement, engineering, and
manufacturing assets in multiple regional areas. We identify specific and
practical ways in which the integrated SOT-AI framework impacts results in
tactical, operational/system, and strategic efforts and ultimately the enhancement
of value and strategic advantage.
