What is the difference between a strength and an opportunity?

Strengths and weaknesses are inside the organisation and in its control. Opportunities and threats are outside it. 'Our changeovers are fast' is a strength; 'a customer wants shorter runs' is the opportunity it fits.

Who should be in the room?

People who see different parts of the picture: operations, quality, maintenance, sales and someone from the floor. A SWOT done by the management team alone tends to miss the weaknesses.

What happens after the SWOT?

Pair the boxes: which strength takes which opportunity, which weakness leaves you open to which threat. Those pairs become objectives on the X-matrix or rows on a gap analysis.

SWOT or gap analysis?

A SWOT chooses a direction: what to build on, what to fix, what to seize, what to guard against. A gap analysis measures the distance to a chosen target, area by area. Do the SWOT first, then the gap analysis on the objectives it produced.

The leader whose plan it feeds, usually the plant manager. They call the session, own the pairs that come out and carry them to the X-matrix.

How often should it be redone?

Once a year at the start of planning, and after a big change: a new plant manager, a lost or won customer, a new regulation. The threats box goes stale fastest.

Lean Studio board · Team & strategy

SWOT Analysis board

In one sentence

A SWOT analysis is a four-quadrant assessment of an organisation, site or plan: its internal strengths and weaknesses, and the external opportunities and threats it faces.

A SWOT analysis is a four-box look at a plant, a line or a plan: the strengths and weaknesses inside it, and the opportunities and threats outside it. It takes an hour with the right people in the room and gives the annual plan its starting facts, before the objectives are set.

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When to use it

When to use the SWOT Analysis board

At the start of annual planning, before the X-matrix.
When a plant is deciding whether to take on a new product, customer or line.
For a department or a team, to agree what to build on and what to fix.
After a big change (a new plant manager, a lost customer) to reset the picture.
Before a capital request, to show what the new press would fix and what it would not.

What is on the board

1
Strengths
Internal, in your control: skills, equipment, a good process, a loyal customer.
2
Weaknesses
Internal: the skills gap, the old press, the supplier you depend on.
3
Opportunities
External: a market, a technology, a competitor's weakness.
4
Threats
External: a regulation, a cost rise, a customer's plans.

Running it

How to run a SWOT Analysis session

1
Invite people who see different parts of the picture: operations, quality, maintenance, sales, HR and someone from the floor. Six to ten people, typically an hour to ninety minutes.
2
Define the subject in one line first: the plant, the line, the plan to take on a new customer. A SWOT of 'us' produces platitudes.
3
Ten minutes of silent stickies into all four boxes. Then read them aloud, merge duplicates, and challenge any strength that is really an opinion: ask for the evidence.
4
Test the internal/external line: 'skilled workforce' is a strength, 'tight labour market' is a threat. Move stickies that are on the wrong side.
5
Vote for the three that matter most in each box. Then pair them: which strength takes which opportunity, which weakness exposes you to which threat.
6
Write the pairs as candidate objectives and hand them to the X-matrix or a gap analysis.
7
Bring the numbers: turnover, changeover times, OEE, customer complaints, the steel price. A SWOT with data in the room finishes in an hour; without it, in three.
8
Good output: twelve stickies that matter, four to six pairs, and a leadership team that agreed on the weaknesses out loud.

Worked example · sample data

Worked example

The sample SWOT is for a stamping plant. Strengths: the fastest changeovers in the group, and low turnover on the day shift. Weaknesses: only one qualified setter on nights, and press 2 running past its design life. Opportunities: a customer moving a part in-house to this plant, and an energy grant for compressors. Threats: steel up 12%, and a competitor opening 40 kilometres away. Pairing the boxes gave the plan its shape. The changeover strength fits the incoming customer, whose part means shorter runs, so that pairing became an objective. The single night setter is the weakness the new competitor would exploit if they hired him, so cross-training two more setters became an objective too. Both went to the X-matrix as annual objectives.

The board shown at the top of this page, read through. Invented data, not a customer.

Common mistakes

A SWOT by the management team alone. It finds the strengths and misses the weaknesses.
Strengths without evidence. 'Great culture' is a feeling until a turnover number backs it.
Mixing internal and external. A skilled workforce is a strength; a tight labour market is a threat.
Forty stickies with no vote. The value is in the twelve that matter.
Stopping at the four boxes. The pairs are the output.
Confusing a weakness with a threat you cannot fix. The steel price is a threat; a single supplier for coil is a weakness.

How it works in Lean Studio

1
Start from the SWOT Analysis template: a 2×2 grid, internal on top, external below.
2
Everyone adds stickies to all four boxes in ten minutes, then the team merges duplicates and votes for the three that matter most in each box.
3
Draw arrows between a strength and the opportunity it can take, or a weakness and the threat it exposes: those pairs become the objectives.
4
Save the finished board to My templates so the next team starts from your version.

Lean Studio boards are drawn with stickies, text, shapes (rectangle, rounded rectangle, ellipse, diamond), arrows and charts, and any board can carry the 15 data widgets, from a scorecard to a kanban. See all widgets and boards.

Also in LeanSuite

Where it goes next in LeanSuite

LeanSuite's KPI dashboards track every KPI against its target with RAG ranges, KPI trees and live huddle boards.

The objectives from the pairs become Kaizen projects and programmes with owners, phases and savings tracked against plant targets. Kaizen & Projects
A weakness about skills or cover is visible person by person on the live skills matrix, and the Job Cover Matrix shows single points of failure and who to cross-train first. Competency Management
The measures that prove an objective is working are KPIs with targets and RAG ranges, rolled up through KPI trees. KPI Dashboards

See KPI Dashboards

Open this board in LeanSuite

SWOT Analysis is one of the 30 ready-made boards in Lean Studio, LeanSuite's whiteboard. Try the interactive demo in your browser with sample data, or pilot LeanSuite on your own lines for 90 days, with the setup done by our team.

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