Consulting that finds the cause in your own process
Most operations show some mix of six symptoms: slow, rigid, defective, obscure, costly and risky. We start at the process that produces the symptom and pick the method that fits it, whether Lean, Six Sigma or design of experiments. We also teach your people the method as we go, so that the gains stay in place after we leave.
The fundamental operational problems
Companies across all sectors are constantly challenged by these operational problems. This is the result of constant change and companies' difficulty to adapt rapidly.
Slow
Long lead times to complete a task, deliver a product, generate new ideas.
Rigid
Poor flexibility to respond to changing customer demands.
Defective
Too many defective products or service errors.
Obscure
Not meeting deadlines or service levels, lack of measurement and transparency.
Costly
Excessive cost of operation.
Risky
Unacceptable operational risk.
A method to fit each problem
We help you get the most from your processes, people and technologies using time-tested tools and a key ingredient: education to create internal capacity for long-term change.
Results from client projects, by sector
Financial Services
- Saved 1,000 non-value added hours per month and increased processed payments by 50,000 monthly for a multi-country financial services operation.
- Recovered 1,700 non-value added hours per month and increased accounts payable capacity by 25,000 invoices per month for a shared services center.
Manufacturing
- Reduced scrap of worst-quality product from 7% to less than 2% in 3 weeks for a laminated woods manufacturer.
- Reduced die manufacturing rework from 22% to 8% in 3 months.
- Shortened duration of a parts-smoothing operation from over 8 to less than 4 hours.
- Extended time between tool changes from 2 to 9 hours, letting off-shifts operate unattended.
Healthcare
- Planned hospital facilities and operations for increased utilization and better patient flow.
- Improved speed of medical supply chains: order to delivery.
- Deployed lean healthcare practices.
Supply Chain
- Optimized pipeline flow volume resulting in $6m monthly additional revenue.
- Lowered crude oil pumping costs through better scheduling that takes advantage of hourly electricity price variations.
Retail
- For a nationwide hardware franchise, accelerated start-up and turn-around periods resulting in more open stores per year and incremental sales of $6m.