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Achieve unparalleled efficiency with our Operations Excellence consulting services

Achieving operational excellence (OpEx) is a key driver for gaining a competitive advantage. OpEx enhances quality, throughput, reliability, and yield without incurring additional costs. It ensures that customers receive what they want, when they want it, at a price they find reasonable which increases profit.

OpEx covers leadership, organizational improvement, and management operating systems. It thoroughly evaluates the "how, why, where, and when" of work. According to the Institute for Operational Excellence, OpEx is achieved when every employee can visualize the value flow to the customer and proactively address any potential breakdowns.

As the foremost supply chain and operations consulting firm in North America, we specialize in analyzing your current operational impact on the entire plan-make-buy-move supply chain. Our expertise helps you uncover untapped value within your existing operations and enables you to harness it effectively.

What is your OPEX perspective?

When your company demonstrates operations excellence, your people, processes, systems, and space are coordinated to meet your customer and company goals in the most efficient, cost effective way. What this means in practice includes:

  • Automation, data analytics, and feedback to drive continuous improvement
  • Full asset availability and utilization
  • A workflow and layout that makes the most of your capacity
  • Predictive forecasting with operations in the supply/demand loop.
     

operations excellence diagram with asset availability, automation, productivity, and KPIs connected to it

How we add value

Our expertise and unique approach accelerates operational transformation.
Our operations excellence strategies deliver results in as fast as 4 to 12 weeks.


Step #1: Rapid analysis

  • Analyze operating costs, including downtime, lost time, quality defects, and total cost of maintenance (TCM).

  • Define the current state of operations within the organization, including planning and scheduling, maintenance, warehouse and shipping/receiving functions.

  • Identify roadblocks and missed opportunities.

Step #2: Leadership and organizational improvement

  • Remove resistance to change through training and mentoring.

  • Break down barriers between planning, procurement, operations, and logistics.

Step #3: Implement

  • Develop a management operation system and a sales, inventory, and operations planning system for long-lasting change and continuous improvement.

  • Establish KPIs and master schedules and establish owner-responsible-consult-inform (ORCI) accountability.

  • Improve quality and yield management.

Continuous Improvement 

We make sure your production planning is linked to your sourcing and logistics; operations has the raw materials it needs and delivers finished products on time in full (OTIF).

Our analysis enables you to:

  • Uncover root drivers of performance across the plan-make-buy-move supply chain.
  • Create the metrics, training, and mentoring for a stable and productive operations workforce.
  • Meet the demand for your products and services.
  • Increase your competitiveness and market position.
     

Raise Quality and Productivity

For your teams to deliver on quality and productivity, they need defined requirements, methods for verifying compliance with specifications and variances, and a regular reporting format.

We focus on
  • Productivity Benchmarks and KPIs
  • SKU Rationalization
  • Verification and Validation
  • Quality and Yield Management
  • Pipeline Management
  • Total Value Optimization (TVO)™ Strategies.

Increase Asset Availability and Utilization

A maintenance schedule, coupled with tracking of materials and equipment, ensures that parts are available when needed. 

We focus on

  • Integrating Maintenance and Operations
  • Establishing Performance Targets
  • Maximizing Working Capital.

Strategize Automation

Once you develop standardized and reliable processes, automation brings you greater efficiency; before that point, automation merely codifies your operational flaws. With clear insight into your capacity and capabilities, you can choose the strategies, systems, and processes that make the most sense for your operations.

We focus on

  • Capacity and Capability Planning
  • Production Systems
  • Automation Strategies
  • Lean/Six Sigma.

Ensure Collaboration

Clarity of roles, responsibilities, and accountability are essential for operational improvements. Training, mentoring, and clear communications ensure that sales, finance, planning, procurement, operations, and logistics understand and focus on the same goals and KPIs. 

We focus on

  • Drive personal accountability with an owner, responsible, consult, inform (ORCI) initiative.
  • Quantify, qualify, and track revenue, growth, and market share as a result of team activities 
  • Build data analytics feedback loops.

The Impact of Our Approach

 

Quality benefits
  • Higher customer satisfaction
  • Reduced waste
  • Better product lifecycle management.
Automation benefits
  • Improved efficiency
  • Process consistency and standardization
  • Increased productivity and reliability.
Asset utilization benefits
  • Increase overall equipment effectiveness (OEE)
  • Improved layout and workflow
  • More working capital.
Collaboration benefits
  • Clear Accountability
  • Less Finger-Pointing and More Problem Solving
  • Culture of Continuous Improvement.



Operations Excellence Case Studies

Company Description Project Scope Results

 

Die Casting & Machining Company

 

5S; OpEx; Cost Reduction


  • $3M ROI
  • $1.7M annualized savings
  • 65% reduction in dimensional scrap
  • 50%-120% upswing in productivity

 


Global Manufacturing Company

 


Root Cause Analysis; Footprint Redesign

 

  • $8.8M in annualized benefits to P&L
  • 16% improvement in cost per unit
  • 240% productivity improvement
  • 821% improvement in dock shipping days for manufacturer

 


Aerospace & Defense Simulator Manufacturing Company

 


OpEx; Standard-ization



  • $40M in savings
  • 650 tasks & milestones charted
  • 5:1 ROI

 

High Technology Products

 


SIOP; PMOS; OpEx


  • 27% throughput improvement
  • Increased capacity
  • Double-digit savings

 


Produce Processor

 

LOI; Standard Operating Procedures & Work Instructions



  • Reduced downtime from 40% to 15%
  • Reduced miss-picks from 300/day to 10/day
  • 18% procurement savings

Related Resources

A new lens for optimizing multimillion-dollar decisions

a new lens for making multimillion dollar decisions

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Operations Excellence Case Studies

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Our Blog: Trends and best practices for the E2E supply chain

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From rapid sprints for short-term gains to transformation for competitive advantage we are here to get you there.