More than 5 in 10 CEOs say their organizations have trouble turning ideas into action. Our clients rely on us to put their strategy into action. We understand their issues and help resolve them.
There are lots of smart people with good ideas, especially in the consulting world. But if those ideas don’t translate into a business case that can be implemented on the plant floor, really, what’s the point?
Our focus is on the real world of manufacturing systems. We bring an engineer’s technical depth of understanding to the design, construction, operation and optimization of world-class manufacturing systems; along with the business insight to know how to meet enterprise objectives.
That’s why we identify ourselves as manufacturing consultants.
We can tell you the “manufacturability” of marketing ideas, sales concepts, package designs and technology initiatives, including the full business case, pricing, capital and operational requirements.
We focus our strategic insight and implementation into solving problems that include:
optimizing operations
consolidation of facilities and lines
special purpose machinery
pricing models
institutional knowledge transfer
Lean for High Speed Manufacturing
Lean is the hot topic in manufacturing. Everyone is trying out Lean, but Lean was developed for the auto industry, which is slow-speed, discrete manufacturing. Lean is applied differently in a High Speed, Continuous environment and we can assist you to implement Lean properly in a High Speed Continuous Environment.
Reduced Effort Changeover (REC)
SKU proliferation is rampant and causes shorter runs with more changeovers and cleanings. These result in lost production time as well as multiple startups. REC is a week-long event that is guaranteed to reduce a changeover or cleaning process for a single unit operation by 30%.
Startup on Steroids
The most finely engineered manufacturing system is worthless unless it produces at the designed rate to ensure your business meets its objectives. To get to the level in the business case takes more than machines - it takes people and materials as well. Startup is when it all comes together taking an engineered system and making it produce for the business. Significant resources are spent during startup – we can provide a controlled and disciplined process that has proven to dramatically reduce overall startup time and costs.
World Class Manufacturing Systems Development
Corporate strategy indicates what manufacturing companies need for their business, but what is the best way to deploy the strategy when it calls for a new or modified manufacturing system. What should the new or revised system look like? Should it be one big system or several little systems? How fast should it run? How much will it cost? How long will it take before it can deliver for the business? How many SKUs can it handle? What is the right amount of flexibility? Our manufacturing clients rely on us to help answers these questions for their sophisticated systems.
Systems Integrity Analysis and Design
A new system has been designed for a manufacturing company and the stakes to ensure it will perform are high. How does a manufacturer minimize the risk that the system will perform? An existing system is not performing to meet the business needs - why and what needs to happen to get it there? Many of our clients rely on our system analysis tools and simulation expertise to develop and justify their plans for improving their operations.
Innovative New Technology Applications
World Class manufacturing companies want to be the best. And part of their competitive edge is to continue pushing the envelope of what is possible with their manufacturing systems. Our clients depend on our industry knowledge and experience to seek out and assist in the development of the next quantum leap forward in manufacturing system performance or technology.
