Manufacturing

Execution Support
80/20 Business Simplification.
“Everyone, Everyday” Lean
ERP Implementation
Road-maps, Dashboards & Incentives
Supply Chain Support and “The Bullwhip”
Quality, Safety & Compliance
Machinery Safety & Incident Support
Capital Equipment Investment Plans
Factory Builds and Extensions
Right-Sizing Support

Let’s Talk Execution

“For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong.”
H.L. Mencken

Forget the grand strategy: Delivering the goods beats a fancy PowerPoint every time.

Can you deliver what you promised, when you promised it, and at a price that makes everyone happy?
Execution takes planning. As they said in the Navy “Perfect Prior Preparation Prevents, P*$$ Poor Performance”. (You’ve heard of 6 sigma. These are the 7 P’s)
Execution is an art as well as a science. You need a goal. You need a road-map to that goal. You need people who will sweat the details to get it done.

80/20 Business Simplification

ITW and their 80/20 business simplification strategy
Business complexity expands over time.
Every potential customer is the next big thing. Every product was a potential winner. Customers never get fired. Products never get truly removed. We get lost in all the complexity and even proud of it. “We have 40,000 SKUs!”, “We serve everybody in our industry!” We lose sight of where we are really adding value.
Accounting systems sometimes help, sometimes not. Standard costing is designed to allocate overhead and value inventory, not to show you where the core business is.
But if you have a good accounting team they will have data, and with data we can find the 80/20 and build a road-map to simplify your business.
I learnt a standardized way of finding the core of a business from ITW and have practiced it ever since.
Let me help you simplify your business.

“Everyone, Every Day” Lean

I am a huge fan of GBMP and their “Everyone, Everyday Lean” ethos. I salute “the Toast Guy” and his team and have been a pupil and satisfied customer of their work for years.
If you are not working with them (and I suggest you do), let me help you on your lean journey with “Value Stream Mapping”, “Making the materials flow”, workplace organization and visual factory management.

ERP Implementations

ERP implementations are one of the most essential, scariest projects a growing business can undertake.
I have implemented SAP (twice), Infor (twice), NetSuite, Oracle Agile PDM and Salesforce.com.
I’ve also been part of re-implementations (twice) of failed ERP instances that almost bankrupted businesses.
My scar tissue shows: You can learn from my experience.

Road-maps, Dashboards and Incentives

I may be skeptical about fancy strategic plans, but I named my consultancy “Right Tack” for a reason. We may need to change tack as the wind, tide and competition changes, but we need to know where the finish line is and we need to know if we are on the right tack.
Manufacturing businesses are complex. Road-maps help. I have kept a library of road-map templates that help on the journey to certain goals, be they a rapid ramp of up a new business; the building of a new factory; the phased implementation of a new product; the roll-out of a new supply chain; the integration of a new acquisition.
Dashboards (and their inevitably associated incentives) are essential. They can be pretty (Like the ones in all the new ERPs) or basic like some of the best-in-class visual factories use. They all benefit from deep thought as we have all seen the unintended consequences of poorly designed incentives.
Let me be your thought partner and sweat the details to get you the road-maps and dashboards you want.

Supply Chain Support and “The Bullwhip”

Dr. Charlie Fine at MIT taught me not just to manage supply chains but to sit back and design them first. I highly recommend his book “Clockspeed”. The “Bullwhip Effect” he describes is real and changed the way we set up supply chains at several businesses I have been involved with.
Supply Chains are very complex. Most purchasers only deal with their direct suppliers and haven’t had the time to map out the deeper relationships or risks.
I’ve moved product off-shore to Turkey, China, South Korea and India. I’ve also moved it back to the USA and the UK. Both routes have their challenges.
I offer Supply Chain Mapping, market research, supply chain design reviews, audits, risk assessments and project management services.

Quality

I fear the “quality industry” has become all about selling accreditation services rather than ensuring customers get a quality product and service.
Many have had the experience of buying quality product from people with no certification and poor product from people with every document in the world on the lobby wall.
At Instron, I led an effort to reverse that trend. Yes, we were accredited (and I am an accredited ISO-9001 lead auditor), but we added value by ensuring that the great work done by our team was recognized and rewarded and we built a culture of customer satisfaction and continual improvement based on the W. Edwards Deming principles.
If you are looking to put in a quality system that will do more than get you a fancy certificate in the lobby, I can help you.

Safety

My first boss said to me “If you can’t manage safety what can you manage?” He was right. I offer the following services:

EH&S policy and program design.
Initial workplace audits and assessments.
After-event follow-up and remediation project management.

Machinery Safety and Incident Services

As a long time OEM I have personal experience of ensuring compliance and dealing with the tragic consequences of people getting hurt or killed around machines. I have been the Exec who had to meet the bereaved. I have been the Exec who had to deal with the legal consequences. I have been the Exec & engineer who strove to make sure it never happened again. I offer the following services:

Machinery Product Safety Management guidance.
EU Machinery Directive Compliance guidance.
National Safety Council Product Safety guidance.
After-event investigation and reporting services.

Compliance

Accredited ISO 9001 Lead Auditor.
US Customs trained on Import/Export compliance.
Designed and ran ISO 9001 quality systems compliant with 21 CFR and 10 CFR.
Technical head of ISO 17025 laboratories in the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Singapore, India and China.
Designed and Operated Product Safety Management approval processes compliant with the EU Machinery Directive and the National Safety Council.

Capital Equipment Investment Plans

You are considering a major capital equipment investment. Congratulations! As a seller and buyer of capital equipment I have been on both sides of this moment. Some of those investments were great successes for both parties: Some not so much.
Let me be your thought partner in analyzing the opportunity, pressure-testing the “Cost of Ownership” assumptions, negotiating with the suppliers and project managing the implementation and ramp up.

Factory Builds and Extensions

I have built and extended factories in the UK, the USA, China and India.
My network of trusted associates have designed and built semi-conductor fabs, assembly shops, machine shops and welding shops.

Right-Sizing Support

After 30 years in manufacturing industry I have a wealth of experience in a skill I never hoped to learn. Right-sizing a business.
I have learnt the emotional toll and the value of having a trusted partner to deal with the whole process, from figuring out the who and the how, to being on-site on the day to make it all go as well as it can on the day.
On more than one occasion I worked with union representatives. After going through the flames with them I consider those representatives to be true business partners as committed to the long-term success of manufacturing industry as I am.