Case Studies

Background

• $1B+ industrial manufacturing company with global operations facing EBITDA pressures impacted by operational underperformance, high SG&A costs, and fragmented management structures.
• Company was looking at a comprehensive Performance Transformation Program, targeting structural cost reduction, profitability improvement, and cash generation while ensuring covenant compliance with lenders.

Solution

• Transformation Management Office (TMO): Set up Transformation Management Office (TMO) and developed Control Tower dashboard to manage cross-functional initiatives. Developed a transformation framework to track comprehensive value from initial initiative planning through to realization in the P&L.
• Rapid Diagnostic: Conducted rapid analysis of financials, spend data, operational information, and conducted site visits. Identified opportunities for rapid EBITDA improvement of $40M in year 1 and $100M+ for the mid/long term.
• Manufacturing: Completed site visits and evaluated plant performance across multiple dimensions to understand “shop-floor” engagement, manufacturing practices, ways of working, and quickly prioritized areas for deep dives.
• Procurement: Developed spend cube and evaluated Procure-to-Pay model to define current state and opportunities for improvement in structured sourcing waves.
• Pricing & Program Management: Identified opportunities to isolate cost impacts beyond the supplier’s control (e.g., OEM-driven design changes, externally driven material surcharges), to support commercial negotiations and restore program margins.
• G&A: Reviewed spans & layers with focus on structured delayering and organizational simplification. Defined structure for shared services set-up in Eastern Europe

Outcome

• Disciplined process to ensure initiatives have clearly defined KPIs directly linked to P&L outcomes.
• Implemented quick-win strategic initiatives to drive $40M in EBITDA in year 1 and stem revenue loss.
• Manufacturing cost reductions of ~$20M within the first 6 months.
• Purchasing initiatives delivered ~$15M quick wins.
• Pricing actions resulted in ~$10M improvement to program margins.
• Executed the transfer of product and technology from an existing facility in China to a newly established greenfield facility in Romania.
• Developed a training program to equip the internal team with playbook-driven methodologies for executing future transitions independently.

Background

• PE firm building a material handling equipment rental platform through a buy and build strategy, with focus on profitable growth and differentiation. The company completed 15 acquisitions and typically and was actively targeting 5-10 acquisitions in the $20-$300M range.
• The rapid M&A activity was creating challenges for consistent and unified organizational execution, and integration gaps existed across multiple locations in the mid-west and southeastern US.
• Prior integration plan was developed but not executed effectively and created challenges in successfully integrating locations and functions and identifying and eliminating redundancies

Solution

• “Hands-on” and execution focused approach, spent time at the sites to understand current state, engaged stakeholders, and accelerated integration without compromising business performance.
• Developed a M&A playbook and deploy structured integration tools, functional checklists, milestone trackers, RAID logs to streamline and standardize integration across all locations. Assessed gaps from the previous integration plan, and refine/develop the roadmap, and ensure “on-the-ground” execution with clear ownership and milestones.
• Conducted rapid spend analysis and evaluated special projects financials and identified opportunities to reduce third party spend and improve program execution.

Outcome

• Developed and implemented a comprehensive M&A integration playbook with process flows, standardized templates, and checklists tied to critical milestones.
• Implemented a centralized procurement model with local buyer execution, enabling strategic sourcing leverage while maintaining site-level responsiveness and operational continuity.
• Identified and implemented $12M in quick wins across procurement, pricing, and special projects execution.
• Standardized shared-services workflows and master data disciplines (vendors, SKUs, parts, equipment) to support consistent reporting, faster integration, and scalable future acquisitions.

Background

• A Private Equity firm acquired an Automotive Supplier as part of its platform strategy. The carve-out transaction was constrained by limited access to financial, operational, and personnel information during diligence.
• Transition Service Agreements (TSAs) were highly restrictive and limited to 6 months for most functions, requiring rapid stand-up and scale of critical capabilities to ensure business continuity

Solution

• IMO Governance & Structure: Designed the IMO framework, defined roles, responsibilities, and meeting cadence to drive cross-functional alignment.
• Current State Operating Model: Mapped the current state operating model and interdependencies between the Parent and Carve-Co across functions.
• Future State Operating Model: Defined the future state operating model and cost structure based on a transition model, outlining resources, processes, and systems required to operate independently.
• Transition Service Agreements (TSAs): Estimated TSA needs by function, process scope, service delivery requirements, and costs. Built migration plans to exit TSAs within the 6-month window.
• Product Supply Agreements: Negotiated manufacturing and product supply agreements, addressing flows of physical goods, financial transactions, title transfer, IT dependencies, and legal entity structures.

Outcome

• Achieved full separation from Parent within 6 months, avoiding TSA extensions, minimizing cost leakage, and positioning the company with a scalable operating model to support future growth under PE ownership.
• Leveraged an operating model driven approach which accelerated rapid mapping of current vs. future state, gap identification, and alignment of TSA needs.
• Formalized TSA schedules and pricing mechanisms, ensuring transparency, accountability, and predictable cost recovery.
• Clearly defined roles and responsibilities across Forecast-to-Fulfill, ensuring seamless product manufacturing and delivery during the transition.
• Rapidly built Internal capabilities in Finance, HR, IT, and Supply Chain, complemented by alliances with third-party providers for select processes (e.g., payroll, IT infrastructure).

Background

• Global Tire company installed new Medium Radial Truck manufacturing equipment and facing issues with low throughput and increased downtime. Manufacturing facility was producing approximately 4000 tires per day and targeted output was approximately 5000 tires per day.
• Throughput was negatively impacted by frequent short stops and extended changeovers on the tire-building machines (TBMs), with additional coupling losses from upstream (tread/sidewall extrusion, ply & belt calendaring) and downstream curing.

Solution

• Conducted On-site assessments focusing on Equipment Capacity, Equipment Condition, Labor Mix, Changeover Time, Throughput Constraints, Reliability & Maintenance Flow, WIP levels, and physical layout.
• Developed end-to-end flow mapping starting from component infeed and preparation, tire building, to curing.
• Rapid Process Simulation to Convert Lean Concepts into Quantitative Tradeoffs and evaluated end -to-end systems vs. isolated processes.
• Conducted data driven analysis of operations data and reviewed manufacturing operating system with focus on standard processes, problem solving capabilities, metrics, and continuous improvement culture, including leadership & cultural capabilities. Evaluated equipment parameters, settings, and reliability & maintenance practices.

Outcome

• Downtime reduced from ~1.5 hours/shift to ~15–20 minutes/shift.
• Throughput increased from ~4,000/day to >5,200/day (~ +30% vs. baseline).
• Learn–Do–Teach skill cascade so competence lives with the team, not consultants. Instituted KPI tracking with explicit financial linkage to benefits, and defined tracking mechanisms for rapid root cause analysis, make quick course corrections and take action to get programs back on track.
• Centerline Matrix + HMI Locks + Daily Centerline Walk = Predictable Cycles (Manufacturing Operating System Process Standardization + Capability).
• Developed template for rolling out Operating System across MRT plants globally.

Background

• The manufacturing plant of a large global industrial manufacturer in Mexico was the recipient of a large portion of business / production from a plant closure in another location. The facility was manufacturing both “standard” and engineer to order products with 37,000+ part numbers.
• There was no manufacturing operating system in place and the plant was facing issues related to poor delivery performance, extended customer lead times, and potential for cancelled or lost business.
• Goal was to improve overall productivity on two of seven production lines and increase weekly production from 130 units to 250 units per week.

Solution

• Performed a rapid 3-day assessment at the manufacturing facility to understand product & material flow, manufacturing operations practices, and reviewed financial and operational metrics evaluation to identify issues and focus areas.
• Identified key bottlenecks and realigned kitting/scheduling processes with 3-day visibility.
• Developed production scheduling parameters based on cycle times and unit models.
• Implemented Point of Use concepts and Andon flags.
• Defined and implemented process to link demand plans with production and material scheduling and enforced rules related to changing schedule.

Outcome

• Improved throughput from 130 units/week to 250+units/week in 12 weeks and reduced line downtime from 60 hours/month to 10 hours/month.
• Reduced inventory by $7M, and improved customer lead time from 17 weeks to 6-8 weeks.

Background

• RV company operating multiple plants across the U.S had decentralized purchasing practices across business units, limited supplier leverage, and inconsistent sourcing processes for direct materials and MRO spend.
• Company had a highly fragmented supply base across categories (hundreds of suppliers, spot buying), and was faced with rising material costs, and limited visibility into enterprise-wide spend.

Solution

• Conducted rapid spend analysis and identified 3 high impact spend categories across baseline of $58M for rapid intervention. Selected categories: Fabricated Metal Components, Maintenance, Repair & Operating (MRO), and Raw Wood Materials.
• Conducted RFx (RFI, RFP, RFQ) process, expanded supply market beyond local and incumbent vendors, and designed sourcing “lots” aligned to market capabilities and risk.
• Conducted negotiations by category and lot with focus on Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and development supplier on-boarding and transition plans.

Outcome

• Realized greater than 10% savings driven by price reductions, supplier consolidation, item rationalization, and substitution.
• Established a repeatable sourcing playbook (RFIs, RFQs, evaluation tools). Improved contract terms, risk protections, and compliance mechanisms.
• Initiated item master data cleansing and taxonomy standardization, and reduced supplier count across categories.
• Defined future-state materials organization roles and governance, and developed foundation for supplier performance management and development.

Background

• Large Sporting Goods Manufacturing Company had grown through M&A and was dealing with issues related to disparate systems and processes and faced systemic inefficiencies and growth constraints.
• Company had inconsistent service levels and unreliable lead times with forecast accuracy which ranged from 50–70%, with high variability across product categories.
• Operating models were fragmented across acquired entities, with limited insight into market demand and customer requirements. Company had limited ability to scale supply chain with new production capacity to meet increasing demand.
• Company launched an Integrated Global Planning (IBP) transformation initiative to build a scalable, reliable supply chain by effectively linking upstream demand planning with downstream operations.

Solution

• Built and deployed cross-functional, statistical based demand planning process focusing initially on all US products; with subsequent deployments to include the subsidiaries.
• Defined levels of aggregation and dis-aggregation in the forecast model. Built models at the part family level to account for different categories; Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI), Customer Warehouse and Internal DC requirements.
• Updated and implemented S&OP planning process, including implementation of a Demand Forecasting Framework to effectively resolve demand & supply issues for all product types.

Outcome

• Demand Forecasting Framework transformed the company’s approach to demand centric organization; from a functionally siloed, reactive process to a data-driven, collaborative, and standardized forecasting capability that connected strategy, planning, and execution.
• Increased forecast accuracy by 10-15% across product categories.
• Process bridged the gap between financial, sales, and operational plans, aligning decisions around a single, reconciled forecast, moving to a “One Number” planning approach which improved visibility across functions and reduced redundant planning efforts.