Restructuring A Large Manufacturing And Distribution Operation

• Plant production increased from 7,500 Grilles/day to 22,000 Grilles/day.
• 60+ products were redesigned and implemented with an average 12% cost reduction per unit.
• Units/employee tripled.
• Incident rates per hundred grilles were reduced 85%.
• Sales increased 7% and P&L improved by $30M, a 15% improvement year over year
• Service levels increased from 48% of 96%
• Completed in 11 months

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Management of a project, regardless of the specific intent and outcome, can generally be accomplished using fairly universal tools and techniques with a significant amount of focus and discipline.

A team approach has been shown to gain ‘ownership’ in the project and a consistent and uniform means of communication allows participants and stakeholders to stay abreast of the project by providing feedback to the team and the project leader(s). As a business leader, you frequently find yourself faced with the dilemma of having to define, justify, and implement a significant project or program, that at its conception, is generally just a collection of ideas, proposals, ‘back of the envelope’ calculations or benefits.

To bring these together takes the focus of a …Read More

You are the CEO of a small company that has a retail product with patent rights. A very large department store chain sends one of your company’s products to China and begins buying a knock off from a Chinese manufacturer. When confronted by the company, the buyer tells you: “Your problem is with the Chinese manufacturer, not me, sue them”. How do you protect your rights, against customers or manufacturers who have very deep pockets, without losing all of their business and spending a huge sum of money? …Read More

Good times, bad times, you know we’ve had our share….  Anytime is a good time to reexamine the principle of “getting Lean” or improving processes by applying a set of tools that will deliver significant reductions in cost and lead time.  Sigma techniques as championed by “blackbelts” is often the rallying cry.

But what about Quality (with or without a big Q)? Is quality or Total Quality now passé, having been supplanted by Lean and/or Six Sigma? Are all of these synonyms? Are they just dressed-up, consultant-speak ways of describing historic “best manufacturing practices?” Do they work together, or do they …Read More

To gain a competitive edge, every project needs to take a holistic approach to new channel development. Changes in one process or program will weave its way throughout an organization and its markets. When making changes to the marketing and sales channels, some work needs to be done early in the project to assess the implications of change. Failure to consider this may cause irreparable damage to the company’s sales, clients and reputation in the marketplace. In new channel development, the company knows current markets well and has setup programs and processes to support the existing channels. When a new channel is contemplated, there are many interrelated issues that must be dealt with. They include: …Read More

Group50 Consulting, formed in 2004 announced today that it has added an Intellectual Property audit to its Company Physical^®, a series of cross functional audits that companies should use to complement their financial audits as further validation of the company’s health.  This audit is focused on the business wide practices for protecting Intellectual Property.

Most senior executives believe that Intellectual Property protection is a function of patents and trademarks. This is farthest from the truth according to Jim Gitney, Group50’s CEO. “Patents and trademarks are only a part of protecting a company’s IP. Your Intellectual Property is only as good as your willingness to protect it, and after the fact is a very costly proposition. A proactive approach to protecting IP includes the way outsiders are handled, how employees are trained and communicated with and the approach a business takes in its documentation. The more serious a company is about protecting its IP up front, the harder outsiders will think about stealing it. Unfortunately, we live in a world where a cost analysis often dictates whether or not another company will copy the hard work done by others. This topic is often not thought about or given enough credance as highlighted in a recent Group50 Case Study on Protecting a Company’s Intellectual Property Rights. “

Group50 has designed this Intellectual Property audit to be able to quickly check how proactive a company is in its protection efforts. The audit provides a detailed report on how a company can be proactive and continue to protect it competitive position.  

To find out more, call Jim Gitney, Group50’s CEO at +1 (909)-949-9083, email him at jgitney@group50.com or request more information here.

About Group50^®: Group50 was founded in 2004 with the vision of providing clients with seasoned professionals who have spent their careers in business. The company has developed unique consulting products such as the Company Physical^® and various workshops that are focused on helping companies effectively understand their strategic and operating gaps, create roadmaps to fix them and work side by side with them to implement those changes. Group50 provides clients with consultants who have the specific knowledge they require for a project. More information about the company can be found at www.Group50.com or by calling 909-949-9083.

During a keynote address at IIR’s Balanced Scorecard Forum, Robert Kaplan, a leading international business management guru, revealed “that less than 10% of formulated strategies are executed effectively” and an international survey indicated that consistently executing strategic objectives were in the top three concerns of CEO’s and corporate boards. Kaplan also added “that it is a well know fact that organizations who have a formal strategy execution process dramatically outperform the rest”. Effectively and consistently implementing corporate strategy requires all stakeholders to be aligned to those objectives, understand their role in achieving them and be accountable for effective implementation. If your company doesn’t have a formal process, then the hard work is figuring out what one looks like. A strategic execution process must …Read More