This story is for CEOs who
- Need to realign their plan-make-buy-move supply chain to match changes in demand
- Want to rein in costs without alienating customers
- Need another approach to labor shortages and productivity problems
The Challenges
A die casting and machining company came out of bankruptcy with a new management team, nervous Private Equity investors, and customers ready to sue because of missed delivery targets. The already distressed company then faced a huge drop in demand from a major customer. The company thought their problems would be temporary and they could ride through out or solve them with a 5S program in die casting.
Aligning supply and demand and ensuring that changes stick
SGS Maine Pointe:
- Revamped and coordinated scheduling between maintenance and operations
- Closed the communications gap with customers
- Removed bottlenecks, optimized uptime and plant flow, and reduced defects and scrap
- Gained a 25% increase in throughput in the CNC machining area
- Coached teams in effective use of a management operating system and established KPIs
- Pivoted team leaders toward planning, rather than reacting
- Aligned resources with falling demand and made sure changes were sustainable even after demand returned
Lessons learned for other executives
- Operational excellence and footprint optimization are key to improving productivity and quality
- Improvements require clear communications with customers and between teams
- Finding root causes and bottlenecks requires in-depth, boots-on-the-ground analysis
The Results
- $7.5M annualized savings
- 40% uptime improvement
- 25% increase in throughput
- 20% quality improvement
- Trained and mentored teams and leaders
- Ensured changes were sustainable despite demand fluctuations
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Turning around a distressed company and securing OPEX
