Turning around a distressed company and securing OPEX (CS276)

Written by Maine Pointe | Feb 27, 2023 8:14:01 PM

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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