A successful manufacturing business engaged us to help the business with some of its growth headaches, while at the same time putting in place an exit strategy for an owner seeking to sell sometime in the future.
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SCOPE: Strategy and planning, operational and organisation redesign, digital transformation, exit planning.
Industry: Manufacturing
Business Model: B2B and B2C.
Established Business: 6+ years
Reach: One State only, part of a franchise group.
Business Size: ~$4million per annum; 7 staff.
Engagements
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Engagement #1. Business Strategy for Growth and Exit Planning.
We developed a business strategy to address growth challenges while aligning with the owner’s goal to sell the business in about five years. This involved customer research and competitor analysis.
The business had hit a revenue ceiling due to:
- The need for more staff to handle increased revenue.
- Ineffective systems and processes limiting operational capacity.
Our engagement began with a deep dive diagnostic, uncovering several issues the owner had avoided due to uncertainty about addressing them. We also identified opportunities for controlled, sustainable growth.
Following the diagnostic, we conducted customer research and competitor analysis. We interviewed around 15 current and past customers and conducted mystery shopping to assess competitors. This data, combined with diagnostic insights, informed the development of a 5-year strategic plan focused on a future exit.
We then provided several months of mentoring to help implement the plan and were engaged to execute certain aspects of it.
Engagement #2. Workflow and organisational redesign.
Our diagnostic identified two major issues causing the business to hit a revenue ceiling:
- Workflow issues
- General systems and process inefficiencies
To tackle these, we developed a three-step strategy:
- Fix workflow issues
- Implement interim systems and processes
- Deploy a robust systems and processes solution
We began with a thorough business process assessment and a workflow study. The process assessment revealed bottlenecks, redundant touchpoints, and manual inefficiencies. The workflow study highlighted how staff performed their daily manufacturing tasks.
Key findings included:
– Poorly laid-out assembly area, causing unnecessary movement between various areas of the assembly area
– Insufficient tools, leading to idle time while waiting for tool availability
– Inconsistent assembly desk layouts, wasting time as staff adjusted to different setups as they moved from desk to desk
– Confusion over leadership within the manufacturing team
Outcomes
This clarity enabled us to address the identified inefficiencies and streamline operations. It took some effort, but about a year or so after this engagement had commenced our work was done. The organisation had transformed from a very manual paper-based business with little direction, to a more valuable business underpinned by modern operational processes and systems, empowering them to now really chase their growth goals.