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Performance vs. Results

We believe in the performance-driven enterprise. That is, it is not enough to get results – companies must achieve a performance level which is measurable, which is superior to that of the competition, and which supports the competitive strategy.

At the heart of performance excellence is the concept of Operational Effectiveness – creating truly systems and processes which are fully valuable, capable, available, adequate, and flexible. To achieve this, we work with clients to achieve best practices drawn from Lean Thinking. We have successfully applied Lean best practices in a wide variety of settings, including manufacturing, service, process industries, and transactional environments.

Cost performance is a critical differentiator in today’s economy. All too often, however, process improvement focuses on improving cycle times, defect rates, etc., and leaves largely transparent the financial benefit which results from such improvements. Our Activity Based Management approach expresses process waste in dollar terms and details the cost savings that will be driven onto the bottom line from improvements.
Operational Effectiveness

We help our clients to develop performance-driven organizations possessing the operational capability needed to support and realize the overall business strategy. We think creatively, develop and apply best practice solutions, and partner with our clients to solve their toughest challenges.

Our services for Operational Effectiveness are based on implementing a process management approach. Under this approach, which seeks to manage the organization as a system of connected processes, we help client firms to apply best practice tools, such as Lean and Activity Based Management, to drive performance-based improvement. Services we offer in this area include:

Operational Assessment and Diagnosis—Evaluating the current state performance of the operational system and identifying the gaps which exist within the system.

System Modeling, Mapping and Development—Defining and modeling the current state process system, designing an improved future state, establishing the causes of sub-optimization and diminished performance, and making recommendations for improvement and gap closure.

Process Improvement Training and Coaching—Transferring process improvement knowledge, including problem solving skills, to personnel and supporting the application of that knowledge within processes and structures.

Lean Best Practices—We help companies implement recognized and proven best practices for process improvement drawn from Lean Thinking. Our holistic framework for lean transformation ensures client success by integrating four critical areas: business strategy, process management, people engagement, and performance management. To deliver maximum results quickly, we focus on constraining processes and prioritized improvement opportunities. We use a proven process management approach to engage employees at all levels of the organization. This approach delivers dramatic results: cycle-time reductions of 60 percent or more, inventory reductions of 30 percent or more, improved customer service levels, and cost savings of 10 to 30 percent.

Activity Based Management— Activity Based Management (ABM) is a method of identifying and evaluating activities that a business performs using activity-based costing to carry out a value chain analysis or a re-engineering initiative to improve strategic and operational decisions in an organization. Activities consume resources and time and therefore incur costs. Activity Based Management focuses on analyzing and managing activities to reduce costs and improve customer value. We use a proprietary ABM template which drives the activity analysis out of the process system model, expressing the non-value adding activities and waste in dollar terms, and showing the financial gain to be expected from focused improvement actions.