Project Description

 

CHALLENGE

This family-owned business had ridden the rise of product popularity and had outgrown the business model it had relied on for generations. Traditional management practices and an organization reliant on leaders to make every decision created bottlenecks, massive inefficiency, and inadvertently undermined employee autonomy. Despite a desire to cultivate a culture of family values, the organization’s ineffective use of resources meant that they too often overlooked unacceptable behavior in the name of serving customers, eroding employee trust in the process.

 

The company needed to focus its efforts, up-level its operation in order to more consistently serve its global clientele of retailers and required the support of a more capable workforce to support that end.

 

SOLUTION

Leverage the legacy and prepare for the future.

 

Assessment

  • Understanding where there were issues in the organization’s SABA.
  • Organization-wide VSM
  • Relevance of the business model
  • Margin analysis

Strategy Development

  • Represent the best of the organization’s legacy in the development of its core ideology
  • Conceive of a future state business model that would align to their goals
  • Hoshin planning

Capability Building

  • Support the development of a more sophisticated operation that aligned with organizational goals via rigorous cross-training curriculum.
  • Uplevel data collection/maintenance systems
  • Reporting

Leadership and Team Development

  • Leadership development and management training in context
  • The creation of an apprentice program whereby cohorts of employees

    across ranks would pass through problem solving, advanced technical training, Lean and conflict resolution training to pass on to their cells/ teams.

 

RESULTS

Within the first year, shrink was down nearly 75% and they went from constantly struggling to deliver on time to being able to give the entire facility the Thanksgiving holiday off for the first time in seven years. By year two, enough space had been created to support the installation of another line. The apprentice program was in full swing, decentralizing organizational control and improving culture. By year three, the organization was hitting record production numbers.