Manufacturing consultants help their clients solve a number of important business issues. The business issues described below are common reasons why manufacturers have engaged MTG.
Selling Your Business - Increasing Your Sell Price
Industrial engineers will enable your business to be sold at a higher value. We help reduce costs, reduce risk and increase capacity. Any potential acquirer is going to want to see that your financial performance either meets or exceeds your peers. Engaging with an industrial engi51neering firm provides you with an outside perspective on where you need to focus your efforts to improve financial performance.
The initial discovery engagement by an outside set of eyes identifies where your teams should focus their efforts. You can then decide how to balance your efforts, either with the IE firm or using internal resources to accomplish these outcomes.
Note that most acquisition activities require at least a year or two of consistent financial results, so, make sure that you engage with the consultant with enough time to show results.
Missing Financial Targets
The movie “Office Space” certainly puts a negative light on consultants. Your team has significant institutional knowledge, and can solve complex issues, right?
An outside view may provide a perspective that your teams might not have had from an operational perspective. A third party evaluation may enable some new ideas on how to identify waste since consultants have a much broader market view. Combining your staff’s institutional knowledge with outside advice may provide the necessary perspective to improve your operations.
Short Staffed
Labor continues to be one of the most pressing issues manufacturers faces. Labor shortages are not confined only to front line staff. They include accountants, engineers and operational expertise. If your business is growing through acquisition, your current operational staff is more than likely deployed to accomplish that goal, to achieve both pre- and post-acquisition outcomes. If you are in a rural area, finding staff can be difficult.
Utilizing consultants enables you to find resources on a project basis to alleviate some short-term needs while still accomplishing your key operational targets.
Localized Expertise
Similar to being short-staffed, many small and medium organizations do not have the people or the capacity to follow up with suppliers outside of their home market. Companies find that they do not have the manufacturing expertise and the local knowledge to effectively solve challenges with their suppliers in Asia.
It is also a cost benefit analysis. Perhaps companies do have the expertise needed; however, the cost, both in terms of finances and time spent, is not worth it to fly to the other side of the world and spent a week or so on-site to solve a problem. The flight costs alone are prohibitively expensive. Bringing a local expert frees resources that could be better spent elsewhere.
Confidential Projects
Whether it is creating a new production line, reshoring a facility or evaluating a potential acquisition, companies may not want to share these initiatives within the organization. They also may not have staff with the appropriate experience/expertise to deliver the expected outcomes.
Hiring an experienced consultancy enables you to keep these initiatives internally confidential while ensuring that you receive relevant advice on if or how to move forward. It eliminates the risk of exposing these initiatives prematurely to your organization, and any unintended consequences caused by this knowledge leak.
Conclusion
These are only a small subset of the business reasons why our clients have engaged MTG. Our Hands On, Practical and Scalable solutions keep our clients happy.
Ultimately, your team has to determine how your organization can achieve its business objectives in the expected timeframes with your existing staff. If you are in any of the above situations, we may be able to help you realize your key outcomes efficiently and effectively within your projected timelines.
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