Operations Assessment

There are thousands of books, articles, websites, and people talking about Lean Six-Sigma, Kanban Boards, Gantt charts, and more. Marketing buzzwords and sales tactics are not the service that Strongpoint Strategic is interested in delivering. We seek to provide an honest assessment of your operations in order to create value and time for the business and specifically free resources like management to focus on strategy and opportunity, not problems. Our process and focus points are not a guarded secret to coerce a sale; our objectivity, experience, and solutions based approach is where we create value. Here is an example of where we focus our effort when reviewing manufacturing and production operations:

I. Production Efficiency & Shop Throughput

Goal: Measure the "velocity" of a product from raw material to finished good.

1. Value Stream Mapping: Identify every touchpoint of a product. Where is the longest "dwell time" (waiting for the next step)?

2. Bottleneck Identification: Which machine or process dictates the speed of the entire shop? (e.g., the finish booth or the CNC).

3. Setup & Changeover Times: How long does it take to flip the shop from Product A to Product B? (Targeting "Single-Minute Exchange of Die" or SMED).

4. Repeatability & Jigs: Assessment of custom tooling and jigs to ensure the first part is identical to the 100th.

5. Material Handling & Flow: Is the shop laid out "U-shaped" or in a straight line to minimize unnecessary movement of heavy materials?

II. Quality Control (QC) & Waste Management

Goal: Minimize "re-work" and material loss.

1. Yield Analysis: What percentage of raw material ends up in the dumpster vs. the final product?

2. First-Pass Yield (FPY): How many units move through the entire process without needing a single correction?

3. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs): Are there digital or physical checklists at every station, or is the process "in the lead's head"?

4. Tolerance Benchmarking: Are the precision standards being met consistently across all shifts?

5. Scrub & Rework Costs: Tracking the exact labor and material cost of fixing errors.

III. The "Back Office" & Tech Stack

Goal: Ensure the administrative side supports, rather than hinders, production.

1. ERP/MRP Integration: Is the inventory system talking to the production schedule in real-time?

2. Data Silos: Does the "sales" team know exactly what the "production" floor is capable of delivering this week?

3. Procurement Lead Times: Monitoring "Just-In-Time" (JIT) vs. "Just-In-Case" inventory levels for critical consumables (bits, finishes, hardware).

4. Project Management (PM) Software: Is there a single source of truth for project status, or is it buried in emails and whiteboards?

5. Invoicing & Cash Flow: The "Days Sales Outstanding" (DSO)—how fast does a completed pallet turn into cash in the bank?

IV. Labor & Safety Culture

Goal: Sustainable output and institutional knowledge retention.

1. Skill Matrix & Cross-Training: If the lead fabricator is out for a week, does production stop?

2. Labor Efficiency Variance: Comparing "estimated labor hours" vs. "actual labor hours" on a per-project basis.

3. Safety & Compliance (OSHA): Assessment of dust collection, PPE usage, and machine guarding.

4. Ergonomics & Fatigue: Identifying "hard labor" tasks that can be assisted by lifts, vacuum tables, or automated carts.

5. Roles & Responsibilities Mapping: Is every team member clear on their "Top 3" priorities daily?

V. Scalability & Strategic Growth

Goal: Determining if the business can grow without breaking.

1. Machine Capacity Utilization: Is the equipment running at 40% capacity or 95%? (95% often indicates a need for capital investment).

2. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM): How quickly can a new product be prototyped and moved into full production?

3. Utility & Infrastructure: Can the current electrical/pneumatic/dust systems handle an additional 3hp or 5hp machine?

4. Vendor Diversification: Are you "single-sourced" for any critical material that could shut you down if a supplier fails?

5. The "Owner Trap" Index: Can the shop run for 30 days without the owner's physical presence or constant decision-making?