Cameron Premo, an SVP on our Manufacturing and Operations team, highlights his work on a recent engagement with an aerospace supplier.
"Our client was a tier-1 aerospace supplier experiencing significant supply chain disruptions which were preventing it from meeting customer demand. We were brought in to improve their processes to increase output.
As the supply chain recovery workstream lead, I created a task force comprised of company personnel tasked with solving key material availability gaps affecting production and delivery in the short-term while longer-term organizational changes could be implemented.
This included creating a new visualization tool that would enable our client to understand the delivery status of each part required to build each assembly. With this tool, we could identify issues further up the process, giving us more time to develop a solution to pull in the part delivery date. As a result, our client could provide more accurate delivery forecasts to its customers and ultimately deliver approximately 40% additional units in the final quarter.
Finding simple solutions to complex problems
Our success is tied to our ability to analyze our clients’ processes and org structures, recognize where there are inefficiencies and propose better ways to do things.
There are likely many ways to improve a company’s operations by thinking critically about how a process should work and providing stakeholders with the data needed to make informed decisions in a timely manner.
The part visualization tool I developed, for example, largely consisted of data that was already available to the client in their reporting. But prior to our involvement, that information wasn’t presented in a clear, digestible way. The client possessed the necessary data but lacked the ability to assess it and respond in real time.
One of the new tool’s most significant value adds was including a view that clearly highlighted the issues impacting the supply chain that needed to be addressed—one that was intuitive and user friendly so that it could be quickly understood by anyone at the company.
Leading on a supportive team
My colleagues were instrumental in helping me think through the challenges and brainstorm ideas for improvement.
Having my idea for a task force accepted by project leadership and implemented was cool to see. There were also several business units within our client that asked to use the visualization tool for their respective areas, which was validating.
I appreciate having the trust of my team to own and execute on my workstream so that at the end of an engagement I can point to my contributions and know that I made a positive impact on the project."