representative engagements
- Banking and Financial Services
- Manufacturing
- Healthcare and Life Sciences
- Retail and CPG
- Aerospace and Defense
- Federal and State Government
- Telecommunications and Hi-Tech
Banking & Financial Services Case Studies
Study #1
Situation: Perlinski & Company COO was the Co-Founder of a U.S. National bank whose key client acquisition strategy was to be deployed on the Internet.
Project Objective
- As COO and CIO, duties included the ground-up development and exploitation of the core intellectual property: automation of consumer credit underwriting to result in an accurate credit offer in nine seconds or less.
- Development of the IT infrastructure and systems to support the bank’s innovative consumer credit underwriting
- Developed risk management systems and control systems to support the bank’s operations
Solution/Best Practices
- Developed the IT infrastructure and systems to support the bank’s innovative consumer credit underwriting.
- Developed risk management systems and control systems to support portfolio management and consumer credit.
- Obtained necessary capital and partnerships to successfully develop the vision into an operating company.
- Part of the management team that developed the strategy and operational systems and processes to support the company’s expansion and IPO.
Results
- The company enjoyed one of the most stable credit portfolios with exceptionally low charge-off rates in the industry and attained a market cap of over $2B in 1999.
Study #2
Situation: A major west coast bank needed to gain a competitive advantage by being the first bank in the west to offer leading “bank anywhere” options to customers.
Project Objective
- Improve the bank’s competitive position
- Enhance the customer facing services
- Deploy its second generation of ATMs and related home(internet) banking functionality
Solution/Best Practices
- Managed the development of home(internet) banking functionality
- Managed the deployment of the second generation of ATMs
- Developed and implemented systems required to integrate the new generation of ATMs and the home banking functionality to both back office and branch operations.
Results
- Deployedon time and on budget the new generation of ATMs and the home banking functionality for this financial services company.
- Coordinated databases and integrated back office and branch systems to seamlessly interface with the new customer facing functionality.
Study #3
Situation: A large banking institution engaged Perlinski & Company over a period of 2.5 years to conduct multiple projects in the wholesale operations of the bank.
Projects Objectives
- Project and Program Management
- Performance improvement for the International Trade processes and systems
- Development and implementation of a Business Architecture function as a liaison between the business and technology groups to ensure successful system implementation
Solution/Best Practices
- Managed multiple division’s agendas and objectives and negotiated and coordinated with divisional and executive management to ensure the successful implementation of the project.
- Introduced state of the art requirements definition and design techniques (Object Oriented) to redesign processes and systems in the International Trade function of the bank.
- Developed the Business Architecture function using state of the art tools, techniques and processes to sustain a clear and unambiguous translation of business requirements into IT systems.
- Develop innovative techniques to train bank personnel in the new tools and techniques of the Business Architecture function.
Results
- Successfully coordinated between several divisions of the bank and its executives in the implementation of a critical wholesale system in the internet.
- Redesigned International Trade processes and systems with the objectives of reducing costs and increasing revenue opportunities for the bank.
- Envision, designed and implemented a Business Architecture function that linked the business requirements with the technology implementation. Implemented the change management and support training to sustain the new function.
Study #4
Situation: The senior executives at a major mortgage bank had failed to successfully implement the ERP and SOX controls. They embarked on a second effort to achieve performance and compliance. Having hired a major systems integrator, they were worried that the second effort would end in failure. One of the EVPs hired our team to assess the situation.
Project Objective
- Identified key issues and risks associated with
- program design
- implementation strategy
- operating controls
Solution/Best Practices
- Analyzed the three objective areas above
- Performed gap analysis against leading practices
- Recommended changes in
- Personnel assignments
- Implementation strategy
- Risk management
Results
- The bank failed to implement Perlinski & Company’s recommendations in a timely manner and failed in its second attempt.
Study #5
Situation: A major west coast bank was unsure if it was making appropriate decisions regarding its capacity to sell and service a number of popular products.
- Product portfolio reviews were reactive or scheduled
- KPIs were measuring capability and not capacity
Project Objective
- Create a dashboard to provide day-to-day monitoring of key product lines
- Create new KPIs as needed and correct deficient KPIs
Solution/Best Practices
- Created dashboard and KPIs.
Results
- Significantly increase visibility to product line capacity and performance.
Manufacturing Case Studies
Study #1
Situation: A leading industrial manufacturer was purchased by a Private Equity firm.
Project Objective
- Conduct Due Diligence in behalf of the private equity firm to Identify Operational, Financial, Manufacturing and other issues prior to the completion of the transaction
Solution/Best Practices
- Completed a Business Operations Assessment of Target which included the evaluation of:
- Operations and supporting systems at all Operating Units
- Finance processes and Financial Systems
- Human Resources
- Supply Chain
- Legal / local issues
- Sales and Marketing / Effectiveness
- R&D / focus areas
- IT and Infrastructure
- Execution Capability / Organizational Effectiveness
- Internal Controls, Business Intelligence and reporting capabilities / accuracy
- Develop recommendations for cost improvements / working capital
- Develop prioritized risk analysis and remediation plan
Results
- All major recommendations were adopted over the ensuing 18 months resulting in 600% improvement in EBITDA
Study #2
Situation: A major national electronic retailer wanted to establish its own proprietary brand of consumer electronics products made in Asia by contracted manufacturers, but was unsure of the full extent of the risks involved; especially with respect to financing of bill-of-materials and integrity of intellectual property rights.
Project Objective
- Define the full extent of the risks across the end-to-end supply chain and compare them to the retailer’s ability to adapt and control the situation on an on-going basis. Also, validated the veracity of the assumptions upon which the strategy was based, the capacity and financial integrity of the primary group of selected vendors, and identify the extent of additional investments, commitments, and regulatory & compliance issues that were yet to be addressed.
Solution/Best Practices
- Identified over 200 risks and issues that that had not been initially considered.
- Defined structural and organizational issues in both the existing and proposed organization requiring modification.
- Expanded upon and aligned business processes, KPI metrics, and controls to provide continuity, accuracy, and timely visibility to the design & development, as well as the manufacturing processes.
Results
- Established, with Internal Audit Team, adequate controls and report mechanisms and an on-going process to monitor oversees operations.
Study #3
Situation: A Fortune 15 high-tech manufacturer of business and consumer electronics was in need of a global supply chain process, risk, and controls assessment to aid in responding to new governmental regulations.
Project Objective
- Perform a global supply chain process, risk, and controls assessment across macro business processes of “Source”, “Make”, “Deliver”, “Inventory Accounting”, and “Cost of Goods Sold” to identify, document, evaluate, and remediate supply chain related financial reporting risks.
Solution/Best Practices
- Performed assessments across 5 business divisions, in 8 countries, across 27 company-owned, ODM (Original Design Manufacturers) and CM (Contract Manufacturers) locations.
- Identified underlying processes and material transaction flows and their associated process and financial risks.
- Documented existing processes and controls that addressed those risks.
- Evaluated the design of the processes and controls, and developed and performed tests of operating effectiveness.
- Developed risk mitigation and remediation plans for ineffective processes and controls.
Results
- Identified and remediated significant lack of controls and business risk in the management of Microsoft Certificate of Authenticity inventory by OEM, ODM’s, and CM’s.
Study #4
Situation: A major US based international retail specialty apparel retailer was experiencing landed cost gross margin erosion due to escalating in-bound transportation costs and excessive dependence upon airfreight expediting.
Project Objective
- Evaluate the current contracts for ocean and air movement, as well as origin handling charges for consistency and competitiveness.
- Assist in preparing an RFI/RFP for each existing and potential carrier/service provider, analyze the responses, and recommend potential alternatives to lowering costs and improving service.
Solution/Best Practices
- Prepare a competitive analysis of pricing by CBM, FEU, TEU, and CFS fees to determine the extent of the saving potential at varying volume commitment levels.
- Post audited freight bills and recovered over $1M in incorrectly applied origin handling charges.
- Re-aligned the responsibility for contract negotiations to improve governance and controls by Headquarters versus the origin country offices.
Results
- Re-bid contracts resulted in a first year savings of $21.7M in international transportation costs compared to the prior year and additional annuity savings based upon the duration of each 2-3 year contract.
Study #5
Situation: A major US based international automotive manufacturer was experiencing higher supply chain costs than its peers, higher unsold inventory levels and inferior internal and external collaboration.
Project Objective
- Reduce supply chain costs
- Improve collaboration and forecasting to reduce working capital requirements .
Solution/Best Practices
- Improve collaboration and forecasting to reduce working capital requirements
- S&OP principles were adopted to increase collaboration and forecast accuracy and decrease rework
Results
- Cost and working capital reductions of $500,000,000 annually were realized after a two year change management process.
Study #6
Situation: The US Division of an international manufacturer of handheld power tools sought to reduce its on-hand inventory levels and associated carrying cost, while improving the in-stock position for its top selling SKU’s.
Project Objective
- Lower the on-hand inventory levels for the US subsidiary, while modifying the “push” distribution practices of the foreign parent company based upon manufacturing efficiencies.
- Improve the fill rate for the top 20% of SkU that accounted for 93 % of sales
Solution/Best Practices
- Supply chain operations and infrastructure were standardized
- S&OP principles were adopted to increase collaboration and forecast accuracy and decrease rework
Results
- Improved and sustained the in-stock position on best sellers from 85% to 93%
- Reduced the US on-hand inventory of slow moving stock such that 4 of the Division’s 8 Distribution Centers were closed in under 1 year
- Reduced overall inventory by approximately 50% within 1 year
- Performed an assessment of in and out-bound transportation and parcel distribution costs, resulting in a $900K annualized savings
Study #7
Situation: A major manufacturer of computers printers, faxes and print accessories was experiencing data integrity issues on import declarations with US Customs due to numerous off-shore legacy applications incorrectly capturing and reporting product identification data as it was handed off to the North American Div where over 100 non synchronized versions of an ERP system further denigrated the data integrity. US and Canadian Customs threatened to suspend all import activity unless steps were taken to correct the problem.
Project Objective
- Identify, by country of origin, which legacy applications were involved, which adversely affected data integrity, and define a sustainable solution
- Determine what affect the non synchronized ERP application in North America had on the problem, find both interim and permanent solutions, as well as define a process to routinely sync all master item files to common standard.
Solution/Best Practices
- Mapped the order placement, manufacturing, and distribution processes by country and product line, and aligned them consistently where applicable.
- Established common, consistent practices for assigning product codes by SKU and controls to ensure continuity.
- Established both process and systemic controls to verify product integrity and reporting accuracy.
- Prepared a report outlining the actions taken for US and Canadian Customs to prevent regulatory action and penalties.
Results
- Migrated the established process to a newly acquire competitor to ensure no denigration of data integrity when the two ERP application began to interface. In a related, concurrent project, a visibility reporting application was integrated into the order fulfillment process for the Printing Systems and Ink Products Division to improve service performance to their top 20 retail clients, reduce out-of-stocks, minimize short shipment penalties, and increase both sales and inventory turnover. Each of these objectives was accomplished within 90 days, resulting in another similar engagement with a second internal division.
Study #8
Situation: This major manufacturer of consumer and corporate electronics experienced significantly increasing levels of working capital and decreasing margin performance. Financial executives at the company became worried that Operations could not identify and / or correct the negative trends.
Project Objective
This project entailed the evaluation of the client’s performance in fourteen major supply chain functional areas vis-à-vis leading practices. Deliverables included:
- reporting identified gaps in performance
- developing recommendations for closing gaps
- developing metrics to appropriately measure improvements
- developing specific training materials where required
Solution/Best Practices
Led a team of operations professionals that interviewed key client executives and directors, requested and analyzed financial and management reporting and identified and developed recommendations in the areas of:
- Sales & Operations Planning / Demand Planning,
- Relocation of wireless device manufacturing from the U.S to Thailand
- Redesign of the supply chain and policies for product returns and repairs
- Third-Party logistics providers (3PLs) for policy, rates and reporting
Results
- Client executive management requested, based upon interim reporting of trends and results that detailed Sales and Operations Planning primers, training materials, executive presentations and key performance metrics are delivered as part of a final deliverable. Further, they requested that we deliver a prioritized set of leading practices and action plans for transition in the area of freight management. Final deliverables also included making recommendations for cross-functional (Cross organizational) improvements with specific metrics, roles and responsibilities and project implementation planning considerations.
Healthcare & Life Sciences Case Studies
Study #1
Situation: One of the divisions of an international conglomerate had developed technology in the molecular diagnostics space. The division and the parent company wanted to determine if spinning off the technology was feasible. The company needed assessment of the technology, market, regulatory pathway, detail costs, funding requirements and a detail business plan and operating budget.
Project Objective
- The project entailed the development of a detailed business plan, formulation of forward looking documents such as annual operating plan for five years, market sizing and strategy, FDA and regulatory direction, corporate structure, capitalization and funding plan, legal and licensing framework, business and product strategy, and the development/recruitment of an initial management team, board of directors and scientific advisory board. Recommendations on alternatives for a corporate structure that will optimize shareholder value, increase commercialization options and facilitate the development of strategic alliances were also to be provided.
Solution/Best Practices
- Evaluated the potential of the technology and markets and completed a business model which included the technology’s value proposition, potential for commercialization, market and competition issues, challenges and recommendations for next steps. We also introduced potential advisors and board members to the client.
- Conducted /Managed Focus groups with key constituencies.
- Coordinated and managed initial clinical studies from study conception to IRB approval and study initiation.
- Obtained feedback from biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies as well as CROs (Clinical Research Organizations) and Reference Labs as to the impact of the technology, barriers to entry, industry priorities and overall feedback on the technology and its acceptability
- Completed the Business Model including initial assumptions on market size, competition and high level financial projections. A key deliverable was to structure an advisory board that could participate in future phases, creating a full Business Plan and will bring key relationships with strategic partners. A preliminary organizational structure and prioritization of commercialization options for the technology was also developed as part of this business model. We also conducted preliminary interviews for potential executives. As part of this project, we also screened and selected an FDA expert to develop a preliminary assessment of a regulatory pathway for the technology.
- Developed strategy alternatives and assessed risk and costs of each and recommended lower risk alternatives.
Results
- Executive Management determined to follow up with a lower risk alternative engaging in strategic partnerships to prove the technology in the R&D area.
Study #2
Situation: A large regional network of healthcare providers and hospitals sought assistance in improving its replenishment services, distribution costs, and inventory performance.
Project Objective
- Improve the inventory replenishment process, decrease on-hand inventory levels and safety stock reserve guidelines, and redesign the facilities distribution schedule s and sequence.
Solution/Best Practices
- Established demand planning guidelines to minimize overstocking; set min/max guidelines for procurement
- Redesigned distribution routes, facility frequency standards, and set guidelines for exception handling
- Established facility level inventory management best practices for handling cycle counts, spoilage, disposal, and reorder min/max standards
Results
- Reduced on-hand inventories by location an average of 8% and overall distribution transportation costs by 5%
- Established internal controls, metrics, and reporting to improve visibility and sustainability
Study #3
Situation: A leading manufacturer and marketer of products that simplify, automate and innovate complex biomedical testing was a stove-pipe organization with massive amount of redundant reports and custom reports designers in multiple organizations creating confusion and increasing reporting costs. Many reports were duplicated to a great degree and produced a fragmented view of operations because of poor timing of critical report delivery.
Project Objective
- To assess the reporting organization and its structure and implement a Business Intelligence Solution.
Solution/Best Practices
- Implemented Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE)
Results
- 80% global staff reduction or reassignment of report designers
- Daily dashboard view of KPI’s vs a weekly and monthly view and in some cases no view
- Increased strategic value of the new capability of critical trend analysis
- Estimated dollar impact to bottom line $50 – 100M annually
Study #4
Situation: A large regional network of healthcare providers and hospitals sought assistance in improving its replenishment services, distribution costs, and inventory performance.
Project Objective
- Improve the inventory replenishment process, decrease on-hand inventory levels and safety stock reserve guidelines, and redesign the facilities distribution schedule s and sequence.
Solution/Best Practices
- Established demand planning guidelines to minimize overstocking; set min/max guidelines for procurement
- Redesign distribution routes, facility frequency standards, and set guidelines for exception handling
- Established facility level inventory management best practices for handling cycle counts, spoilage, disposal, and reorder min/max standards
Results
- Reduced on-hand inventories by location an average of 8% and overall distribution transportation costs by 5%
- Established internal controls, metrics, and reporting to improve visibility and sustainability
Study #5
Situation: A large national healthcare provider of procurement and support services to hospital groups sought assistance in assessing all aspects of operations and supply chain network performance.
Project Objective
- Improve risk mitigation procedures, performance metrics, service standards, and operational controls. Focus on gap identification in support of strategic planning and regulatory compliance.
Solution/Best Practices
- Established expanded performance metrics aligned with goals, objectives, and service standards.
- Formulated risk mitigation plans and established an updated controls structure with compliance reporting.
- Aligned operational processes to minimize procedural gaps, and improve service performance.
Results
- Reduced exception handling, compliance variances, and service failures.
- Reduced operating costs by functional area between 5-8%.
- Established internal controls, metrics, and reporting to improve visibility and sustainability
Education
Retail and CPG
Study #1
Situation: A Canadian Liquor Control Board sought assistance in lowering itsretailoperation’s cost-to-serve and inventory investment.
Project Objective
- Conduct an end-to-end supply chain review of retail operations, including inventory planning and assortments, in order to lower the Board’s cost-to-serve for its wide variety of retail outlets for alcohol, beer, and wine.
Solution/Best Practices
- Established centralized procurement guidelines for EOQ reordering.
- Redesigned demand planning models by sub-category, by season to improve inventory turnover and minimize overstocks at the DC level.
- Established a collaborative distribution order verification process with each outlet to avoid “push” overstocking.
- Modified the store level cycle count process to include identification of slow moving items, damaged items, and aged or expired merchandise requiring planned markdowns or disposal.
Results
- Lowered both DC and store level inventories without adversely affecting sales and improved centralized procurement and inventory management practices.
Study #2
Situation: A major US high fashion Department Store retailer sought assistance with its acquisition of a European fashion apparel brand and its integration into the US organization.
Project Objective
- Perform non-financial due diligence on the acquisition of the European apparel brand to identify any cost, operating, or organizational issues not detected by the finance review.
- Map the new brand’s processes and develop a plan for integrating them into the US organization’s S&OP process., as well as the internet sales division.
Solution/Best Practices
- Aligned the new brand’s processes with the respective US merchandising division, coordinated the integration of systems interfaces, and established reporting processes consistent with the US organization’s requirements.
Results
- The project resulted in a seamless transition and integration into the organization as planned.
- A review of the merchandising group’s vendor compliance, penalty, and returns policies was conducted to eliminate inconsistent application of standards, as well as lower costs and markdowns.
Study #3
Situation: A major US based international specialty apparel retailer was experiencing difficulty in deploying a demand planning application across all fit divisions and integrating it into its primary ERP system due to inconsistent processes, legacy system support and varying demand patterns.
Project Objective
- The project was to identify and resolve any gaps and issues affecting the accuracy and timing of data capture and transmission by each operating unit and their respective facilities, and return the deployment back to its planned schedule.
Solution/Best Practices
- Mapped the processes and data flow by operating unit to identify issues for resolution
- Aligned process by operating unit for consistency
Results
- Improved the demand planning process across all retail divisions of the company.
Study #4
Situation: A major national consumer electronics retailer was interested in freeing up cash to drive expansion by lowering on-hand inventories and sought options which spanned its supply chain.
Project Objective
- Improve the forecasting and demand planning process, as well as the key performance metrics upon which the merchants were measured to drive sustainable behaviors which would improve inventory performance and sales.
Solution/Best Practices
- Evaluated the forecasting algorithms used by sub-classification against best in-class models (over 30 alternatives) to determine which provided the best fit by season and demand elasticity characteristics.
- Re-designed the merchants KPI’s upon which incentives were paid and aligned them with the strategic results management sought to change procurement behavior and practices.
- Evaluated and re-designed inventory management practices to improve accuracy and drive turnover.
Results
- Within 14 months the average on-hand inventory had been reduced by 48% with dramatic impacts on free cash flow, available working capital, and earnings; all of which drove significant increases in the stock price (2,000%).
Study #5
Situation: A national home store retailer required assistance in outsourcing both existing and future distribution centers to a third party operator in order to conserve cash and working capital to support aggressive growth plans into new markets.
Project Objective
- Identify the best qualified third party providers to participate in the RFI/RFP process based upon assumptions and specification jointly developed with the client.
- Design and draft the RFP process, and analyze and summarize the results for the clients review.
Solution/Best Practices
- Conducted a competitive assessment of the potential providers and their general costs and services to establish a baseline for comparison.
- Identified key service and system differentiators for client consideration.
- Established a Project Management Office to provide oversight to the deployment of the conversion.
Results
- The selected 3Pl was deployed with negligible impact on operations or store-level service, vendor performance, systems integration and support, and consistent with the agreed upon time line and budget.
- Established performance metrics for the 3PL and a reporting process that provided both visibility and incentives for vendor performance.
Study #6
Situation: A major national Office Products retailer required assistance in designing a distribution network to support its growth plans.
Project Objective
- Rationalize the existing distribution center network in relation to projected grow plans by region in order to position both current and future facilities consistent with the expansion and sources of in-bound shipments.
Solution/Best Practices
- Evaluated in and out bound transit volumes by lane to establish an optimal network upon which to add incremental volume as new regions expand.
- Designed and opened the initial two main cross-dock facilities and identified subsequent locations for DC positioning.
Results
- Established the required network and deployed both on-time and on-plan.
- Established operational performance metrics for the facilities and a reporting process.
Study #7
Situation: A global duty free retailer sought assistance in improving operations, lowering costs, and improving margins.
Project Objective
- Conduct an assessment of logistics, store operations, distribution networks, and merchandising replenishment operations in the US and Asia.
Solution/Best Practices
- Reconfigured the DC network based upon demand patterns and logistics cost considerations
- Evaluated inventory replenishment and store level markdown practices
Results
- Reconfigured the DC network with significant savings in costs and tax incentives ($11M 3 yr Singapore Tax incentive).
- Improved inventory replenishment practices and established vendor returns policies to reduce markdowns and lower distribution costs.
- Evaluated merchandising policies and practices which impacted inventory levels and distribution requirements to improve performance.
Study #8
Situation: A CPG distributor of perishable package salads sought assistance to reduce in and out-bound logistics costs, improve service fulfillment and delivery to grocers, and reduce costs associated with spoilage.
Project Objective
- Map existing processes to identify process gaps, unique customer service / delivery requirements, and profile the causes of service failures.
- Establish baseline logistics costs by route on a per mile basis.
Solution/Best Practices
- Aligned the order fulfillment process with the distribution timing and sequence to eliminate delays and improve on-time performance
- Redesigned delivery routing sequence to eliminate avoidable delays and minimize the distance , where possible, by route
- Formalized an S&OP process to improve internal communication and planning
Results
- Improved average fill-rate by over 5%, customer on-time delivery performance by 10%, and dramatically reduced the number of spoilage loss write-offs.
- Established a practice of involving key major grocery customers in the client’s Sales and Operations Planning process to improve communication and collaboration.
Study #9
Situation: A US based computer manufacturer with its own retail outlets sought assistance in designing an off-shore, origin distribution process which would deliver specially configured equipment directly to a customer’s destination faster and at a lower cost, in order to gain competitive advantage.
Project Objective
- Gain competitive advantage by establishing an Asian distribution program for specially configured computer equipment which would bypass the US DC network at a lower cost and cycle time.
Solution/Best Practices
- Designed, in conjunction with a global parcel carrier, a merge in-transit program to accomplish the project objective and established a deployment plan to monitor its performance.
Results
- Implemented Asian distribution program allowing the company to eliminate all USA handling and shipping was direct to the customer’s home.
- Reviewed store level ordering processes to improve accuracy and timeliness and established guidelines and instructions for customer initialization of direct delivery product, as well as return or replacement instructions.
Aerospace & Defense Case Studies
Study #1
Situation: The DOD contracted for assistance to streamline and integrate operations of the three primary military retail exchanges globally under a program called The Unified Exchange Task Force (UETF). Each organization performed similar, non-core tasks; such as HR, Payroll, Acct Receivable, Acct Payable, Logistics, Contract Management, non-merchandise Procurement, and Advertising which could be centrally controlled more efficiently and cost effectively.
Project Objective
- The project objective was to evaluate, rationalize and integrate back office functions, distribution networks and facilities under a shared services model, as well as lowering general and administrative costs and improving inventory turnover, while not affecting each Exchange ‘s ability to service its unique mix of military and civilian customers.
Solution/Best Practices
- Best practices in inventory forecasting and replenishment demand planning were uniformly installed
- Supply Chain Network Rationalization studies were conducted, both domestically and internationally, to rationalize and leverage the existing facilities network, and to reposition facilities where required.
- Administrative processes and procedures for HR and Accounting were aligned, as well as for Procurement and Marketing.
- A common set of performance metrics were established for each functional area.
- Contracts for advertising, non-merchandise procurement, leases, all modes of transport, and 3PL services were reviewed to leverage collective volume.
- An exit strategy consistent with the base closing plans was evaluated for consistency and risk exposure.
Results
- The anticipated re-organization was expected to take under 5 years and result in cumulative savings of $438M
- Other aspects of the project included change management, review of merchandise assortments (hi-level), performance reporting, gross margin analysis, and inventory management practices.
Study #2
Situation: A major defense contractor was performing below industry peers in working capital and cost structure.
- In most financial measures, their working capital burden was worse than leaders. For example, as a % of sales, they were double industry leaders and double digit worse than industry average.
Project Objective
- Analyze the supply chain and finance processes to identify a portfolio of opportunities to lower costs and improve working capital without adversely affecting product quality and service levels.
Solution/Best Practices
- Designed an improved, more dynamic planning process that continuously monitored forecast accuracy and budget parameters.
- Redesigned the suppler management processes to reduce the number of orders received earlier than manufacturing schedule needs.
- Redesigned the purchase order process to reduce the number of early payments.
- Improved the engineering and supply chain unit working relationship to improve ‘design for manufacturability’, a process that reduces the number of BOM parts thus reducing the number of suppliers, material costs, and inventory costs.
Results
- Identified over $100,000,000 in working capital improvements
- Lowered inventory costs by over 15%
- Improved planning accuracy by 10%
Study #3
Situation: Military Aircraft Manufacturer required a team to assess and improve the technology performance of key manufacturing systems.
- Supply chain and manufacturing systems were not well synchronized
- Data availability and cleanliness was sub-standard
Project Objective
- Achieve significant improvements in systems integration.
- Improve database performance.
Solution/Best Practices
- Analyzed current system synchronization procedures.
- Made changes to database update order and procedures.
- Increased mandatory collaboration between key support personnel
Results
- Higher systems availability and integrity
Study #4
Situation: A major marine/military vessel engine manufacturer was experiencing excessive costs for international transportation and needed ideas to lower logistics costs as well as improve operational process maturity.
- Excessive number of air shipments
- Excessive number of expedited shipments
- The order management process was very poor, including excessive variations by channel, customer, and product
- There was an excessive number of supplier issues, including part availability, costs, and quality
Project Objective
- Analyze the manufacturing, inventory, and logistics processes to identify opportunities that will reduce costs, improve service levels, reduce excess and obsolete inventory, and improve overall product quality.
Solution/Best Practices
- Designed, developed, and implemented a sales and operations process across multiple product divisions in Europe and the U.S.
- Improved the order management and forecast process to reduce the number of supplier PO changes.
- Redesigned the international routing design to take advantage of better inbound port locations and reduce transit time.
- Adjusted the air freight process to improve costs, reduce expedites, and improve inbound material accuracy.
- Improved the inventory management processes and eliminated excess and obsolete materials.
Results
- Reduced international logistics costs by 30%
- Worked with the sales team to reduce the number of order changes within the manufacturing and supplier lead times to reduce the number of manufacturing, supplier, and inventory changes.
- Created an inventory management process that continuously reviewed investment in key channels, product lines, and geographies.
Study #5
Situation: An international aerospace firm needed to develop a financial strategy and systems for its many divisions. The current processes and systems were isolated, outdated and thus there was very little visibility in the financial and operational aspects of the organization’s many divisions.
- Financial statements were very difficult to integrate and an overall financial picture for the organization impossible to ascertain
- Financial systems and data collection were outdated in many of the divisions resulting in costly delays, data integrity and integration issues and maintenance issues
- Poor visibility to operational and financial performance by division and key corporate categories
- Manufacturing, inventory and other operational issues were almost impossible to detect.
Project Objective
- To develop a financial information system long term strategy and plan for consolidating and streamlining the financial processes and information technology systems supporting finance throughout the organization.
Solution/Best Practices
- Developed a methodology to assess the financial systems, data integrity and business processes at all the divisions of the organization and over a period of six months, reviewed and analyzed the issues throughout the organization.
- Developed an assessment of the risks of the financial systems, processes and data.
- Developed a Long-Term Financial Information Systems Plan, including budgets, prioritization, risk assessment and implementation plan and presented the plan to executive management.
Results
- Executive Management approved of the plan and set out to implement it over a period of five years
- Developed stop-gap systems and processes to substantially improved roll-up of financial reporting and data integrity, allowing management to have a higher level of visibility in time for decision making.
Study #6
Situation: SDI program was experiencing significant technology integration setbacks.
- Command and Control systems were taking too long to process response scenarios.
Project Objective
- If, possible, improve response time and suggest any other remedial action to improve integration procedures.
Solution/Best Practices
- Analyzed current procedures.
- Detected critical missing controls and process step.
- Devised remediation steps and test plan to ensure accuracy of recommendations.
Results
- Better than order-of-magnitude improvements in response time
- Improved procedures
- Satisfied Generals
Federal, State and Local Government
Study #1
Situation: The world’s largest court system had been unable to implement any cohesive leading practices across 58 operating units for over four years.
Project Objective
- Inventory and evaluate the case management processes and technology in use in the 58 Superior Courts
- Identify best practices for all case types
- Develop a unified case management solution that encompassed all case types
- Develop a trust relationship with Presiding Judges and Court Executive Officers
- Liaise with state agencies as appropriate
- Set up a program governance model including all vested state and county court executives
- Set up and direct a program management office (PMO)
- Design Requests for Proposal and administrate the vetting of responses and the awards process
- Liaise with state counsel (internal and external) in contracts negotiations
- Communicate program status and issues effectively
- Design and administer workshops for solution visioning (the solution being the unified case management solution)
- Develop a phased solution creation and deployment methodology and timeline comprehending parallel development and deployment amongst the 58 courts
- Identify key performance metrics, milestones and checkpoints
- Develop a framework for cost benefit and SWOT analysis for various components of the solution
- Interview key court officials throughout the state and gain their trust and buy-in for the proposed solution
- Hire key personnel to staff the PMO
- Develop a succession plan and recommendations for consultants in key management positions
Solution/Best Practices
- Leadership and team Development and Alignment
- Change Management and Culture Alignment
- Problem Solving and Conflict Resolution
- Meeting, conference and workshop design and facilitation
- Workforce and Succession Planning
- Conduct surveys, interviews, focus groups, analyze results and develop reports
- Design, Development, preparation, facilitation, implementation and revision of strategic and operational business plans, missions and vision statements
- Conduct surveys, interviews, or focus groups and analyze results and develop reports.
- Assist in the design, development and implementation of process methods and development of statistical, business issues, workload and process analysis
- Establish an evaluation framework to examine results and determine benefits for various enterprise business challenges, issues, and opportunities and other related services
Results
- This $250,000,000 program gained traction and achieved its goals over a five year period.
Study #2
Situation: A Southern California county agency had issues with the structure and performance of their IT staff. The Finance department was concerned and needed expert advice on assessing the IT organization and current project portfolio.
Project Objective
- To audit the IT department and determine competency, security and other issues.
Solution/Best Practices
- Conducted many structured interviews with all of the IT staff and other applicable personnel.
- Audited physical facilities, systems and networks.
- Delivered recommendations to the CFO (Systems inventory gaps, system retirements and system estimated remaining lifecycle).
Results
- Two publicly exposed servers were found containing files with all of the SSN#’s and other personnel data of the organization.
- Recommendations were given to increase system security and prevent further critical file exposure.
- Recommendations were presented to restructure the IT staff and ensure better checks and balances in software maintenance and development.
Telecommunications and Hi-Tech
Study #1
Situation: A large wireless company had over 238 pricing plans in operation resulting from multiple mergers and acquisitions. Marking did not have a good handle on pricing or customer data.
Project Objective
- The company needed to be able to identify key or gold customers and have the ability to reduce processing costs, simplify their pricing strategy and strategically focus on optimizing customer satisfaction and revenue performance.
Solution/Best Practices
- Implemented a custom Customer Relationship Management based on SUN/Solaris and Oracle Solution.
Results
- Increased customer satisfaction with critical identification of Gold customers resulting increased brand loyalty (higher contract renewal rates)
- Better focused marketing campaign resulting in 15-25% positive revenue impact
- 24% decrease in costs associated with misaligned pricing plans, handling overhead and poor customer targeting, mailings etc.
Study #2
Situation: An advanced (4G) telecommunications provider was growing quickly through acquisitions. They were having trouble successfully integrating diverse operating units while remaining in regulatory compliance in several countries.
Project Objective
- This project entailed interviewing key operations personnel and site visits to key operating locations and business partner locations. Interviews collect risk-ranked information on current operations, risks to the business, current strategies and tactics, culture and competitors. Objective data and reporting that are collected and analyzed are:
- data corroborating statements made during interviews,
- regression analysis to identify patterns,
- variance analysis to determine variance to plans over time.
Solution/Best Practices
All operating and R&D divisions were visited including those in USA, England, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, France, Austria in order to:
- Identify any overcapacity or under capacity gaps in execution capability vis-à-vis the strategic plan
- Identify gaps in the strategic plan
- Develop best-practices based recommendations on closing execution gaps
- Prioritize and risk rank recommendations, identifying potential costs and interdependencies.
- Recommendations will also include:
- Changes to specific personnel and organizational structures
- Management reporting quality and effectiveness, analyzing client response effectiveness to competitive, market and technology trends.
Results
- Identified and developed remedial actions for regulatory compliance
- Recommended divestiture of poorly performing business units
- Identified high risk and at-risk operations
- Identified significant but hidden working capital issues at several business units
Study #3
Situation: The CEO of this small-cap electronic publishing house was interested in transforming his business by leveraging new software development and industry collateral assets that the company had accumulated.
Project Objective
Since sales growth had been slow, the CEO wanted to develop a strategic plan that would allow maximum growth with minimal risk to the existing business:
- Develop new uses for existing assets
- Create a product development strategy that would outpace competitor
- Understand the risks and capital requirements to execute the new plans
- Evaluate key corporate leaders and executives fitness to execute the new plan
Solution/Best Practices
- Designed and facilitated workshops for:
- Visioning and market assessment
- Asset reuse
- Executive competence
- SWOT analysis
- Analyzed the collected data and developed a sixteen step set of recommendations with several alternative risk profiles.
Results
- The company adopted the recommendations and gained significant market share. However, the corporate owners took the lowest risk profile thus stifling some of the potential growth. Today, the new assets and product line are poised to be spun out at a valuation that eclipses the legacy company’s offerings.
Study #4
Situation: A large bank that had engaged in over 16 mergers and acquisitions had left large gaps in data integrity and no ability to conform to BASEL II requirements. The bank did not have a way to assess total customer risk across the enterprise.
Project Objective
- To implement a Credit Risk Management System (CRMS)
Solution/Best Practices
- Implemented a custom Oracle based solution utilizing a single data warehouse, utilizing complex ETL processes to standardize the data across disparate databases.
Results
- Accurate and timely reporting capability into all credit databases
- Meeting Fed regulations and avoiding significant fees and penalties
- Eliminating credit risk exposure estimated in the hundred’s of million’s of dollars
- Creating a full view of all customer associated accounts from leasing to mortgages and flooring risks etc.
Study #3
Situation: Situation: The Governor’s Office for this state was interested in understanding the capabilities of a number of agencies in the state for process and leadership improvement opportunities.
Project Objective
- Complete a survey of 16 key agencies to determine opportunities for improvement. Improvement was defined as one or more of risk reduction, cost reduction or cost avoidance.
Solution/Best Practices
- Completed extensive interviews with each agency executive director as well as one or two of their direct reports. This interview process and content was developed based on the mission/objective of the project and in line with our structured methodology and interview techniques.
- Developed Benchmarks were generated based on the characteristics required for success, leadership, empowerment and client focus.
- Administered a survey to validate some of the findings from the interviews and a framework for measuring financial and operational opportunities was developed to grade agencies on those two dimensions.
- Completed a comprehensive Risk Assessment was conducted during the interview process for each agency and for the state
- Evaluated current metrics provided to the Governor’s office by the agencies evaluated
Results
- Determined improvement opportunities
- Included recommendations, estimates and risk rankings by agency and at the state level
- “Quick-wins” were also developed for tactical implementation
Study #3
Situation: Situation: The Governor’s Office for this state was interested in understanding the capabilities of a number of agencies in the state for process and leadership improvement opportunities.
Project Objective
- The objectives for the performance audit were to assess the effectiveness, efficiency and economic value of the Division of Risk Management in meeting its mission for a state.
Solution/Best Practices
- Our approach included developing a value model and comparative model for the division. Financial data from the division’s information system, the state’s financial information system and Workers Compensation program was integrated and included in the Value Model
- Data from TPAs, interviews with other states and an analysis of the 2012 STRIMA Cost of Risk report was also included in this project as part of conducting the comparative analysis and developing the comparative model
- Leadership, Organizational and Financial Performance were assessed as part of this process. Communications, Technology and Business Intelligence were also included in our assessment
- A strategy and communications plan was developed to address communications with the Governor’s office, Legislature and key constituents using a variety of tools including the division’s website
Results
- Demonstrated value of the division in the value model and comparative model
- Included recommendations for business intelligence, technology and others
- “Quick-wins” were also developed for tactical implementation
