“A competitor has suddenly become a real threat. They’re seriously undercutting our price and lead time. How can we keep our customers without just giving away margins?”
“Budgets have been cut, yet we’ve still got to achieve the
same outputs. How can we get more done with the remaining staff, and
rebuild their enthusiasm?”
“Profits are shrinking. With every new contract we win, it seems that profits decrease. Turnover is great, but . . . .”
“Our main customer has just doubled order volumes. How are we going to
meet this in the short-term? We don’t want to give all our profits away
in overtime, aren’t sure that this is a long term increase, so don’t
want to hire extra staff, and can’t afford extra equipment”
We work with people in firms mainly based in the Northern England and Scottish Borders regions.
We help them to cut their costs, improve quality, and respond faster to their customers' demands. Our clients' activities include:
Manufacturing. This is our core market - firms with either repeat production of stable products, or the production of a type of product, which in broad terms has a repeatable pattern.
Administration & Services. Activities which provided a repeated, or semi-standardised service, either inside the client organisation (e.g. procurement, sales order processing, or production planning), or to the client's customers (e.g. project management services, on-site working, or outsourced administration).
Clients are likely to be successful with us if....
They’re prepared to help us learn about how they work now, yet are open to change. Our clients are the experts on how they operate now, but if they want different results, then some of their activities will need to change
They are highly action-focused, and committed to getting things done. Real change takes time. But with the right focus on action, the visible signs of change can start to appear very quickly. By working with the people who’ll live and breathe the results, we can help you build sustainable improvements that'll last the test of time.
They can balance informal style, with serious business objectives. We think that work should be fun, but that doesn’t mean we’re not committed to achieving great results.
They’re willing to explain why, when they say ‘no’, but are also willing to give things new a try. We’ll often challenge accepted ways of doing things, so a dialogue is what’s needed if we’re to succeed together. Equally, there’s sometimes a need to try stuff out – small scale and safe, so that the implications can be understood by all.
They have a degree of repetition in what they do – we don’t work with companies who specialise in totally bespoke, one-off products and services.
