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Posts by Cara Chatellier

Cara Chatellier
36 posts
Cara Chatellier is a digital marketing strategist & content writer. She lives in the Boston area and has worked with MetaExperts since October 2018. She loves travel, wine tastings, and podcasts.

How MetaExpert George Helped Increase Monthly Revenue from $350k to $2.8M

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Cara Chatellier
How MetaExpert George Helped Increase Monthly Revenue
Situation An international aerospace company was far behind schedule with the Boeing 737 Max program to deliver Titanium Engine inner walls. MetaExpert George was brought onboard to reorganize and streamline production. The company needed help improving on their overall production operation. Actions:  MetaExpert George helped reorganize and reschedule the plant, suppliers, and personnel. A visual “run the business” board was developed to assist with keeping the team on track. Two fifteen-minute meetings were held with all value stream managers and outside stakeholders to assess successes and constraints. MetaExpert George helped create action plans on the spot to reduce the effects of production constraints.  Results:        Within four months, my group was not only on but ahead of schedule;       Each value stream and matrix departments understood where they were in the operations of the division;       Value stream managers had a vision of the…
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How a Manufacturing Company Streamlined Operational Best Practices

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Cara Chatellier
How a Manufacturing Company Streamlined Operational Best Practices
Situation: Multi-Site operations for the manufacturing of commercial and home products recently acquired a competitor. The company needed to standardize and streamline the operational best practices across all facilities. Immediate improvements were required to ensure customer satisfaction regarding quality and on-time delivery. The business had no existing improvement program, standardized process documentation, or KPI reporting. They also had limited exposure to Lean Manufacturing techniques through local college classes. Actions: MetaExperts Chris implemented Lean Manufacturing across 7 US facilities in a structured process. He also created shop floor teams with daily KPI discussion and reporting. The development of support teams improved bottom-to-top communication and assured accountability of reaching goals. The principles of 4S, Ideas/Suggestions, and SoPs were engaged in all of the departments, including customer service, sales, and finance. Executive management and cross-functional teams instituted Value Stream Mapping and conducted kaizen events in specific manufacturing and engineering areas. The business created…
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How MetaExpert Carlos Improved Change Over Time by 51%

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Cara Chatellier
How MetaExpert Carlos Improved Change Over Time
Situation A manufacturing company needed help in producing four different products in three different customer locations. MetaExpert Carlos was brought on to assist the struggling team in eliminating expeditions to their customers. The company’s overall changeover time needed improvement with on-time delivery services. Actions:  Through an in-depth analysis process, MetaExpert Carlos removed all Muda through motion and time studies. Carlos introduced the method of line balancing and proper sequencing to improve the overall system. A robust SMED procedure was created in which standard procedures were followed, communicated, and prepared. He helped rewrite the SOP, and all affected employees were professionally trained. Results:  Full compliance with our customers JIT shipment requirements Improved confidence in the customer Eliminated the need to expedite to customer Scheduled production based on customer demands Increased workforce engagement and morale Eliminated overtime and weekend work ROI: By improving the overall changeover time, MetaExpert Carlos was able to…
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MetaExpert Joe Uses Teamwork to Solve Order Fulfillment Problems

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Cara Chatellier
MetaExpert Joe Uses Teamwork to Solve Order Fulfillment Problems
Situation MetaExperts Joe was brought on board to help a large lead-acid battery manufacturer suffering from conflicting planning, organizational consensus, and performance gaps. He determined that the main issues stemmed from: Differing objectives and forecasts between Sales, Finance and Supply Chain  Performance gaps were not readily identified and addressed Risks were not consistently identified and resolved Unexpected gaps in the planning Actions To address these problems, Joe introduced a robust Sales and Operations Planning process. This process creates a collaborative effort between all business units with a monthly cadence of meetings and events. On a regular basis, balanced supply and demand plans are determined, inventory is optimized, and risk, opportunities, and gaps are determined with actionable counter-measures.  Results Through the process of consensus building, meeting facilitation, and supply planning, MetaExpert Joe was able to implement a collaborative planning process. The company achieved the following results: Inventory turns improved by 18%.…
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How MetaExpert Marc Helped to Upgrade Production & Keep Revenue Flowing

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Cara Chatellier
How MetaExpert Marc Helped to Upgrade Production
Situation MetaExperts Marc was brought in to help a company experiencing a rapid growth rate. The company went from $7 million in annual sales to $120+ million and desperately required new production facilities, financial, and staffing needs.  Actions Marc leads the charge with the creation and implementation of a new business plan, budgets, staffing and launch execution plan to accommodate growth rate. A total budget plan was created for a greenfield (Mexico, San Luis Potosí) and brownfield (Auburn Hill, Mi) project of around $30 million.  Results The greenfield in Mexico was completed on time and achieved budget targets of $9 million. Startup staffing and training was executed and launched on time. Equipment build dates and needs were met and the first parts were shipped to customers 9 months after the project kick-off. Brownfield in Auburn Hills involved moving over 40 pieces of equipment within a very tight time frame of…
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MetaExpert Jeffrey Retrains Employees to Enhance EBITDA

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Cara Chatellier
MetaExpert Jeffrey Retrains Employees to Enhance EBITDA
Situation MetaExpert Jeffery was brought on board to help a company suffering from a consistently high cost of operations, a severe lack of efficiencies and to help the company achieve a reduction of overall billings in accessories. He determined that frontline challenges were present in the following areas: Human capital. Operational deficiencies. Working consistently across the network at each business unit.  Suffering bottom-line results and an overall reduction of EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization). Actions Jeffrey studied and recognized deficiencies in the company’s overall policies. He determined that the best way forward was to rewrite the policies and train from the bottom up. He then measured the results and recommended increased accountability among employees. Jeffery’s overhaul of the company’s policies and training program improved the human capital issues the company was facing. He also measured key performance indicators (KPI) and established new KPI to focus on stronger…
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MetaExpert Scott Assembles SME Super Team to Restore Pharmaceutical Shortage

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Cara Chatellier
MetaExpert Scott Assembles SME Super Team to Restore Pharmaceutical Shortage
Situation The sterile injectable manufacturing site of a multi-national pharmaceutical company experienced a sudden and unexpected increase in units with visible crystals. Despite the drug being on the FDA drug shortage list, manufacturing was temporarily halted. Sufficient determination of the root cause of the crystallization with proposed countermeasures was required to restart manufacturing. The company brought skilled MetaExpert Scott in to lead the charge.  Actions Sterile injectable crystallization is a niche technology that requires extensive expertise. MetaExpert Scott assembled a cross-functional Black Belt team which included operators, technicians, process engineers, and chemists. In close collaboration with his team of functional subject matter experts (SMEs), Scott developed and deployed a strategy to return the product to production and removal from the FDA drug shortage list. This was accomplished by: Investigating and responding to the manufacturing deviation  Identifying the root cause(s) of crystallization Evaluating the feasibility of product reformulation Under Scott’s leadership,…
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MetaExpert Andy Rocks ROI for Healthcare Transportation Company

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Cara Chatellier
Situation A billion-dollar healthcare transportation company was seeking to improve its bottom line. They were looking for a MetaExpert to help them implement cost savings initiatives and also spearhead the centralization of real estate procurement. The MetaExpert charged with the task would be faced with working in a dynamic environment as a private equity firm supervised the initiative while management and strategic focus continued to change.  In order to be successful, the company knew they would need the help of an expert. One of our MetaExperts, Andy, answered the call. With his background in Real Estate, Procurement, Change Management, Human Resources, Standard Work Documentation, and WorkFlow Layout, Andy proved to be an invaluable asset to the healthcare transportation company.  Actions MetaExpert Andy guided the healthcare transportation organization to meet the challenge and make its real estate a corporate asset rather than a liability.  Andy led a collaborative team that included…
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Supply Chain Horror Stories Part II

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Cara Chatellier
Supply Chain Shipping MetaExperts
This post offers Part 2 of a two-part series about some anecdotal scenarios where some of the main principles of supply chain management are demonstrated. While real-life can be much more complicated than these anecdotal stories, the lessons are clear. Lesson 6: Bottlenecks exist, and they may cause supply chain issues through no fault of your own. In Part One, we discussed how clearing customs issues could create problems that can have solutions to avoiding bottlenecks at the border. But sometimes uncontrollable events can create a damaging bottleneck. Shipping requires various forms of transportation such as by sea, air, rail, and truck. Each of these forms regularly has accidents and breakdowns that-at the wrong time-can do some serious damage to the last mile effort. The supply manager can’t foresee any such events, but the time is approaching when new big data programs will help prognosticate accident probabilities, but before that…
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Supply Chain Horror Stories Part I

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Cara Chatellier
Meeting Supply Chain Mistakes MetaExperts
We all learn from our mistakes. But it’s always better to learn from the mistakes of others. The following short supply chain stories each have something to help the Supply Chain Manager. Lesson 1: Priorities differ – a disaster for one business can be a success for another. One of the most pressing decisions supply chain managers face daily is how much inventory to order? It’s a “goldilocks” sort of target: Not too much….but not too little…but just right. In other words, managers try to avoid spending too much without creating a shortage of inventory in case things get tight. Most companies have different priorities at different times. Take, for example, the time a famous hotel brand created a champagne disaster during new year celebrations. Likewise, when a restaurant runs out of the main ingredients that constitute its flagship offering. Customers either “go with the flow” or go…to competitors.   …
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