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Operational Excellence

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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Risk Management Strategies for a Risky Era

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Cara Chatellier
Given the Washington Circus and the global confusion, it’s safe to say that macro risk is on the rise. From Artificial Intelligence to Global Warming, there are few who doubt that civilizations around the world may be rushing toward an inflection point in history. Hopefully, it won’t be a zero-sum situation. But, one never knows. As individuals, as well as corporations and institutions, we all need to be thinking about risk mitigation So, what should CEOs be doing to help mitigate the growing uncertainties of our time? Identify the “Killer Risks” While there is a universe of risks out there, it is important to prioritize those with the greatest impact. There are specific industry risks as well as “macro” risks (War, economic depression, Hyperinflation, global health epidemics, and all the other dystopic events). While industry risks are a normal part of doing business, myopia can be dangerous. While most of…
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The 5 Benefits of Alignment Process Mapping

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Cara Chatellier
Alignment Process Mapping
Alignment diagrams by themselves do much more than present a linear flow of activities. Buried in the process are various levels of analysis and strategies. Indeed, Aligned process mapping defines the “engineered customer and company experience.” The company wants its customers to have a great experience to the point that they will recommend the company to friends and acquaintances. With the power of social media, complete strangers can gain important insights and referrals from others. This fact can be a double-edged sword because bad experiences are also prone to revelation to the general populace of potential customers. Benefit 1. Empathy Analyzing processes, what they are supposed to do requires an examination of the human reactions along the chain of events. At each touchpoint are human beings (although this is changing for the worse, in my opinion.) For example, technology is supposed to speed things up and improve communication processes. Enter…
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Direct and Indirect factors When Evaluating ROI for an I-4.0 Initiative

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Cara Chatellier
Evaluating Indirect and Direct Factors for I.40 ROI
“Think of the tangential benefits from the Space Program” In July, the World celebrates the fantastic Journey that Apollo 11 performed in 1969 when the first men were sent to orbit the Moon. Just think of what has happened as a result of the single-minded goal of putting a man on the Moon. At that time, the total computing power needed for that effort was less than the computing power of a smartphone. The main computers that powered the Apollo 11 mission were the size of four refrigerators!  Most likely, the majority of us don’t remember the protests at the spending ($40 billion for the entire 12 years of the NASA Man-on-the-Moon project), but looking back, just look at the unforeseen benefits of the digital age. Technology has shown itself to have the capacity of producing exponential ROI …in hindsight. The Investment of Industry 4.0 When considering the important investment…
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Automotive Giant Back on Top with MetaExpert Help

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Cara Chatellier
Automotive Giant Back on Top with MetaExpert Help
Situation A multi-billion-dollar tier 1 company became involved with a customer regarding a safety issue in which the customer was accusing the supplier to be at fault, thus revoking all 3 supplier manufacturing site locations for Q1.  This put the tier one supplier on new business hold and at risk of losing additional business they had plus additional quoting of new business opportunities. The company reached out to MetaExpert Jack for his APQP Process understanding, Advanced Critical Chain / Critical Path Methods knowledge, 5S and Standard Work expertise.  Actions Jack guided the organization to meet the challenge and improved productivity and facilitation of quality training and awareness. A collaborative cross-functional team of production, purchasing, engineering, and management was formed and led through a decisive 1-year plan, which involved the customer. This allowed for all key milestones to be met such that Q1 customer endorsement letters and Q1 site certifications were…
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MetaExpert Ron Slashed Excess Freight

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Cara Chatellier
Excess Freight
Situation Our MetaExpert, Ron, had a client who was a $15 billion global power leader that designs, manufactures, sells, and distributes its product and related technology around the world. The client had a major issue with unexpected air freight costs into several of its offshore plants. They brought Ron on board to analyze the situation and recommend and implement solutions. He felt the air freight was symptomatic of the actual root cause and suggested utilizing a seven-step problem-solving process to get to the root cause.  Ron’s goals for this client were to: Get to Root Cause investigation and action.Implementation of Key Performance Indicators so that he could measure improvement.Improve forecast calculating and provide for the maintenance of systems.Improve inventory accuracy and material flow processes.Improve supplier communication and relationship management internally within the organization.Achieve budgeted expense control through process control. Actions To get to the root cause, Ron dove into the…
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Need for Doing Business in a Different Way

Posted By: 
Cara Chatellier
Organizational Behavior
I recently saw a TED talk where a well-known organizational behavior expert pushed my button. As a management consultant, his presentation made a lot of sense…not only for business but also for our complex, modern times. Yves Morieux rightly pointed out (in my opinion) that we are all drowning in complexity. His main contention is that we spend way too much time doing, undoing, redoing in isolation. Even with the marvelous new technologies, we seem to be less productive and much more unhappy with our jobs. Basically, our organizational behavior is broken. Morieux felt the reason why so many workers are becoming disengaged is their frustration with burdens of complexity and the lack of job satisfaction due mainly to the need for a new way of structuring how we do business.   Traditional management theory expounds that companies need structures that clearly define the departmentalization of processes with specific job…
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Increase Profits with Operational Excellence Training

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Cara Chatellier
“In just 30 days, profits increased by $50,000.” Management articles are almost always about problems. But, this real-life event showcases how problems can be turned into opportunities. Owners and top-level management can sometimes be held captive by their limited experiences and training. However, there are many enlightened leaders who understand there is always something to learn. Indeed, learning from the mistakes of others is a wise strategy, but too often ego gets in the way. Until there is acceptance of a problem and a resolution to fix the problem can real learning take place. The following is a true story that demonstrates how education can quickly turn a problem into a long-term tool for success. The Business Problem A Chicago, Illinois-based steel fabricator, supplying a global market with wire product displays,  store fixtures, point-of-purchase (POP) displays, and custom wire frameworks, realized their profits were trending negatively. They had tried a…
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Improve the Decision-Making Process for Industry 4.0

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Cara Chatellier
Decision-Making Process for Industry 4.0
“Decision-makers must learn to leave egos at the door” In the era of Industry 4.0, technology will play a greater part in optimizing solutions. But do decision-makers have the expertise needed to fully understand the rapidly evolving tech world? If leaders can’t stand up and say: “I don’t understand how that tech solution works” and have the humility to learn new things, then optimal decision making in the era of Industry 4.0 may be in jeopardy. Making a good decision is only validated by the results. However, in an age of constantly growing complexity and the push to be innovative and “out-of-the-box”, there may be too many unexpected variables that can bring about unexpected results. This logical fear plagues decision making. In fact, decision making has become more challenging due to the exponential growth and access to information. Validating information is becoming a serious issue in the Corporate C-suite. Misleading…
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What Is the Cost of Safety?

Posted By: 
Kim Crabtree
What is the cost of Safety
What is the cost of Safety when it’s not the first priority Have you ever wondered if putting money into your organization’s safety policy was worth it? If so, you’re not alone. Many people think they can put safety off, until something happens, and then, they instantly regret their decision. One organization in particular made an investment in improving their safety and truly reaped the benefits. Their safety turnaround resulted in Zero Lost Time Incidents, One million safe hours…then, two million safe hours, An Iowa Safety Council Award, and A National Safety Council Award. Perhaps most importantly, the safety improvement even lead to a feature story on ABC prime time. (more…)
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