Great news. You have successfully landed the business of an emerging brand that is on fire! So, this is a big deal as snack food manufacturing is highly competitive, innovation driven business. As a high-quality, capacity constrained contract manufacturer, this family-owned business needed to achieve more throughput without capital expenditures. Couple that with a “traditional workforce” in “mature facilities”, it became obvious to leadership that the dominant burning platform is to reduce yield loss immediately.
FSO Institute was engaged by the company’s new COO (snack food industry icon) to lead the change management effort – focusing on the most critical aspect of manufacturing health – the people.
Challenge
- Readiness for change on the factory floor is low, given the older, established workforce, under union contract
- Family business is seeking outside investment, so strict limitations on capital expense solutions
- Competitive marketplace, particularly to win the business of a rising brand
Action
- Engage with senior leadership to develop path forward. First step is commitment to implement 100-day pilot plan for improvement
- Began journey towards High Performance thru implementing Lean principles
- Engage with supervisors in all shifts to upskill on floor leadership and operators’ performance
Results
The 100-day pilot program identified and delivered over $3 million in direct savings within 2 years, without any expenditure. Good news but expected! However, these results laid the foundation for extraordinary business outcomes.
First, the enhanced Operational Reliability provided the substance and confidence for the new customer and their growing Brand to commit to the company with a strong, multi-year contract.
Secondly, the company successfully completed outside investment with private equity, enabling investment in the growth. Within 4 years, this company was acquired by a major multinational in an industry shaping deal.
