Introduction

• This customer was limited on staff to follow up with customer request. They also heavily depended on return customers but did not have a game plan to acquire new customers, or the resources to expand their sales force. This is a reoccurring issue we hear with many businesses, “we don’t have the budget, but we need to grow”. Our plan was to systematize their sales process and implement the latest tools, like CRM’s and email marketing to help their team do more and bring in more customer.

Methodology

• The first part was to define their sales process and get everyone to agree to follow as the standard procedure. Then we made sure we hit every avenue that made sense and properly set up the channels (i.e., are they implementing social media, do they have products listed online, etc.). We also implemented all the necessary tools to make try to automate as many tasks as possible. This freed up the sales team to spend more time with customers and less time doing clerical tasks.

Results

• By the time we were done, we had generated sales scripts, email templates, automated as many of the processes as possible, and mapped the entire territory to identify all the potential targets they could go after. The sales team was able to implement within a few weeks and get in front of new customers without waiting for someone to come to them and they were spreading brand awareness while they were prospecting.

Conclusion

• Many businesses still rely on business cards, spreadsheets, and word-of-mouth for their sales and marketing. Reputation and return customers are critical, but to grow a business you need to keep building new relationships and continue to nurture existing. This can be overwhelming for a small sales team, luckily many of the processes can be automated or at least combined in one place.
• This type of sales process optimization can be done for virtually any business, including long established businesses. If you feel you might not be taking full advantage of your sales team, contact us today for a consultation. [email protected]

Introduction

• Worked with Aerospace component manufacturer for aircraft turbines to look at other ways to grow and scale their business. They had tapped all the potential customers in that area or were already in the process of pursuing. We worked together to determined that many of their capabilities and components were interchangeable with the requirements of ground turbines (i.e., hydro-electric generators). With this information we set off to target the ground turbine market to help grow the overall business.

Methodology

• We used the companies experience and equipment that was already capable of manufacturing Aerospace spec components and translated that to the Ground Turbine industry. This included a marketing plan with email on-boarding and maximizing tool to take full advantage of their limited sales team.

Results

• We acquired a new customer within the first 3 months of the campaign, which resulted in $365,000 in growth for the first year and a five-year long-term-agreement for $563,540 a year. The company continued to explore the market.

Conclusion

• The goal was to increase profits when they though they had explored every option. We were able to find ways to pivot their capabilities to target a new market without changing anything or adding any other cost. By identifying where their capabilities fit in, we went full force after a new market.
• This type of market penetration can be done to virtually any manufacturing business including long established businesses. If you are creative and look at your strengths, you can always find new markets to penetrate or new products to develop to make more money faster! Contact us today for a consultation. [email protected]

Introduction

• Aluminum Investment Casting Manufacturer was having issues with their current machining supplier. They were not delivering on time and had a high scrap rate. The late delivery was causing them to be late with their customers therefore affecting their credibility and the time they can collect their revenue. The high scrap rates mean they must make more castings just to get one acceptable finished one. Every “raw” casting that can be processed and sold means profit for the company. We offered a solution to reduce their scrap rate and were able to make the operation faster to meet their delivery times.

Methodology

• We determined that the lead time issues were connected to the scrap rate. Since they were shipping a batch at a time if any casting was scrapped, it would cause a lower quantity shipment. The shorter shipment they receive, the more they will continue to be late at the end of the month. We reviewed the issue and determined the supplier was not properly setting up the castings to machine the features.
• We worked with their engineers to design and build a series of Machining and Inspection fixtures to ensure their parts were ok before they were even sent out of the casting facility. This allowed them to catch them before they left the facility and do secondary processing to make sure they are corrected before they are scrapped after machining. The second key to solving this problem was a machining fixture which allowed us to set quickly set up and clamp when compared to the previous supplier.

Results

• Ultimately, we designed and built the various fixtures needed to improve the processes and transferred the process to our machining partner Mold Plus Engineering. We helped them set up a process control procedure. To help with catching up on their orders, we set up a split shift with one machine dedicated to their components. Along with this we had a daily pickup and delivery schedule to make sure they are getting the parts as they are finished.

Conclusion

• Summarize the key points of the case study.
• We were able to completely turn around a project that was causing the casting manufacturer their reputation and money. Once we made some investments in the process control of their operation were able to increase their profits and help them get caught up with their deliveries.

• This type of adjustments can be done to virtually any manufacturing process including manual operations. If you improve the process times, lower cost and mistakes, and make it repeatable, you can make more money faster! Contact us today for a consultation. [email protected]