Carragee Consulting

More plant tours please?

Whenever I have gotten to take a plant tour when working on a pricing project it has served me so well in understanding the cost drivers and value proposition of the company I’m working with.

Where are there opportunities for quality control issues?

Which steps are necessarily sequenced vs can be run in parallel?

Where can parts be made interchangeable/universal fit with others for fewer BOM components?

Which aspects of the process are labor intensive (high marginal cost) vs highly mechanized (high up front cost)?

How many suppliers and materials are needed?

Can the product be repaired?

What are the internal logistics like?

Is it run in batches and then equipment is swapped to other items?

What time of process materials and chemicals are used?

Having a physical and literal understanding of the business is typically seen as the jobs of the clients in strategic consulting/analytics, but the extent to which you can get access to see the business in action can be indicative of how successful your initiative will be.

Companies who have reason to be proud of their supply chain, production employees and development processes should be able to command a price premium.