Operations and cost
Why it costs this much, why it takes this long, and what to change first.
An operations question, split
Operations questions are about where time and money leak. The tree follows an order from purchase to delivery.
Sample tree: a food wholesaler, 300 staff
Week 5 of 8
Why do one in nine orders arrive late?
Stock is not there
Buyers order on last year’s forecast Confirmed
Suppliers deliver short Ruled out
Picking is slow
Pickers work from yesterday’s order list Confirmed, tested first
Fast sellers are stored far from the dock Confirmed
Vans leave late
Routes are planned by hand each morning Still to test
Confirmed Still to test Ruled out Tested first
On the floor, not only in the spreadsheet
We walk the process with the people who run it, from purchase order to delivery, and check every hypothesis against what happens on a normal day.
- Two days on site for every week of analysis
- Cost and margin by product, customer and channel
- The three changes worth making first, with their cost
- Cost and margin review from $34,000 (Example prices)
Bring us the question you cannot answer yet
Write it down in a sentence or two. A partner reads it, calls you within two working days and tells you honestly whether a two-week diagnostic would help.