Operations strategy

Improved efficiency and profitability from optimal functional strategies, processes and structures

A suboptimal organization can impede workflow and destroy efficiency. The goal is to create clear, unambiguous lines of authority, adequate management span, structures designed around end-to-end processes, and measurable results. Using proven tools and concepts, we optimize organizational structures to increase efficiency within the company. We also successfully simplify complex, inefficient matrix and tensor organizations based on these principles.

Cost reduction in overhead and support functions

Support functions enable business operations. Optimizing cost structures according to the lawnmower principle can significantly harm company performance. Our performance value analysis compares the costs and performance of organizational units, providing companies with an objective basis for making informed decisions on cost adjustments, such as internal optimization, in-house shared service units, or outsourcing. To optimize performance, it is crucial to make overhead areas transparent and quantifiable. Identify the relevant expense and cost drivers of individual functions to enable optimal and flexible sizing of these areas.

Quality and compliance

Compliance with legal requirements is crucial for securing or expanding a company's market position, especially in medical technology, pharmaceuticals, and other industries. We provide support for quality programs, including the 28 FDA-relevant quality elements, from audit simulation to defining and implementing specific measures for each potentially affected corporate function.

Optimization of product and R&D structures

The corporate R&D project portfolio aims to ensure long-term company success through innovation. While companies often have no shortage of new product ideas, consistent evaluation and prioritization of innovation projects based on market success is crucial. Without this focus, attempts to develop everything at once with limited resources can lead to failure. The innovation pipeline is often overloaded, resulting in slow development and a high proportion of unsuccessful products. It takes the right methodology and entrepreneurial courage to identify early on which product developments are most likely to succeed. In today's dynamic sales markets, the ability to quickly and robustly bring successful products to market is crucial for long-term competitiveness. By optimizing R&D portfolios using design-to-target principles, development units can work more efficiently and achieve greater success.

Supply chain optimization

Shorter delivery times and greater supply chain reliability can come at the cost of higher inventories, money, and risk. However, with intelligent positioning, these costs can be minimized. Segmentation of the supply chain, optimization of the location structure, and precise alignment with market requirements are particularly important in achieving this. This significantly improves the locations of production and logistics centers, as well as the handling of orders and distribution processes. Our Inventory Optimizer and material flow templates improve delivery times, reliability, and costs.

Optimization of purchasing structures

Suppliers can significantly impact a company's costs, delivery capabilities, and product quality. The key factors here are transparent costs, a structure that ensures supplier homogeneity within each product group, and clarity regarding the effectiveness of purchasing levers such as consolidation, internationalization, and substitution. Based on this information, product-specific strategies can be developed and successfully implemented with the appropriate purchasing organization. We assist companies in optimizing their purchasing function and realizing potential savings through spend analyses, product group portfolios, and cockpits. Purchasing is frequently the most efficient method of achieving substantial cost reductions.