If you’re in charge of an operations-based department like supply chain, manufacturing, or engineering, one question likely looms large over all your decisions:

How can I better manage operations in my organization?

Constantly striving to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your division or organization is a never-ending challenge. Bringing in an operations consulting expert is a great way to get an objective review of your systems, identify opportunities for improvement, and develop solutions that work for you.

What Is Strategic Operations Consulting?

Operations consulting is a sub-discipline of management consulting. It specializes in developing operational and business strategies to solve operational, supply chain, and efficiency problems and improve an organization’s overall performance.

The first goal of an operations consultant is to understand how each component of your business relates to every other component and how each affects the business’ overall operation. In addition to identifying where and how changes need to be made, an operations consultant develops strategies to implement these changes. While a general management consulting firm will evaluate your operations and make specific recommendations for improvement (such as pricing changes), the long-term goals of an operations consultant include implementation of that advice. An operations consulting firm works with you to get sustainable operations in place that help your business operate more efficiently, effectively, and profitably.

This could take the form of problem solving for cost reduction, day-to day business process improvements, or optimizing products and services to gain a competitive advantage.

What Does Successful Operations Consulting Look Like?

Operational strategy consulting takes a start-to-finish approach to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of your organization. A consultant helps identify an area of weakness and recommends a change, helps implement the change for your company’s various customers and geographies, and then helps you to assess what impact the change has made and what you should do differently. For projects that are more operational (back-office industrialization or multi-channel distribution implementation, for example), an operations consultant would focus less on strategy and more on doing the work itself, speaking with vendors and customers to implement changes and engaging in other “boots-on-the-ground” activities.

The core business of operations consultants is to help clients lead major change projects by working on the full change lifecycle, from the very beginning through the definition, implementation, and deployment of the solution. For example, a business may engage an operations consultant to improve the performance of an under-producing department. Over the course of the next year, the operations consultant might pinpoint specific manufacturing issues that impede efficient production and engage an engineering consultant to solve them; identify management issues or make recommendations for rearranging personnel at a location and work with the company’s HR department to restructure the division; recommend price adjustments and changes to the marketing strategy for certain markets; and monitor the efficacy of the ongoing efforts and adjust strategies accordingly.

Why Partner with an Operations Consultant or Consulting Group?

Working with an operations consulting firm can help your organization not only identify where changes need to be made but also effectively implement those changes. This relationship can help bring an outside perspective and experience to your business, helping not just to overcome existing problems but also to reach a new level of success.

Contact Cornerstone Consulting Organization to consult with our team of experienced operations consultants. Our professionals have experience and knowledge in a wide range of industries and technical specialties, including aerospace, automotive, heavy equipment, defense contracting, food manufacturing, retail, and healthcare. We aim to provide the best all-around consulting services in Huron and the best ROI for your business.