How Management Consultants Team Up with Clients to Accelerate Process Improvements
If you’re considering hiring a management consultant to improve efficiency, reduce waste, optimize processes, or streamline workflows, you may be wondering how it all works and if it will disrupt your operations.
Management consultants serve as a trusted resource with a fresh set of eyes to analyze your operations and work together with your team to drive process improvements. Yes, you can do this internally and obtain results. However, teaming up with consultants will accelerate your efforts while augmenting the deliverables, all while your team maintains focus on your #1 priority – your customers.
Management consultants can provide you with the expertise and boots-on-the-ground help to maximize your improvement efforts. Here’s a rundown of how the partnership works.
What is a management consultant?
Management consultants are experts in efficiency and process improvement, who come into a business, analyze your operations, identify gaps and inefficiencies, and then implement positive, impactful change. Implementation is a key difference between a management consultant and a boardroom consultant. Boardroom consultants’ work generally ends with recommendations for change. A management consultant gets into the thick of it, guiding and working with employees to effect that change.
As described in “Management Consultants vs Boardroom Consultants: Which is Right for You?”, management consultants start by listening and learning, then involve your entire team in the improvement process… from C-suite executives to frontline workers.
While C-suite participation is vital in their process, the nuts-and-bolts of the work centers on the employee level at the point of execution. That’s the best way to get to the root of the challenges, uncover opportunities for greater efficiency, optimize processes and in the end, increase profits.
With a management consultant, you can expect:
- Boots-on-the-ground involvement in your operations.
- A collaborative, team-first approach.
- A deep dive into your business.
- Process analysis and guidance in their methodologies.
- Involvement from employees at the epicenter of the process improvements.
- A roadmap for sustainability that includes the training of your people.
Here’s a primer in how management consultants team up with your organization.
Assess and analyze
It’s critical to first understand the client’s current state of operations (The “As Is”), employee behaviors and disciplines they are using to get the job done.
That’s why management consultants typically start by listening and learning to get a thorough understanding of a client’s current outcomes, their ideal outcomes and the gap that exists between the two.
For example, a food processing plant is getting X amount of throughput per shift. Ideally, they’d like to increase it by half. Is that goal feasible, and if so, what’s the best way to get there?
In this initial information-gathering phase, consultants perform a comprehensive analysis of your systems, procedures, and more. This system review tells the story of a company’s process and can depict how it will look with the deficiencies from current state corrected. It shows the flow of data, actionable information and decision-making points in a closed loop environment.
Process improvement methodologies
Management consultants use various process improvement methodologies and tools, depending on the needs of the project. They include:
Lean Six Sigma. LSS is a combination of two powerful methodologies, Lean, which focuses on limiting waste in a process, and Six Sigma, which focuses on increasing quality.
Sales, Inventory, and Operations Planning (SIOP). SIOP aligns sales, inventory and operations planning functions to improve demand forecasting, efficiency, supply chain performance and more.
Employee Involvement Prototype (EIP) Process. The EIP process is unique to USC Consulting Group where we validate and measurably implement positive changes at a grassroots level. Your employees are the most vital components to every project and having them write the narrative to success is vital. However, there are tactical steps that need to be followed in the EIP process and the strategy USC imparts is critical.
AI, Machine Learning, and Predictive Analytics. Much like Netflix’s use of predictive analytics created a seismic shift in consumer expectations, this technology is transforming operating procedures and processes. Predictive analytics helps companies better understand what’s occurring in any given process, refine and optimize processes, and more. But it also needs the human touch. People aren’t getting replaced by the bots in this area any time soon.
Prototype
Prototyping is a technique management consultants use that can be best described as starting small. Say a client has a manufacturing plant filled with machines that process their product. Prototyping involves choosing one area, one machine, one shift, and rolling out the plan for change in just that one place.
It serves as a pilot to demonstrate the effectiveness of new procedures, policies and practices.
The team of client and consultants outlines their plan and goals for any given day, or any given shift. After the day or shift is over, they compare their results to their plan. How did it work? Did they hit the mark? Why, or why not? What are the issues? Where are the bottlenecks? If they fell short, why? What can they do better on the next shift?
This part of the process involves weekly meetings with employees, managers and even the top brass to hash out these questions and devise solutions together.
Rollout
When the prototype is bullet-proof, it’s time to roll out the process companywide. Consultants may do this phase in stages, adding one or two more machines to the mix and repeating the prototyping process.
This phase constitutes the bulk of the project and involves careful monitoring, analyzing and reporting to measure its effectiveness and success.
Educate and support
Solid change management is critical and one of the most important elements of that is to involve employees in the new processes, policies and procedures from the beginning. Educating the client’s employees on the how and why changes are made is the key to lasting success and ensures sustainability for the process improvements.
At USC Consulting Group, we are management consultants. We roll up our sleeves and engage with our clients to implement positive, impactful change, both financially and operationally. It’s very much a “with” and not “to” attitude.
If that approach sounds right for your needs, give us a call. We’ll be happy to talk with you about the positive change we can bring to your company.
