Proudfoot News

Most manufacturers⁠—even successful ones⁠—aren’t seeing anywhere near the levels of productivity that their operations are capable of. It’s not for lack of trying; when embarking on a continuous improvement journey to drive excellence in productivity, manufacturers often experience steady progress in the beginning but eventually run into a wall. After all the quick wins have been exhausted, it can become increasingly difficult to capture substantial productivity gains as the project progresses.

How do you go beyond low-hanging fruit to reach that next level of productivity?

The results from implementing a continuous improvement program can diminish over time for a number of reasons.

The recent 5-day closure of the world’s largest hazelnut spread factory due to quality issues highlights one of the key risks facing food and beverage companies. Considering that normal production at the affected plant is 600,000 jars a day, the shutdown serves as a very costly reminder for food processing companies to stay vigilant when it comes to quality. 

After spending $30 million and four years trying to introduce a major new IT system, this large medical provider was running out of ideas to make it work. Proudfoot helped the insurer get back on track by engaging people in the process of digitization.  

Santa Monica Seafood is a successful family owned and run business that grew to become a significant player. But with growth comes complexity and eventually the business hit a wall, unable to see how to break through to the next level.

Safety is about enabling things to go right. This radically breaks with traditional thinking which focuses on eliminating things that can go wrong.

In June 2018, Angus Maclean, a leader in Proudfoot’s Global Building Materials Practice discussed next-generation Target Operating Models (TOM) with Global Cement Magazine.

Some things take time and that’s the case for the consulting industry icon, Proudfoot, as they announce the next step in the transformation of a 72-year-old consulting brand with the introduction of their all new leadership team line up in the US.

McKinsey’s 2018 transformation survey casts a dark shadow on the odds of your transformation success: They quote a 74% failure rate. They ask if yours is ‘doomed to fail?’.  We’re embarrassed for our industry when we read these results. With statistics like that, I almost want to ask, ‘why bother at all?’ But I know transformation doesn’t have to fail.

Santa Monica Seafood held its 11^th Annual Supplier Summit on February 20^th at the Hyatt Regency in Long Beach, California. Representatives from 150 of their top suppliers were in attendance. 

When the Financial Times reported its annual list of consulting firms, it triggered an interesting challenge from Source Global Research, one of the industry’s most respected commentators. In their blog, Source questioned why the Financial Times report had not included more client feedback and opinion on the performance of consulting firms. They went a step further, stating that according to their own research only 38% of clients agreed that consulting firms had added more in value than they charged in fees. An alarming statistic.

Proudfoot takes a finalist position for Best International Project in the 2018 Management Consultancies Association (MCA) Awards. The International Project Award is open to all Consulting firms worldwide, and the winner is announced at the 2018 MCA Awards ceremony, April 26th in London.

This is like asking what the length of a piece of string is. It all depends on what does 'rapid' mean, but an answer can be found in the non-aviation industries.