Working with Manufacturing Consulting Services, Inc. FAQ
How Much?
How much time will this take?
We typically devote five hours to each client per consulting session: 2 to 2.5 hours in person (or via Web conferencing) and the balance as travel or tasks relevant to the project, typically 2 – 4 times a month on an agreed upon weekday & time.
Project-relevant officers and staff will spend 2 to 3 hours in person (or via Web conferencing) per session, 2-4 times per month. They will also need to allow time to do their agreed upon assignments in preparation for our next meeting. Time devoted to the work varies considerably, depending on the nature of your particular current central constraint project – but as the old adage goes: “The more you give, the more you receive.”
Plan to set aside between 1-5 hours between meetings to focus on completing the agreed-upon assignment(s). Sometimes there is more, sometimes there is less. Again, it all depends on the specific nature of the central constraints on which we are working.
NOTE: We have found that clients who do their homework advance much more quickly than clients who do not, or who only do part of it per visit. Well… obviously! This can be intensive! We are talking about the survival, profitability and growth of your operation, which impacts all of the people that work in your operation, as well as the customers and vendors relying on your operation. Your ability to persevere through difficult times is what will yield your success. This is not a “hand it over to the consultant to hand you a finished package” arrangement. (This is how you pay WAY TOO MUCH to a standard consulting firm which brings their own staff and leaves you with a report and precious little in the way of hands-on process improvement tools, perspective-shifts and your own, in-house expertise! This is hands-on, do-it-yourself continuous improvement! Your active participation (and experiential education) is vital to your organization’s sustainable improvement!
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
Teach a man to teach a man to fish and you feed a nation. We try to work here.
Sometimes a client &/or their staff are just too covered up to effectively complete their part of the homework. In that case, we reduce the visits per month to what they can actually DO to usually not fewer than 2 visits per month. Some industries are seasonal, with way too much to do during the heavy season & more time to “build fences” during the off season. We work with that according to what the client can do.
How much does it cost NOT to engage in these process and profitability improvement methods?
Failure to find and relax your sequential central constraints is VERY expensive in both time and money and survivability. Probably the most effective way to respond to this is to refer you to testimonials from clients regarding this question. See specific testimonials regarding cost of failure to do these methods.
How much does it cost for an Introductory Training & Profit-Improvement Plan Project?
After we establish that you want to significantly grow your business, we will enter the Introductory Training Project which consists of two on-site (or by Web conferencing, if necessary) 3-hour sessions and up to three additional consulting hours for a total of 12 consulting hours.
During these sessions, we teach you and your staff how to map your business processes from Concept-to-Collection. We then refine your map to identify candidates for your present central constraint. We coach you in identifying & enumerating the underlying root causes of your most likely company-wide central-constraint candidate. Then, as time permits, we introduce you and your staff to methods of continuous process diagnostic and improvement.
By the end of the Introduction Training Sessions Project, we will have developed a high-level, Profit-Improvement Plan: essentially hunt down and eliminate your organization’s sequential central constraints in priority order! $2,500.
Please Contact Us for further information.
Thank you for your time and attention,
Tim Ward, President, Manufacturing Consulting Services, Inc.