Automotive Supplier
SITUATION
Market leading manufacturer of custom wheels and accessories for enthusiasts asked The Highland Group to optimize its operation and help position the organization for growth.
DRIVER GOAL
- Grow annual revenue by $40 million.
- Develop an effective order entry process that reflects true customer demand.
- Increase throughput by 8%.
RESULT
- Grew revenues by $42 million after the first year.
- Delivered project ROI of 5:1, exceeding promised savings.
Case Study
Optimize Operation & Position for Growth
Issue
The world’s largest and market leading manufacturer of custom wheels and accessories for enthusiasts and the racing industry asked The Highland Group to optimize its operation and put in place processes that would position the organization for growth.
Highland Approach
After working with leadership to define high-level Driver Goals, The Highland Group analyzed the operation and key vendors to identify constraints, inefficiencies and other opportunities for improvement. The team reengineered several processes and implemented tools to track demand, sales, orders, inventory and vendor performance.
Actions Taken
- Identified and prioritized molds for repair, determined individual vendor capacity, and developed and implemented a purchase order management process to track molds out for repair.
- Conducted an order review collection process to identify orders that had not been fulfilled, orders that had not been invoiced, and invoices that had not been paid.
- Reengineered the order management process.
- Developed and implemented a vendor management process, determined individual vendor capacity, worked with the vendors to improve their processes, increasing repair capacity by 33%.
- Partnered with vendors to develop and implement a source inspection program.
- Developed and implemented a warranty management process that included the establishment and population of a warranty database.
- Developed a database of product sales history, defined excess and slow moving inventory, conducted a special sales promotion to move the inventory.
- Developed and implemented a rolling demand forecast model.
