Manufacturing Consultant UK
Two weeks on your factory floor. A scored baseline of how your operation really performs, and a prioritised plan with a pound value against every finding.
A manufacturing operations assessment is a structured, on-site review of how a factory plans, makes, inspects and ships product. It measures flow, quality, equipment effectiveness, inventory, people and systems against evidence from the shop floor, and produces a costed, prioritised improvement plan.
Most manufacturers already have monthly reports. Reports summarise outcomes. An assessment looks at the process that produced them: where material waits, where operators walk, where rework hides and where planning assumptions stop matching reality.
We use direct observation in the tradition of the Toyota Production System, including Ohno circle observation, because it surfaces what dashboards and meetings miss. Every finding is quantified, so you can rank problems by payback instead of by who shouts loudest.
Six dimensions, each scored and evidenced. Together they show where your operation is strong and where it is leaking time, material and cash.
| Dimension | What we look at | Baseline measures |
|---|---|---|
| Flow and scheduling | Value stream, bottlenecks, WIP, planning assumptions, capacity | Lead time, on-time delivery, WIP days |
| Quality | Defects, rework, error-proofing, FMEA, inspection points | Right-first-time, cost of poor quality, scrap rate |
| Equipment effectiveness | Availability, performance, quality losses, changeovers | OEE, changeover time, downtime causes |
| People and standard work | Standard work, visual management, daily management, skills | Labour productivity, revenue per labour hour |
| Inventory and supply chain | Stock accuracy, material flow, supplier delivery, storage | Stock turns, stock accuracy, shortages |
| Data and systems | ERP and MRP fitness, BOM and routing accuracy, shop-floor data capture | Data accuracy, manual re-keying, reporting lag |
We work alongside your team, not behind a closed door. Nothing in the report will surprise your managers, because they see the evidence as it is gathered.
Structured floor observation, process walks and conversations with operators, supervisors and planners across the end-to-end flow, from enquiry to dispatch.
Value stream maps and baselines for OEE, right-first-time, lead time and waste, each converted to a pound figure using your own cost data.
A sequenced action plan ranked by payback and effort, agreed with your leadership team in a working session, not just handed over as a PDF.
| Operations assessment | Compliance audit | Online self-assessment | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basis | On-site observation and measurement | Checked against a standard such as ISO 9001 | Questionnaire answers from your team |
| Question answered | Where are we losing money and capacity? | Are we compliant? | How do we score roughly? |
| Output | Costed, prioritised action plan | Findings and non-conformances | A score and general advice |
| Best for | Improvement and investment decisions | Certification and customer requirements | A quick starting point |
Outcomes from our consultants' engagements. Every figure is measured on the client's own floor.
The on-site diagnostic takes about two weeks for a typical single site. Larger or multi-site operations take longer. We confirm the timeline when we agree scope.
OEE, or overall equipment effectiveness, multiplies availability, performance and quality to show how much of your planned production time is genuinely productive. It gives a single comparable baseline for each line and points directly to the biggest loss.
No. We observe live production and speak to people at the line. Your team's time is limited to short conversations and a leadership working session at the end.
You own the plan. You can run it yourselves, ask us to support specific improvements such as changeover, quality or scheduling, or move into manufacturing digitalisation. There is no obligation to continue.
Yes. We assess manufacturers across England and Wales, including Wales, and work on site wherever the factory is.
No. It suits owner-managed SMEs as much as multi-site groups. The scope is sized to your site, number of lines and complexity.
Tell us about your site. We will say plainly whether an assessment is worth doing.
Manufacturing operations assessment and digitalisation for UK manufacturers. Led by a chartered engineer. Stabilise first, then automate.
UK-based. Serving manufacturers nationwide.
1 Greenlands Road