Management of a specialized design and production company needed to determine if the company’s ERP system would support their planned future business expansion. Production supervisors were not well versed in operations planning and management concepts.
B. Greenfield & Associates conducted an independent analysis to understand the company’s operational needs, then evaluated systems strengths and shortcomings within this context. Key missing elements were project management and job costing; B. Greenfield & Associates took the lead in identifying and implementing the software solution. This included training programs on materials planning, process improvement, and just-in-time/lean production.
The Treasurer of a suburban school district was faced with two key employees retiring.
B. Greenfield & Associates developed an alternative organization structure and proposed process flow changes that reduced staffing requirements, enhanced the employees’ jobs, and improved internal controls.
In a school district anticipating continued rapid growth, the Superintendent and Board wanted an assessment of central office administrative organization and operations from a business perspective.
Recommendations developed by B. Greenfield & Associates included restructuring the administrative organization (to rationalize the distribution of duties and responsibilities), revamping work process flows to streamline operations and improve efficiency (an integral part of restructuring an organization), and making better use of technology to help improve communications and process information more efficiently.
A consumer products manufacturer wanted to implement an online integrated ERP system.
B. Greenfield & Associates assisted in selecting the software, defining/building system data files, writing procedures, and training users. Several subsequent assignments involved systems and operations improvement in Production, Purchasing, Engineering, Customer Service, Distribution, and Accounting, as well as ongoing MIS support to system users and administrators.
A nursing home chain operator had severe and sudden cash flow problems.
B. Greenfield & Associates helped develop a package to secure a bank loan. As part of the recovery plan, the corporate organization was restructured, eliminating a layer of management, and business processes were evaluated and revamped to reduce costs. The CEO has continued to request support in addressing a variety of issues related to business process operations improvement, at both the home office and the nursing homes.
A social service agency requested help in developing its strategic plan.
B. Greenfield & Associates conducted several workshops as part of the strategic planning process. Agency management, Board, and staff participated in these sessions, which helped them to articulate and clarify their mission, goals and objectives.
A mortgage broker needed procedural documentation for the Loan Processing Department.
While developing this documentation, it became evident that there were opportunities for operational improvement. B. Greenfield & Associates worked with the CEO and his staff to analyze all of the business functions related to loan processing. Several reengineering initiatives resulted, significantly reducing the time required to handle a loan (in terms of both the time to complete specific activities and the elapsed time between initial customer contact and closing the loan).
A state government agency wanted to conduct a series of operations improvement projects, to illustrate potential benefits and expose the management and staff to the process of undertaking such initiatives.
B. Greenfield & Associates conducted a project in each of the agency’s Business Centers. The scope of the projects ranged from analyzing and reengineering process flows to restructuring the workload and organization. Benefits were realized in all of the initiatives, with documented potential savings in the $180,000 – $250,000 range (a 5:1 return on the investment in this project).
A growing mental health center was faced with handling increased client workload, and could not afford to commensurately increase the administrative and support staff.
B. Greenfield & Associates worked with agency personnel to revamp organization structures, streamline paperwork flows, and develop processes for better receivables management. Specific accomplishments include developing a future organization model for the agency, geared toward meeting the changing needs of the client population; reorganizing the clerical staff and the way they function, resulting in more timely and efficient handling of the workload and fewer errors; revamping the filing system, eliminating non-value-added steps from the process and reducing the frequency of files needed and not found; and reengineering data entry processes, achieving significant reduction in staff time and effort.
The Executive Director of an expanding social service agency wanted to develop a structured, comprehensive salary program covering a wide variety of positions, both “old” and “new.”
The primary salary issue was internal equity, and building consensus was an important aspect of the study. There was substantive participation by employees and the Board of Directors. A subsequent project involved working with agency personnel to develop a related performance appraisal system.
A company providing information technology and business solutions to the healthcare and human services industries wanted to improve its customer support call center response.
Key recommendations developed by B. Greenfield & Associates included aligning support resources more directly with the needs of the customer base (with cross-functional teams, each group serving specific customers with similar support requirements), developing standardized online problem reporting, and creating guidelines for staff to prioritize their work.
A national food processing company was establishing a production line for a new type of product.
B. Greenfield & Associates conducted a high-level assessment of the line from an industrial engineering viewpoint. This groundwork identified significant shortcomings and opportunities for labor cost avoidance. The benefits were sufficient to justify assigning corporate industrial engineering staff to the project.
Two existing water districts in eastern Ohio were merging to form a new entity.
The Board of Trustees retained B. Greenfield & Associates to assist in transition planning. The objective was an initial assessment of the current status of fundamental business systems (operating and personnel policies/procedures, computer systems, etc.) at each of the two water districts. The resulting report identified the major challenges in merging the two organizations, which tasks would take the longest to accomplish, and what needed to be in place by the anticipated start date.
A footwear retailer needed to upgrade its warehousing and distribution systems.
This assignment was to identify and document the system requirements, to use in soliciting requests for proposals. A key emphasis was clearly explaining and documenting several processes that are unique to the company, to allow the appropriate consideration in vendor responses.
A family-owned manufacturing company was seeking ways to improve administrative operations.
The major outcome of this engagement was realigning the organization for more effective spans of control and supervision. Key operational process flows were streamlined, reducing paper handling and making better use of the computer system. In addition, employee training was enhanced and expanded, reducing the need for supervisory intervention. Many policy issues surfaced and were addressed as the project progressed.
A prominent science and industry museum needed to develop analytical models to assess the economic impact of expanding its facilities.
The results produced by these models were used by management in presentations to government/community leaders and interest groups. Subsequent consulting involvement was serving as an interface between the accounting firm that conducted the initial study and another firm selected to update the projections.