The client was very consultant adverse, and had not executed a successful project using an outside consultant in their recent history. The problem was a severe bottle­neck within their manufacturing process that was traced to problems within their receiving and incoming parts inspection process. The client purchased over 2,500 highly sophisticated parts which required inspection before they were entered into inventory. The long process cycle time of 18 days contributed to late order deliveries and limited the client’s ability to achieve higher revenues. In addition, the added cycle time created the need for higher inventories that increased the company’s need for working capital.

SatiStar worked with an internal team of company technical specialists to facilitate the execution of an ultra-fast reengineering process. SatiStar helped facilitate the vision for the new process, the high level design, and then the detailed design for the process. The client was responsible for implementing the design, in part because of their desire to limit the involvement of outside consultants in their business.

The reengineering project was completed by the joint SatiStar-client team, and the design approved by the client within 3 weeks. The client then fully implemented the new process design over the next 30 weeks. The new design resulted in the cycle time for the receiving and inspection process being reduced from 18 days to less than 4 hours. Approximately $400,000 in overtime labour costs was eliminated as were 17 full time jobs. The client was able to fill their increased productive capacity with an additional $22 million in sales.