The Bottom Line
See why so many projects miss the mark and how to ensure that yours is successful.
Since the dawn of mankind…
Humans have been trying to advance in life. Whether it’s buying a new car or getting more rice at Chipotle, we have always wanted more stuff. Enter the simple transaction: five apples for one rabbit fur. Thus, bartering was born, allowing everyone from caveman to kings to grow their wealth.
When the trading system became more complicated and less efficient, currency was born, and a coin was created in 600 BC by King Allyattes of Lydia. It was made of a mixture of gold and silver and it helped the country become one of the richest in Asia Minor by increasing both internal and external trade.
Eventually, paper money was introduced, and in 1946 the world’s first credit card was created. Regardless of the medium, the goal with money has always been the same: to increase your supply and improve your lifestyle.
From bartering to bitcoin, man has always wanted to create more wealth. As a company, the ultimate goal is to make money. In Eli Goldratt’s book The Goal, the main character struggles to articulate this as the one, primary measure of success for his own company. Regardless of the impact, the product or service, the people, and the process of making or moving something, without more money coming in than money going out, the initiative can’t continue.
So many projects miss the mark because they fail to tie the results back to the bottom line of the business. Without a tangible ROI, how should one expect to justify a project?
At AMEND, we help our clients make more money, which enables them to improve the lifestyles of their customers, employees, shareholders, and countless other stakeholders. If you can’t tie a specific process improvement to an increase in the bottom line, then it becomes difficult to justify a new project.
Check out how we’ve recently helped three clients grow their bottom line:
1. Automobile products manufacturer
Business Problem: Sales down 20%, outsourcing production trend, and rising employee costs.
Project: Perform a cost analysis, define and document cost drivers, and build a model to optimize manufacturing costs for the next year
Result: Net manufacturing cost reduction of 15% ($3.3 million), and a direct increase to the bottom line.
2. Plastics manufacturer
Background: Increased sales, but growing backlog, underutilized capacity, and increasing late orders.
Project: Create a data-analytics platform that enables smarter decision-making, leading to decreased downtime and increased throughput
Results: Increase in production lbs. and shipments of 30%, and a direct increase to the bottom line.
3. PVC extrusion company
Background: Increasing sales, growing backlog, becoming more difficult to meet industry-best lead times.
Results: Build tool that uses data to drive scheduling priorities, running the right products at the right time on the right production lines.
Results: Increased throughput by 16% and re-captured industry-best lead times, and a direct increase to the bottom line.
If you need help improving your bottom line, let’s talk. Chances are there’s a way to make it happen, in less than six months. We’ll help you figure it out.
