Organization & Operations

Operations Transformation Due Diligence & Optimization

Our Client

Our client is a $6B multinational food processing company that employs more than 4,000 people in producing private label packaged foods.

Transformation Challenge

Our client embarked on a publicly announced, company-wide restructuring initiative to simplify their product portfolio, rationalize their array of production facilities, and drive savings via operational improvements. Historically, our client grew through acquisition. Over time, that growth approach created large opportunities to improve operating costs by streamlining their operations across North America. At the time, this restructuring was the largest transformation ever undertaken by a private label CPG company in the United States.

We partnered with our client to lead a significant part of their overall transformation with the focus of optimizing their supply chain network. This effort involved partnering with key stakeholders to define, structure, and lead several due diligence efforts to determine the total supply chain impact of these large reorganization/facility consolidation efforts. We worked closely with the client to obtain Board of Director approval for favorable projects and then manage all aspects of execution from initial communication to the eventual sale of the asset.

Our Approach

Our team worked behind the scenes with our client’s leadership team to chart the path forward for network optimization and simplification. Together, our team and the client derived a list of initiatives to pursue, and we facilitated the appropriate organizational approvals to begin execution.

During execution, we assembled a cross-functional group of organizational leaders consisting of R&D, Warehouse, Manufacturing, Transportation, Cost Accounting, and Business Unit Leaders to serve as subject matter experts for their respective groups. From there, we established a repeatable, weekly project meeting that served as the project tempo for delivery. We structured upper-level steering committee meetings to make sure Executive Leaders could stay informed. We also made sure we established key, standard templates to communicate significant milestones, issues, risks, and next steps clearly and consistently. By creating this structure, we were able to keep the team’s momentum as we executed project work that impacted every corner of the supply chain network. We also worked closely with the team’s SMEs to further identify, evaluate, and resolve day-to-day execution complexities and unexpected issues. We were hands-on from beginning to end to make sure we delivered results that exceeded the expectations set at the beginning of the initiative.

Results

Our due diligence and strategic project execution resulted in a $150M investment portfolio that drove $50MM in annual ongoing net savings.