Rising Commodity Costs Negated by Manufacturing Improvements

Business Impact
$45 Million in Manufacturing Improvements Negated Rising Commodity Costs
Stroud helped a multi-billion publicly traded confectionery company drive $45 million in improvement in their manufacturing division. The client and Stroud accomplished this during a substantial supply chain restructuring.
"Stroud's rigorous zero based approach helped us uncover opportunities that were hidden by our traditional analyses. The magnitude of these "hidden" opportunities focused us on stretching for results, and our partnership with Stroud enabled us to make significant bottom line improvements" – Vice President

	Improved Existing Assets' Efficiencies
	By pinpointing and improving the critical bottlenecks in the production line, the client boosted overall plant results. In particular, the team drove big improvements in throughput and material waste.
	Meaningful, Ongoing Savings
	$45 million per year of profit improvement Eight facilities within the company were involved; they drove individual results between $1 million and $15 million
Approach
The Manufacturing Division Did Not Believe this Level of Improvement Was Possible
Although the supply chain initiative mandated that the manufacturing division find a way to produce more profits with less resources, manufacturing believed that there was not sufficient room left to improve, especially with its existing plants and equipment.
Focus on Rapid Results
Stroud helped the client focus on early results to generate savings and build excitement to roll out a broad successful change process. This effort not only recovered the top opportunities, but also transferred lasting continuous improvement skills to the client team.
One Big Success Led to Many More
The team began with a pilot project that aimed to halve the excess material being added into the final product - called 'overweight' on one of the company's largest production lines. Within one month, the team achieved its goal, worth approximately $1 million per year. This sparked a wave of improvement across the company, leading to $45 million in savings.