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Solution

Manufacturing

Manufacturing

Master digital operations and processes to become an Industry 4.0 leader 

Manufacturing

From the boardroom to the shop floor, we can help you improve every facet of your manufacturing operation, tailoring an approach that scales from targeted enhancements to a complete reinvention of your capabilities. Our manufacturing consultants provide the domain expertise, tools, diagnostics, benchmarks, third-party specialists and best practices you need to achieve immediate value today as you build toward your long-term vision. The Bain & Bosch Connected Industry collaboration brings you real-world guidance on Industry 4.0 execution strategies, so you can embrace digitalization faster and more effectively than your competitors. 

 

Your journey to full potential begins with a detailed, clear-eyed assessment of where you stand today. Only Bain offers a Manufacturing Full Potential Diagnostic that provides a standardized approach and proprietary benchmarks that give you a qualitative and quantitative assessment of your starting point.

Available as either a rapid (2-4 days) or comprehensive (4-6 weeks) assessment, our diagnostic assesses four critical facets of manufacturing: supply chain, footprint design, plant performance, and digital/Industry 4.0.

See where you’re strong, where you lag, and what the savings potential can be when you improve specific elements of your performance and capability. Our benchmarking database of 1,000+ plants across a wide ,variety of industries captures today’s most relevant KPIs, allowing you to visualize your current state, spot areas of opportunity and prioritize the actions that will vault you ahead of your competitors.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is ushering in a new era of predictive maintenance, self-optimizing production and a host of other benefits. Companies are harnessing the power of their data in new ways, including the use of AI and machine learning. Workforce training is of paramount importance as manufacturers build the skills they need to exploit new technologies. And virtual and augmented reality and “cobots” are changing how work gets done.

More than half of all companies have taken some steps to incorporate these new digital/Industry 4.0 technologies into their operations, but only 5% have fully tapped their potential. We can help you embed these new technologies into every facet of your operations and explore the possibilities for launching new, disruptive business models based on digital capabilities. We bring broad expertise to Industry 4.0, including our unique partnership with Bosch

Companies that have taken leadership positions in digital operations have achieved impressive results, including a 30% boost to both revenue and customer loyalty, and a 30% reduction in process costs.

Achieve game-changing results with our Lean Full Potential℠ Transformation, a cross-functional approach that accelerates the financial, operational, and strategic trajectory of your business.

We take a “four-wall” approach that will diagnose, design, deliver and orchestrate your transformation. We apply digital technologies across the full breadth of our approach, to reduce complexity and enhance productivity. And we help you maintain focus, change behaviors, mitigate risks, and assign the right people to the right roles to inspire and maintain change. 

We’ll show you how (and why) Lean Transformation needs to be line-led, and we’ll help your teams develop the Agile development skills that get results quickly. 

Our approach gets results fast, encourages buy-in, boosts accountability, and creates a culture committed to driving down costs. 

A well-designed and effectively executed manufacturing strategy accelerates revenue growth, boosts customer satisfaction and advocacy, unlocks savings and cash flow, and minimizes risks while enhancing reliability. But most manufactures settle for incremental improvements rather than bold reinvention.

Leading manufacturers go a different way. They:

  • Define the strategy and make key decisions early
  • Foster continuous improvement through lean principles and an empowered organization
  • Address structural and systems issues aggressively
  • And, use benchmarking, price- and cost-experience curves to gain an outside-in perspective on performance enhancement.

We can help you take an unconstrained view of what’s possible.  Our approach is highly customized to your specific competitive situation, and augmented by a range of best-in-class tools. Some companies will target a complete transformation, while others will pursue discrete initiatives to achieve excellence in select operational areas.

As technology, demographics, government regulations and policies, and a host of other forces alter the manufacturing landscape, and as manufacturers find that they have exhausted the gains that traditional best practices provide, the time is right to take a more ambitious approach to strategy, one that reinvents how you operate—and reignites your growth.

In the race for sustainability in manufacturing, setting emissions targets is just the start. Achieving your corporate goals demands translating them into a practical, plant-level roadmap. When done right, scope 1 and 2 decarbonization not only benefits the environment but also significantly improves your company’s bottom- and top-line performance.

We’ve helped leading companies execute this change across more than a dozen industries. Our experienced teams help you identify and perform the actions that truly matter for scope 1 and 2 carbon footprint reduction. Top-down, our rapid scope 1 and 2 diagnostic pinpoints the most important areas of improvement. We complement this with a bottom-up value creation approach that provides a specific blueprint for decarbonization.

Teaming with a range of trusted partners, including Schneider Electric, we combine strategic expertise with technical engineering skills. The solutions we deliver include strategic and operational business planning, implementation, and orchestration support. Our proven approach has bolstered the sustainability efforts of our clients in a variety of areas, including paper, semiconductors, metals, and oil and gas.

Whatever your industry, we’ll work collaboratively with you to create lasting change. Whether you seek a rapid diagnostic to determine your potential reduction options or an end-to-end transformation that decarbonizes complex operations, our teams can help. We’ll demonstrate how to reduce energy consumption and emissions while boosting profitability and meeting the ever-increasing expectations of your customers, regulators, and investors.

It should be easier than ever for manufacturers to harness the power of advanced analytics. The costs of sensors, cloud computing, and data storage have plummeted, and analytical techniques have advanced markedly. The sum of these trends is the promise of greater productivity, less equipment downtime, and a growing bottom line.

But, as too many companies have learned, achieving such results is much harder than it sounds. That’s because optimizing your plant is about much more than technology. It’s about solving persistent, complex problems that span a range of existing tools and business processes. Today’s factories are an intricate web of assets and people, both of which perform with a stubborn variability.

That’s why we take a more pragmatic approach to process and asset optimization. Our deep experience in analytical modeling and operational strategy lets us design sustainable, scalable solutions that account for your people, processes, and tech investments. We apply advanced analytics across your entire chain of assets, helping you improve the long-term health of your assets and processes.

We believe industrial analytics works best when companies first establish the right business and operations metrics, process controls, and digital enablers. Armed with this big-picture lens, we’ll help you embed a holistic solution. You’ll see how data from across your operations can help you improve product quality, yields, energy efficiency, and organizational agility.

Our multidisciplinary teams bring expertise in everything from IT to automation and more, tailored to your needs. We have a global view, working across mining, utilities, energy, and virtually every other industry. We also understand that analytics won’t help unless your people are fully on board. So we take care to align frontline workers and senior leaders around a digital operating model, and provide the change management expertise that ensures enthusiastic adoption, which ultimately translates into measurable results.

As the use cases for advanced analytics proliferate, and the costs decline, no company can afford to ignore the promise of AA to solve problems and build long-term value. But getting it right is hard. We can help. Whether it’s an effort to improve the performance of a discrete set of assets, or part of a much larger companywide transformation, our team is ready to lead your team to a new competitive edge.

Our Impact in Manufacturing

Our Impact in Manufacturing

Analyst Recognition

Analyst Recognition

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We have been recognized by IDC MarketScape as a leader in worldwide operations improvement consulting services.

Our Client Results

Machinery & Equipment Report 2024

Faster. Smarter. More connected: Machinery races into the digital future

Explore the report

Our Manufacturing Insights

Factory of the Future

Reach your factory’s full potential with our forward-thinking perspectives

Learn more

Our Manufacturing Consulting Experts

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We work with ambitious leaders who want to define the future, not hide from it. Together, we achieve extraordinary outcomes.

Lean Full Potential℠ is a service mark of Bain & Company, Inc.