Heaton Consulting Group
Turn around case study
Situation
An innovator in the design and manufacture of luxury architectural finishes from custom flooring to wall coverings was in the midst of strategic re-positioning for incremental growth and scalability. They found themselves burdened with an inventory that included discontinued and low-volume products, starving the business of the capital to bring in materials for popular high-volume products required to make the transition. Additionally, the warehouse was not set up to support not handle the incoming volume. Add in a sales support team that was inexperienced and lacked firm management. The company realized it needed a very experienced operations executive and reached out to Jim Heaton for support as a fractional Chief Operations Officer.
Jim’s background in turnarounds of troubled company’s and integrations was a perfect fit for the company’s current growth spurt. His track record of turnarounds with zero company enabled him to jump into solving the issues immediately.
Solution
The project was focused on updates and repositioning several operating systems:
Warehouse systems update developed and executed by the warehouse manager and his team
Reorganize and overhaul the Customer Service department and systems
While those were the primary components of the original issues, with his executive experience, Jim also contributed to different areas of the company:
Identified and recruited a CFO and CMO
Supported the development of a product management team
Brought the executive leadership team together to develop the company’s future success
Instituted strategic planning and initiatives, with KPI and ROI reporting
Encouraged the development of middle management
Coached and educated executives, managers, and individual contributors
Results
The company experienced a rapid change initiative under Jim’s leadership.
Inventory turns improved from less than 1 to 3.5 turns/year
The warehouse demonstrated operational capacity 5x greater in one year
Customer Service order entry time declined from 11 minutes to 3.
