Operational Excellence

USCCG’s approach to operational excellence is based on the concept of integration. We combine the best of proven and emerging methodologies with the appropriate technology to create and deliver a fully integrated solution that’s right for our clients. We can focus on solving an immediate problem or re-orient an entire organization long-term by instilling in it a culture of continuous improvement.

The Improvement Continuum
We are flexible and very creative in our approach to problem-solving. We can work within a business unit or across several business units simultaneously to accelerate change. We can work at the point of execution to achieve short-term business process improvement while setting the stage for the continuous improvement process. Or, once process changes have been implemented, we can train and equip client personnel to ensure that operational and/or financial gains are sustainable. Our approach can be applied at any point along the improvement continuum.

Working Capital
We understand and appreciate the importance of cash and cash management in contemporary business management, which is why we focus on five key areas of opportunity:

1. Increasing supply chain velocity (order to cash) and overall enterprise throughput;
2. Eliminating unnecessary or irrelevant products and services;
3. Reducing work-in-process and finished goods inventories (matching production with demand);
4. Improving throughput, yields, and asset utilization; and
5. Optimizing delivery processes (superior customer service).

Under the general category of operational excellence, we offer the following services on a stand-alone basis or integrated, as appropriate, into a comprehensive supply chain solution.

USCCG is very experienced in the area of capacity resource planning and has developed a suite of automated business solutions to facilitate much of the process. We identify equipment capacities necessary to meet projected demand; perform long-range material requirements planning; provide rough cut (family-level) and detailed (line item-level) planning; and summarize labor hour requirements by skill set and work area.

Our services include:

• Assessing current performance against standards
• Processing optimization
• Developing internal work-to-time benchmarks
• Customizing and installing enabling software
• Training and facilitation

USCCG has had a great deal of experience working with design and engineering firms, particularly in the defense industry. We reduce engineering process cycle times; drawing errors and iterations throughout the design process; and man-hours required and engineering backlogs. We improve systems and procedural discipline.

Our services include:

• Capacity planning
• Planning and scheduling
• Process mapping
• Project management
• Quality improvement
• Strategic sourcing
• Supervisor training and facilitation
• Systems and procedural reviews

USCCG has developed solid credentials in the area of distribution over several years. We improve space and equipment utilization; increase cases loaded or unloaded per man hour; improve inventory location accuracy; reduce empty forklift travel; reduce labor costs; reduce damage/loss; improve picking rates; improve staging; reduce energy costs; improve ROA; and improve customer service.

Our services include:

• ABC analysis
• Dock operations reviews
• Management skills development
• Process flow optimization
• Process mapping
• Review order picking and staging
• Route planning and load sequencing
• Warehouse utilization studies

Many of our clients already have internal improvement initiatives underway and engage us to assess, accelerate, assist, or otherwise augment them. We provide training, facilitation, know-how, and resources for implementation to drive results; educational training, certification, and facilitation services for companies that want to develop internal capabilities; supplemental resources for project design and management; tools that can be customized and implemented to address specific problems or opportunities; and help clients assess existing production and distribution assets to reduce cost and/or improve service.

Our services include:

• Automated solutions
• Blended learning solutions
• Certification
• Consolidation and rationalization
• Distance learning
• Full intervention
• Performance auditing and assessment
• Supervisory and management skills development
• Targeted support
• Training and facilitation

USCCG has been implementing enterprise solutions for years. We help clients plan and control the use of resources needed to take, make, ship, and account for customer orders; and optimize existing workforce, processes, and assets.

Our services include:

• Automated business solutions
• Data definition, collection, analysis, and distribution
• Inventory management
• Linking ERP systems to the shop floor
• Linking sales forecasts to materials ordering and production scheduling
• Scheduling work crews and materials
• Shop floor reporting and control
• Time-phased scheduling

USCCG has been actively engaged in helping clients better manage their inventories for over three decades. We perform ABC analysis of inventory on-hand to identify opportunities to reduce overall inventory based on volume, turns, margins and operational complexity. We create linkage between individual line item decisions and the desired aggregate inventory; improve inventory record accuracy; improve inventory turns; recover capital by converting excess inventory into cash; minimize or eliminate the need for ’physical’ inventorying; reduce cycle time and associated WIP inventory; optimize inventory to minimize cost; and optimize inventory investment to maximum customer service.

Out services include:

• ABC analysis
• Assistance in product rationalization
• Capacity planning
• Confirming planning and buying parameters
• Determining economic order quantity (EOQ)
• Enhancing procurement systems
• Establishing reorder points (ROP)
• Establishing reorder quantity (ROQ)
• Forecastinging and demand management
• Improving floor predictability
• Implementing Kanban systems
• Installing pull systems
• Inventory stratification and management
• Management skills development
• Optimizing ERP/DRP/MPS/MRP
• Process flow optimization
• Recovery of excess stock
• Sales and operations planning

USCCG has been practicing Lean operations since its founding in 1968. We simplify workflows and processes; improve resource utilization; install shop floor systems; create and install visual management aides; eliminate nonvalue-added activities; establish optimal performance standards; install measurement and management systems; install inventory management and control systems; improve supervisory and management skills; and foster continuous improvement.

Our services include:

• ABC analysis
• Continuous flow and facility layout
• Culture and change management
• Improvement prototyping
• Lean procurement and supply chain
• Line balancing
• Loss point analysis
• Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP)
• Process mapping and improvement
• Project management
• Pull systems
• Root cause analysis
• Quality planning, control, and improvement
• Training and skills development
• Workflow and cell design

USCCG has been a leading proponent of world class maintenance management practices for many years, working across a great many industries to improve up time, increase mean time between failure, and reduce overall maintenance cost. We reduce direct costs; improve reliability of operating units and; improve predictability of maintenance cycle; define/improve role of operations in maintaining production units; upgrade reporting tools used throughout an operation.

Our services include:

• Contract review and administration
• Maintenance crewing
• MRO inventory
• Outsourcing
• Overtime reduction
• Parameter analysis
• Predictive maintenance
• Preventive maintenance
• Productive maintenance
• Reliability centered maintenance
• Scheduling
• Shop floor controls
• World class maintenance management

A full Manufacturing Execution System (MES) enhances process performance through automated data collection, analysis, decision making, and returning corrective action signals to the equipment. A total MES installation is often capital intensive and long in duration. LINCS can complement our client’s efforts when implementing an MES. It is highly scalable and rapidly implemented, driving savings sooner to potentially fund some of the MES requirements.

Our services include:

• Contract review and administration
• Maintenance crewing
• MRO inventory
• Outsourcing
• Overtime reduction
• Parameter analysis
• Predictive maintenance
• Preventive maintenance
• Productive maintenance
• Reliability centered maintenance
• Scheduling
• Shop floor controls
• World class maintenance management

USCCG has been assisting clients in planning and scheduling for decades. We help insure an uninterrupted production process; help you avoid resource conflicts; help you make more productive use of your equipment, people, and process resources.

Our services include:

• Capacity resource planning
• Demand planning
• Inventory planning
• Finite planning and scheduling
• Forecasting
• Sales and operations planning
• Shop floor scheduling
• Time-phased scheduling
• Transactional activity scheduling

USCCG offers a wide variety of project management services for clients that lack sufficiently skilled internal resources, time, or both. We can assist with project definition, organization, and oversight; resource identification and loading; goal setting and definition of success factors; and prioritization and decision-making. We can lay out critical paths and milestones and help define group and individual deliverables.

Our services include:

• Planning and scheduling
• Expense forecasting, budgeting, reporting, and reconciliation
• Training and facilitation
• Provide supplemental resources
• Financial modeling and analysis

USCCG has worked in the area of quality improvement for the past two decades and has trained and certified Six Sigma, quality management, quality engineering, and quality auditing experts on staff to help your company get to the next level. We simplify work processes and improve process controls; train, develop, deploy, and facilitate quality improvement teams; establish meaningful performance standards and supporting measurement and management systems; link measurement, data, and a scientific approach to decision making; assess, organize, lead, facilitate, and augment Quality Management and Six Sigma-based improvement initiatives.

Six Sigma Assessment PDF

Our services include:

• Cost of quality
• Management training and skills development
• Process capability analysis and statistical process control (SPC)
• Process failure mode and effects analysis
• Quality control
• Quality function deployment
• Quality system audits
• Quality systems development and implementation
• Six Sigma auditing and readiness assessment
• Six Sigma training, certification, and facilitation

USCCG has been working for years to help clients integrate their plans for new and existing products with management of their supply chain to effectively balance supply and demand on a regular and formal basis. We help establish appropriate sales targets, inventory levels, and production rates for various levels of forecast market demand; provide automated production planning solutions; recommend third party planning systems and services; help focus critical resources on common, specific, and measurable objectives; optimize use of current planning systems, tools, and software; design and implement concise reporting structures as decision support systems; and link ERP systems to the shop floor via detailed time-phased scheduling. As a result, you’ll be able to smooth out your operation from front to back and avoid the all-too-common problems of material shortages, excessive inventories, manufacturing overtime, and customer dissatisfaction.

Sales and Operations Planning System PDF

Our services include:

• Capacity planning
• Coordination of S and OP planning cycle
• Demand management
• Forecasting
• Supply management

USCCG’s experience in shop floor control goes all the way back to its founding in 1968. We define key performance metrics; install measurement systems to collect and analyze data; develop optimal performance standards and benchmarks; provide actionable, real-time information to supervisors and operators to help keep them on schedule; reinforce production targets through the use of visual management techniques; assist with problem diagnosis and resolution; and conduct yield loss point analysis.

Our services include:

• Automated solutions
• Data collection and analysis
• Process control systems
• Process mapping
• Training and facilitation
• Yield management

USCCG has a great deal of experience when it comes to procuring materials, supplies, and services. We analyze your current supply chain to identify and quantify opportunities to reduce total cost; recommend, design, and develop best practice supply chain management processes to improve efficiency and reduce total costs; improve skills of professional staff and; institutionalize best practice procedures with technology.

Our services include:

• Cost modeling
• Expenditure analysis
• Organizational development
• Policy and procedure development
• Process flow analysis
• Process re-engineering
• Project management
• Skills assessment and training
• Strategic sourcing
• Supplier certification
• Systems analysis

USCCG is an active member of The Supply Chain Council and has been engaged in supply chain optimization for many years. (For more information visit The Supply Chain Council website.) We help clients rationalize supply chain requirements; optimize cycle and lead times across the supply chain; implement systems and processes to help manage and control work; develop effective linkages between each of the supply chain nodes; improve customer service; and develop meaningful metrics.

Our services include:

• Automated solutions
• Capacity, distribution, and freight rationalization
• Customer order entry
• Demand management
• Global supply chain metrics
• Greenfield and brownfield expansion and consolidation simulations
• Implementation of SCOR model
• Internal/external value stream mapping
• Inventory management
• Logistics and distribution networks
• Optimization of plant operations
• Product line and customer rationalization
• Purchasing cost reduction modeling
• Sales and operations planning
• Sales forecasting
• Spend management analysis and optimization
• Strategic sourcing
• Supplier certification and quality validation

USCCG has been actively involved in training and facilitation for many years. We now have our own M-Abler blended learning solution anchored by a proprietary desktop learning system.

M-Abler® PDF

We train, educate, and facilitate client workforces; orient, train, equip, and transition client companies into a culture of continuous improvement; develop supervisory and management skills; leverage technology for professional growth and development and; teach and/or implement Six Sigma and Lean Operations methodologies.

Our services include:

• Blended learning solutions
• Certification
• Classroom instruction
• Cross training
• Distance learning
• Facilitation
• Support of self-directed work teams