Create an adaptable, viable business
Rising costs, evolving technology and labor shortages — for manufacturers, navigating these challenges and an ever-changing industry can make it difficult to realize your vision of success.
To achieve your business objectives, you need to keep your people, processes and technology aligned and working optimally. And Wipfli can help, supporting you in identifying the root causes of your biggest barriers to growth and deploying effective strategies.
Our manufacturing strategy and operations services help you stay equipped to execute change, transform operations and achieve long-term success.
Why Wipfli
Wipfli brings deep industry experience to collaborating with your company. We’ve lived your pain points, and we’re ready to apply a hands-on approach and proven solutions to help you solve them.
We provide a full range of strategy facilitation and process improvement services with solutions that cover every aspect of manufacturing, from your shop floor operations to sales strategy.
How we help
Wipfli’s strategy facilitators help your manufacturing business stay future-ready, applying our industry experience and knowledge of your company’s needs to address your critical concerns.
With proven processes and methodologies, we help you create an actionable plan that drives results. And our services go beyond the plan to provide holistic alignment that helps ensure your organization stays unified in achieving your objectives.
We can help you leverage strategy in three key areas:
- Business planning processes
- Stress testing
- Sales process development
Wipfli’s assessment services provide an accessible, effective way to evaluate your company and establish external and internal benchmarks.
We take the results of our annual assessments — conducted in multiple sectors, from precision machining to tool and die — and our analysis of your organization and turn them into actionable insights for your improvement.
We also offer virtual assessments that help better position your company for short-term and long-term success by identifying your gaps, opportunities and relevant best practices.
Access the data and custom research you need to shape an effective strategy with Wipfli’s benchmarking services.
Each quarter, we use tools to collect and analyze data from over 150 companies in various sectors, including molding, stamping, die casting and precision machining. We then apply that data to help your company establish appropriate benchmarks for business and operations.
Our tools include:
- Commodity research
- Market research
- Customer insights
- Forecast information
- Competitor research
- Equipment and technology research
- Manufacturing site analysis
- Key metrics benchmarking
Achieving operational excellence requires you to align your people, processes and technology with delivering value and profitability. Wipfli can help you maintain that alignment by looking past your day-to-day challenges to identify sustainable solutions.
Our operational excellence services include support for:
- Analyzing your operations and providing relevant benchmarking, best practices and actionable recommendations.
- Helping you leverage data so that you can drive operational efficiencies.
- Supporting your implementation of the right software and processes.
Wipfli’s job costing services can help you gain a complete picture of costs while keeping them aligned with both pricing and profitability.
We empower your organization to grow with analysis and guidance on your current processes and recommendations tailored to your specific needs. With our services, you can better understand where you’re profitable and the changes needed to increase margins.
Our team
Laurie Harbour
Laurie Harbour is a principal with more than 35 years of manufacturing and consulting experience. Prior to joining Wipfli, she was the co-owner of Harbour Results, Inc., and has spent her career helping clients develop strategies, improve operations, reduce risk and optimize business performance. Clients benefit from Laurie’s ability to work with leadership teams to assess the current state of their business and provide strategic and operation recommendations for improvement.
Scott Walton
Scott Walton is a partner with more than 35 years of manufacturing and consulting experience. Previously the co-owner of Harbour Results, Inc., he has spent his career helping strengthen the North American manufacturing industry through strategic and operational improvements and risk reduction. His experience in strategic planning, operations management, lean manufacturing, finance and supply chain management enables him to help clients navigate challenging business environments. Scott has expertise in restructuring businesses with a focus on quickly diagnosing issues and developing a turnaround plan to drive profitability.
Mike Devereux, CPA, CMP
Mike Devereux has identified millions of dollars in tax incentives for manufacturing clients, led hundreds of research and development (R&D) tax credit study engagements and demonstrated leadership and exceptional judgment in the tax structuring of various acquisitions. He speaks nationally to various professional and industry trade organizations and associations about opportunities to reduce federal and state tax liabilities and has written dozens of articles for trade publications.
Mark Stevens
Mark brings his clients the experience and skills developed through working more than 28 years in technology consulting. From software selection to continuous improvement programs, Mark has guided local, national, and international companies through all facets of business strategic planning, process improvement, operational excellence, and technology integration. He is passionate about helping clients become more customer-effective and operationally efficient.
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Mastering manufacturing excellence with benchmarking
Learn how to benchmark your manufacturing business to stay ahead of the competition.
