Delivering business turnaround
The issue
- The UK business of a global construction materials manufacturer had been losing money for several years due to inefficient operations and declining sales in an industry sector experiencing extremely challenging times.
- A full business review and improvement plan were required to stabilise the business and address the financial performance.
- Significant cost reduction efforts had already been made to offset the declining sales and lower margins, but the business was continuing to lose money.
- Sales lacked the basic tools and capabilities to compete effectively and operations were poorly managed resulting in over-production, an inefficient organisation and poor working practices.
- The leadership team was highly dysfunctional and lacked the capability to define and execute a plan to address the situation.
Solution
- Undertook a full situational analysis of the business operations and identified changes required to reverse the performance trend
- A comprehensive change programme was designed and implemented with the full involvement of the business management team
- Recognising that the current actions were primarily to address the initial objective of eliminating the business losses, a parallel stream of work focused on the market and development of the future strategy for the business
- This dovetailed with the reorganisation of the commercial functions and outlined the business’s future journey to go beyond a break-even situation and achieve acceptable returns
The results
- The programme had a significant impact on the business across all areas of the value chain and delivered a sustainable bottom-line improvement of over £5m p.a in 12 months.
- In addition to the delivered cost optimisation actions the re-focusing and capability development work with the sales team secured a contract renewal with three principal customers and the acquisition of a new major account and stemmed the loss of any further business.
- The new ways of working that focus on using sound management information to run the business and to action issues have taken root across the organisation. Decision making improved and continuous improvement is becoming established.
- The Group Executive sees the step change in performance that was achieved in the timeframe as the most successful intervention of its kind across the portfolio in recent years.
An award-winning team
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Applying lean principles to a deliver a step change in performance in a construction environment
The issue
- Over a year behind plan due to technical difficulties and the inability to establish an effective delivery model
- Significant efforts were made to find a workable engineering solution but continuing to fail in meeting planned delivery cycle times
- Accruing significant non-recoverable costs on extending leases of expensive marine engineering plant
- Accepted reality that most delays were either due to weather or one-off events and therefore non-addressable
- Reliant on experienced agents, managers and foremen to manage communication without the need for much structure or formality
- The aim was to achieve a repeatable 14-day ‘production’ cycle, from a starting point of 19 days as the demonstrated best achievement
Solution
Working with the project team to identify and implement:
- An optimal production process with defined task times against which the project could plan, execute and measure performance
- Introduction of cross-functional short-range planning discipline to improve visibility and reduce the instances of unplanned stoppages through poor communication and lack of coordination
- Strengthening the cascade communications to the front-line teams to ensure the right plan was being executed
- Prioritisation of the process improvement pipeline to accelerate the implementation of the highest impact solutions
- Establishing adherence to a standard process and course-correcting back to the agreed sequence if unplanned events caused the deviation
- Previously each cycle had effectively been ‘bespoke’
- Using close monitoring to highlight avoidable downtime and to identify operational fixes, e.g deck layout standardisation
The results
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Cycle time was compressed to less than the on-target 14-day sequence on a sustained basis, and as low as 10 days, with associated cost savings of ~£0.5m per cycle.
Having the Curzon team ‘embedded’ within the project proved effective in understanding the complexities and challenges of the operating environment. Pragmatic and tailored interventions and a ‘test and learn’ approach encouraged adoption and ownership.
An award-winning team
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Business performance turnaround for a multi-country division of a global building products group
The issue
- LATAM division of a €3bn global construction product manufacturing & distribution group
- Country-based business units in 14 geographies from Mexico to Chile with 3,500 staff generating revenues of €400m
- A sustained period of under-performance with operating margins at sub-3% making it the worst-performing division in the Group
- Divisional layer not adding any value with local businesses being left to operate independently, some with more success than others
- An extended analytical diagnostic by a global consulting firm had established the scale of the problem, but no credible and accepted plan to address the issues had emerged
- The need was for pragmatic help to make change happen with the full buy-in of local management
Solution
Plan and mobilise stage
- Confirm the scale of the improvement opportunity
- Agree targets and align with budgets to have one set of numbers
- Create a plan and a governance model to balance top-down coordination with full engagement from the business units
Delivery stage
- Initial focus on four of the largest markets where impact potential was greatest
- Reduction in margin leakage through pricing optimisation, product mix & discount control
- Introduction of operational excellence basics across manufacturing facilities
- Inventory optimisation, including clean-up of obsolete and slow-movers
- Reduction of corporate overhead layer and leverage of shared service centre to reduce in-country costs
- Capability development of management and teams across all disciplines
The results
- The Division was transformed from worst to best performer in the Group within 12 months
- Operating margin tripled and accrued benefits delivered were 45% above the programme target
- Working capital was reduced by €25m
- The change management effort involved over 1,000 staff across all functions and businesses
- Awarded ‘Best International Project’ by the UK Management Consultancies Association
- Curzon entered a risk-reward commercial arrangement on benefits delivered
We wanted a step change in performance, done in a way that would build capability to make it sustainable… the results speak for themselves. – Divisional CEO
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Lean value chain analysis and design for global precision engineering products leader in aerospace industry
The issue
- A complex multi-stage casting, machining and coating operation manufacturing precision components for the aerospace industry
- Underperforming organisation and low levels of ownership for improvement
- Extremely low velocity through the process, with poor yields and excessive scrap
- High inventories of work in progress and finished goods
- Production measures encouraging over-production
- Silo mentality in operations exacerbating the WIP situation
- Disaffected workforce with little interest in driving continuous improvement and no effective performance management in place
Solution
- Analyse the current situation to articulate the operational improvement potential (yield uplift and inventory reduction)
- Create the business case for change (P&L and cash impact)
- Design a pilot to create an integrated supply chain for the largest volume product including suppliers and JV partners
- Detail design of a pull model and elimination of WIP stages along the entire supply chain
- Re-design of the layout and organisation to separate ‘dirty’ and ‘clean’ operations to reduce rework
- Launch of a continuous improvement approach within the shop floor to tackle scrap, rework and productivity issues
- Design and introduction of a cascaded performance management framework
The results
- 40% reduction in inventory identified through WIP elimination
- The feasibility of a 50% reduction in production lead time confirmed
- 10 percentage-point improvement in yield performance from closer process control
- Plan to deliver £5m savings in-year agreed
- Changes to ways of working implemented in pilot cells with Lean work-flow approach trialled
- Programme of Lean training and continuous improvement projects implemented
- New KPIs are being used to drive the performance of the value chain in place of traditional cost absorption metrics
An award-winning team
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Building organisational capability to drive rapid performance improvement
The issue
- Curzon Consulting were initially engaged to define the programme efficiencies of a public body with a target of £302m for the current investment period
- Alignment of financial targets and scope at scheme level enabled us to provide assurance that the programme will succeed
- It also revealed that there were some critical underlying issues around people and processes that needed practical solutions
- Project configuration and change control were not historically managed well across the programme; project baselines were not agreed/recognised, and redesign often occurred
- There was an embedded Process Compliance culture. People were more concerned on outputs and checklist completion than project outcomes and performance
- There was inconsistency in capabilities and performance among the PM community. Projects seemed to follow contractor’s agenda rather than the client’s
- Project and programme performance was poor and in general all projects were over budget and running behind schedule, costing millions to the Programme
What we did
- Assessment of the management capability to implement change and mobilise the workforce
- Analysis and prioritisation of the project management capability gaps for current and future operating model
- Project lifecycle process mapping to understand gaps, levers and weak points
- Communication of spend profiles to focus on project high cost and critical path activities
- Reinforcement of the role of the PM in the operating model and the support available from specialist functions
- Development of an on-the-job training approach to deliver immediate results and simultaneously start to address the capability challenges for long term results
- Focus on people behaviours around process adherence and promote and install an intense focus on project performance to achieve the Programme’s objectives
- Set performance indicators that were aligned towards outcomes, rather than outputs, to bring performance visibility
The results
- Established a holistic view for an integrated project configuration and control framework. Programme has visibility on project progress and Project Manager development
- Increased alignment to project configuration and adherence to the baseline
- Created and installed a clear set of impactful project cost, schedule and risk related metrics. These are now being used for project performance management
- Improved forecast stability and reduced risk exposure
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Developing multiple pathways and identifying over £16m cost savings at a major health insurer
The issue
- Pressure to increase efficiency in their claims due to rising medical costs
- Large variation in costs between suppliers and across the UK
- Lack of structured routing for members to effective treatments and cost efficient providers across hospitals, clinics or doctors
- Poor cost control with growing pressure to tackle medical costs due to rising claims and pressure on margins
- Difficulty negotiating cost reductions with hospitals, and huge number of suppliers (including doctors) to manage
What we did
- Initial project to identify opportunities for cost reduction for specific saving target (£16 million in year)
– Developed and prioritised 14 opportunities
– Integrated milestone plans to achieve savings that year - Second phase project to extent treatment pathway opportunity (MSK) and develop new treatment pathways
– Identified possible treatment pathways in major medical treatment areas
– Developed and communicated a new analytical methodology to understand spend variance, behaviour across specialists, by hospital and pathway
– Collaborated with medical experts to develop care journeys to triage, treat and follow up
– Business cases developed to support cost effective pathways roll out
The results
- £16 million in cost savings in year identified and resource planning completed to ensure in year delivery
- Identified a solid saving of up to £36 million cumulatively over three years via medical pathways
- Trained out how to use new analytical methodology
- Delivered relevant and valuable research (internal / external) to underpin treatment pathways including medical studies, historic analysis and case studies of implementation
What our clients say
“As a result of Curzon’s support a strategic and digital leap has been made in how we manage the entire asset lifecycle to transform our Developer Service experience. This is a programme and a product that sets a new benchmark within the industry.”
Jason Tucker
Director of Alliances & Integrated Supply Chain, Anglian Water
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Increasing patient satisfaction through orthopaedic Enhanced Recovery Programme
The issue
- Reimbursements – Operational and commercial risk transferred from insurer to provider via fixed reimbursements
- Pain – 45%+ patients stated moderate to severe pain within 48 hours of surgery, delaying recovery
- Mobility – Physiotherapy started late usually within 24-48 hours post surgery causing delay in mobility
- Length of stay – 4-6-day length of stay resulting in marginal clinical benefit, unnecessary cost and higher infection risk
What we did
- Established one multidisciplinary team
- Developed Evidence-Based Enhanced Recovery Programme (ERP)
- Established ERP training programme
- Designed and implemented pilot ERP programme (ERP)
The results
- Reduced pain scores by 45%
- Decreased mobility times by 65%
- Shortened hospital stays by 43%
- Reduced hospital cost by 20%
- Increased patient satisfaction by 37%
An award-winning team
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Reducing 30 day re-admissions by leveraging patient remote monitoring solution
The issue
- Colorectal surgery (related to cancer) accounted for 27% of the total case mix for a large healthcare system
- Colorectal surgery department noticed a steady increase in the number of patients returning back to the Emergency Room (ER) for non-urgent issues over a 24-month period
- 30-day readmission rates were significantly above the national average
- Based on an initial internal assessment, the hospital management and colorectal surgery department hypothesized an issue with the patient discharge process
- Established a cross-functional team to perform a root-cause analysis of the entire patient journey and flow
- Mapped the entire patient journey and flow and identified a number of improvement opportunities
What we did
- Designed a pilot study to test a new discharge process enabled by technology
- Enrolled 97 patients, focusing on younger more tech savvy profile who were open to self-managing recovery during post-operative phase
- Identified root-causes of readmissions into ER (over 78% non-emergency which could have been avoided if patients were better educated and informed during the discharge process)
- Redesigned the discharge programme with a greater focus on patient self-management enabled by smart technology
- Sent patients electronic reminders to help keep them on-track with recovery milestones
- Established post-discharge daily check-ins to track stoma output, incision photos, pain levels, bowel function, etc.
- Implemented algorithms to flag patient issues and automatically provide feedback to patients on how to self-manage or how and where to find relevant support
- Developed intelligent notifications to automatically notify clinical team members if patient at risk
- Designed and implemented a dashboard with real-time reports and analytics to help the care team understand a patient’s post-operative concerns, trajectory of recovery and ways to improve patient experience
The results
- Delivered a 72% reduction in 30-day re-admissions
- Avoided 7 ER visits which were resolved through triage via telephone consultation or outpatient clinic
- Improved patient satisfaction scores by 24% (compared to baseline pre-launch)
- Based on the success of the programme, supported client to identify other surgical programmes to roll-out similar solution
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Leveraging procurement to increase profitability of orthopaedic services
The issue
- Many suppliers (18+) resulting in reduced spend leverage
- Prosthesis selection based on supplier systems familiarity not generic technical spec
- Large cost variances for similar hip and knee systems from supplier to supplier
- Large amount of “additional” costs associated with instrumentation and loan kits
- Huge variety in ‘same’ type of hip and knee systems (7+ systems for each)
- Too many system variations (75+) resulting in staff needing to be trained on many systems/brands
- Varying published data to support clinical outcomes of implants resulting in low predictability of patent outcomes
- Huge cost-per-procedure variance impacting profitability at Orthopaedic Consultant and Hospital level
- Need to increase profitability
What we did
- Increased spend with fewer, more capable suppliers
- Established patient profiles. Use patient profiles to guide system selection
Linked into project to Care Pathways - Established minimum acceptance of prosthesis outcomes (leveraging ODEP ratings for both hips and knees)
- Established dedicated training for Orthopaedic Consultants and clinical staff
- Renegotiated with partner suppliers based on redistributed business (volumes)
- Established traffic light reporting for Ortho hip and knee (cost and compliance to agreement)
- Established a clinical advisory group to evaluate innovation and agree protocols to be followed by all Orthopaedic Consultants across the Group
The results
- Delivered 22% in annualised savings through volume leverage and brand/system standardisation
- Reduced clinical risk by only allowing 10 or 10* ODEP rated products and eliminating Orthopaedic work at low volume sites
- Increased profitability substantially which allowed the BD teams to improve NHS and PMI contract win rates
- Reduced supplier power (demonstrated appetite and willingness to shift balance of power)
- Improved patient satisfaction and outcomes by channeling more work to Orthopaedic Consultants with higher PROMs scores
- Reduced subjectivity by ensuring system selection based on patient profile
- Standardised length of stays for given procedure and patient profile
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Evaluating structural entity options for a new arm of government transport body
The issue
- Embryonic consulting business established one year ago by a local government body responsible for transport, to monetise and deploy in-house specialist experience
- Consulting business deeply embedded in one of the organisation’s existing holding companies
- Business had not yet established the appropriate frameworks for managing revenue, project delivery, Intellectual Property and assets
- The client wanted to review the optimal entity structure for its Consulting business in order to better drive commerciality
- Strong desire to set up the Consulting business using an entity structure that fostered commerciality and leveraged in-house resources in the most optimal way
- Clear focus on building a profitable revenue funnel, self-financed growth, better IP and asset monetization, capitalisation on tax benefits, simplified and robust governance and transparent risk management
- Aim to start competing for, or partnering with big organisations to, deliver Advisory, IP and Operations & Maintenance contracts
What we did
- Conducted an exhaustive benchmarking exercise to provide the client with insights into how other service utility organisations have established successful Consulting businesses
- Defined a robust set of design principles and considerations for reference throughout the operating model design exercise
- Identified and shortlisted a set of structural options following a complete option evaluation in terms of feasibility and suitability
- Conducted end-to-end scenario testing, using carefully selected in-flight example bids, across the shortlisted structural options
- Refined the final structural model based on outputs of the scenario testing, for proposing to the client’s Finance Committee.
The results
- A benchmarking report, providing a crystallised view of the comparator landscape, including assessment of comparator suitability, and a summary of key insights and recommendations
- A report outlining the full assessment of entity options against a set of robust criteria and the rationale for down-selection
- A recommended structural model, clearly outlining three distinct entity options catering to the distinct requirements of each activity stream
- A high-level timeline illustrating implementation options and a trajectory of maturity
- A concise, crisp report containing key messaging for the Client to socialise to key stakeholders in order to secure Board approval
An award-winning team
