How other companies have achieved
breakthrough improvements
CASE STUDIES
How a major project reduced cost by 60% in 10 weeks
Reduced their costs by more than 60% in 10 weeks using Zero-Based Analysis and Variable Analysis
Solving a Food Manufacturer’s Critical Problem
A major food production facility increases throughput by 10% by eliminating their largest source of downtime.
Energy Expansion Achieves Start-up Five Months Sooner
Energy Expansion Achieves Start-up Five Months Sooner
LunchCo* Avoids a Major Product Launch Disaster by Eliminating 95% of Quality Failures
Quality failures threatened a major product launch for LunchCo. After working with countless specialists and spending lots of money to implement their recommendations, the problem persisted. A team facilitated by Stroud used a problem solving approach that rejects guessing - eliminating 95% of product failures and saving the product launch.
A Furniture Company Solves its Business-Threatening OTIF Problem in Less than 6 Weeks
A large customer threatened to leave if FurnitureCo could not increase delivery performance fast. A team facilitated by Stroud increased OTIF to 95+% after finding some key opportunities including changing the planning system configuration and optimizing production workflow and transport. FurnitureCo could now go back to their customer with confidence.
57% Labour Productivity Increase at an Electrical Component Manufacturer
Sales volume had dropped by over 20% across an electric component manufacturer’s largest plant. Stroud facilitated a team that increased labour productivity by 57%. Some of the highlights included: Almost doubling the speed of a key machine; Reducing the man-hours required to operate a critical piece of equipment by a factor of ten; Involving a large section of the workforce in the initiative.
Mine Reduces Tailings Project Capital By Over 40%
Mine Reduces Tailings Project Capital Cost By 45%
Coffee Roaster Halves Saturday Overtime, Revitalizing Employee Morale and Saving $600K/year
Coffee Roaster Halves Saturday Overtime, Revitalizing Employee Morale and Saving $600K/year
New Oil & Gas Facility Offsets Delays by Ramping-up in Half the Time
New Oil & Gas Facility Offsets Delays by Ramping-up in Half the Time
Beyond Value Engineering: 59% Increase in IRR Across 30 Projects
At Stroud, we reject the notion that projects will naturally gravitate toward a definitive optimum of cost, quality, and schedule. We transform projects by focusing on playing offense to find big upside and deliver more value.
Breakthrough 60% Reduction in Sustaining Capital
How an energy major drove a 60% reduction in capital costs by transforming their sustaining pad program, beating even the best-in-class design and benchmarks.
Mine Expansion Avoids $50M in Wasted Capital
Mature mine increased yearly output by 15% while avoiding a over $50M investment in a new processing facility to remain viable post-takeover.
A Clear Understanding Of A Facility’s Problems Uncovered Vast Potential For Improvement
A molded plastics manufacturing company was dealing with major quality issues. We helped increase plant productivity by 15 percentage points in 5 weeks, and established a set of KPIs to help the team prioritize value-adding work.
A Mining Operation Re-Examines Their Problem Solving Approach and Discovers A Simple Solution
The performance of a large ore processing plant was being hampered by a big problem: downstream equipment was frequently fouling up with waste from the flotation cells. We helped eliminate this problem entirely by challenging long-standing assumptions that had been accepted as truths.
Aggressive Footprint Consolidation Made Possible By Step-Change Increase In Throughput
An $8 billion consumer products company was facing intense price pressure due to increased competition from low cost manufacturers. Without significant cost improvements the company faced drastically reduced profits and market share. Stroud helped uncover and prioritize operations improvements across the larger sites and consolidated smaller plants, saving $63 million in labor productivity savings, $17 million raw material savings, and over $100 million in overhead costs.
Chemical Process Output Increased By 80%
Leaders at a bio-refinery were aiming to capitalize on increasing product demand. The trouble was available feed quality was decreasing. Seeing limited opportunity to raise production, the leadership team was concerned that a multi-million dollar equipment upgrade was the only option. Stroud helped the refinery meet increased demand with their existing assets, increasing output by 80% while utilizing lower-grade input feed.
Going Beyond Quality Benchmarks
A leading chemicals manufacturer had successfully driven their operating cost to best-in-class levels within the stringent quality regulations of their product. Continuing cost pressure left plant leadership uncertain how their facility would further reduce cost beyond industry benchmarks while maintaining quality. The team partnered with Stroud to challenge assumptions in their facility, reducing plant-wide labor cost by 8%.
Supply Chain Transformation
One of the world’s largest confectionery companies faced immediate cost pressure from increased commodity prices, making near-term cost savings a necessity. The company partnered with Stroud to radically improve their supply chain performance, starting with a 50% reduction in plant waste over 8 weeks, and continuing on to a 15% increased profitability over the next 18 months.
Growing Manufacturer Increases Output
A food and beverage company was excited about sales growth for one of their products. Leadership knew this growth would soon outpace their facility and were planning a multi-million-dollar capital expansion. But they were also curious whether an alternative existed that could be achieved faster and at a lower cost. Partnering with Stroud, the company was able to increase process throughput by 50% on their existing assets alone.