Manufacturing · Operational Excellence
31%
Production Cost Reduction
+18pts
OEE Improvement
14 months
Engagement Duration
A family-owned manufacturer of precision components with three facilities across New England was facing mounting pressure from overseas competition and rising input costs. Despite strong engineering capabilities and a loyal customer base, the company's production costs had grown 22% over five years while margins had compressed from 18% to 11%. Leadership recognized the need for fundamental operational change but lacked the internal expertise to design and execute a transformation at scale.
Nexus deployed a cross-functional team of operations, technology, and change management specialists. We began with a comprehensive diagnostic across all three facilities — mapping every production process, analyzing machine utilization data, interviewing frontline workers and supervisors, and benchmarking performance against industry peers. The diagnostic revealed significant opportunities in setup time reduction, quality defect rates, and inventory management. We designed a phased lean transformation program, beginning with a pilot facility before rolling out to the broader organization. Critically, we invested heavily in frontline capability building — training over 120 employees in lean principles and establishing an internal continuous improvement team that could sustain the gains after our engagement concluded.
Over 14 months, the company achieved a 31% reduction in production costs, an 18-point improvement in Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), and a 44% reduction in quality defect rates. Gross margins recovered to 17.2% — nearly pre-compression levels — while the company simultaneously reduced lead times by 26%, improving customer satisfaction scores to their highest level in a decade. The internal CI team established during the engagement has continued to drive improvements, delivering an additional $1.2M in annualized savings in the 12 months following our engagement.