Twenty-five years on factory floors has taught me that the waste owners can see — overtime, scrap, warranty claims — is rarely the waste killing the business. The real damage hides in the spaces between people, processes, and decisions made on autopilot.
When I walk into a plant, I'm not looking for what's broken. I'm looking for what's been normalized.
Five disciplines. One transferable operation.
Five disciplines, every engagement
- Flow. Where time and material actually go versus where you think they go. Most owners are off by a factor of two on at least one of those numbers.
- Culture. Why your best people leave and your problem people stay. Tenure looks like loyalty until you measure capability.
- Daily management. The hour between 7 and 8am decides the day. Most plants miss it — there's no tier huddle, no visual KPI, no cadence. The day runs on whatever crisis hits first.
- Leadership. Building benches so the operation doesn't depend on three irreplaceable people. Heroes are flattering. They're also liabilities.
- Systems. Making the business transferable, whether the next stop is succession, sale, or just a long weekend without your phone.
The point isn't a 60-page diagnostic. The point is to leave the operation stronger, more predictable, and less dependent on me — or any single person.
If you're an Ontario or Quebec manufacturer feeling the squeeze in 2026, twenty minutes costs nothing.
Two to three weeks on your floor.
A full dependency map and decision-rights gap analysis, turned into a 90-day fix plan. Fixed-scope — contact us for pricing details.
See the Owner Dependency Audit