Integrated manufacturing case study
Four disciplines.
One business problem.
A growing manufacturer did not have separate technology, operations, finance, and supply-chain problems. It had one connected performance problem showing up in four different places.
$32M Annual revenue
26% Gross margin
$7.1M Inventory
81% On-time delivery
The situation
Revenue grew. Performance did not.
The manufacturer grew from approximately $25 million to $32 million in revenue over three years, but gross margin fell from 31% to 26%. Inventory climbed by $2.3 million, expedited freight reached roughly $420,000 annually, overtime became routine, and delivery performance declined.
Leadership initially treated each symptom independently. The integrated assessment showed that unreliable data, reactive purchasing, unstable scheduling, unclear economics, and fragmented accountability were reinforcing one another.
The integrated diagnosis
One operating system viewed through four expert lenses.
Each discipline owned a distinct part of the work while sharing the same facts, priorities, and performance agenda.
S
Our supply chain experts
Diagnosed total landed cost, supplier performance, sourcing risk, purchasing discipline, demand signals, and inventory policy.
- Segment inventory by value, demand behavior, and criticality
- Establish supplier scorecards and source strategies
- Reset lead times, safety stock, MOQs, and replenishment rules
- Target premium freight, emergency buys, and excess stock
O
Our operational experts
Connected throughput, capacity, labor, scheduling, and management discipline to the company’s delivery and scalability problems.
- Identify the true production constraint
- Reduce schedule overrides, changeovers, queues, and rework
- Establish a common executive operating rhythm
- Assign KPI ownership and corrective actions
F
Our financial experts
Translated operating instability into margin, cash-flow, customer-profitability, and investment priorities.
- Expose margin leakage below the consolidated income statement
- Measure customer, product, and cost-to-serve economics
- Set working-capital and cash-flow targets
- Build rolling forecasts and quantified business cases
T
Our technology experts
Determined where systems, data, integrations, cybersecurity, and manual workflows were constraining business performance.
- Clarify systems of record and master-data ownership
- Connect ERP, planning, reporting, and workflow data
- Automate targeted reports, alerts, and approvals
- Build a security, continuity, and investment roadmap
The first 90 days
Visibility first. Stability next. Discipline that lasts.
Establish visibility
Validate financial and operating data, map system and process handoffs, baseline suppliers and inventory, identify the production constraint, quantify margin leakage, and launch one executive scorecard.
Stabilize performance
Reset priority inventory parameters, address supplier gaps, strengthen access and recovery controls, simplify critical reporting, implement schedule and overtime controls, and launch margin-recovery actions.
Institutionalize discipline
Assign KPI owners, establish supplier reviews and management cadence, implement dashboards and selected automations, create forecasting routines, and approve an integrated 12-month roadmap.
Illustrative value
A coordinated agenda creates value across the whole business.
The following outcomes are planning targets derived from the supplied illustrative case materials. They are hypotheses to validate against transaction-level data and are not additive by default because several initiatives overlap.
| Measure | Starting point | Illustrative 12-month target |
|---|---|---|
| Gross margin | 26% | 30% |
| EBITDA margin | 6% | 10.5% |
| Inventory | $7.1M | $5.4M |
| On-time delivery | 81% | 95% |
| Supplier on-time delivery | 84% | 96% |
| Expedited freight | $420K | $140K |
| Targeted report preparation | Multiple manual spreadsheets | 50–80% reduction |
| Working capital | Cash trapped in excess inventory | $1.0M–$1.7M potential release |
The connected advantage
The answer was not another isolated project.
The company needed one operating truth, one prioritized improvement agenda, and leaders who could connect decisions across departmental boundaries. The work aligned supply reliability, operating discipline, financial economics, and enabling technology around the same measurable outcomes.
That is the Core Alliance model: diagnose the complete system, quantify what matters, and help the management team execute the right work in the right order.
Discuss your business prioritiesThis case study is an illustrative composite created to demonstrate an integrated engagement. Company details are fictionalized, projected outcomes require validation, and actual results vary.