One framework, four phases, run in order. Diagnostics, stabilization, optimization, automation — built inside IKEA, Ford and Magna before the practice was founded, and applied across nineteen sectors since. Skip a phase and the next one fails, quietly, a quarter later.
Inputs on the left — your operation as it is. The four phases in the middle, in order, never out of it. Outputs on the right — a P&L and a team that can hold the line. Skip a phase and the next two get more expensive.
The order is the framework, not a menu. Most engagements stop after diagnostics for a quarter — the diagnosis itself is often enough to change the P&L.
Two weeks measuring where the operation is bleeding margin, time, or trust. Process and flow mapping with cycle time, quality-cost analysis on rework, scrap and returns, and a single ranked report of where the margin actually goes.
Stop the bleed before any change is asked of the team. Standard work for the top five recurring tasks, quality gates at the handoffs that fail most often, and a baseline the rest of the work can depend on.
Lean and quality-management tools applied where the diagnostics said it would matter — not everywhere. Bottleneck removal with measured before/after, decision rights and escalation rules written down. Most engagements pay for themselves here.
Hand the boring parts to a system. Only what survived the prior three phases is worth automating. Tooling architecture from spreadsheet to system, and a team that keeps it running after we leave.
The chart isn't a promise — it's the shape we measure when the order is run. A flat baseline through stabilization, a step at optimization, a second step when automation lands. Built from cumulative results across nineteen sectors.
Indicative shape, not a guarantee. Real engagements vary by sector, by phase order discipline, and by what the diagnosis surfaces in the first two weeks.
Three cases out of nineteen sectors. The shape is the same: a phase 01 that surprised the room, a phase 03 that paid for the engagement, a phase 04 the team kept running after we left.
A partner-time firm leaking margin between intake, matter ledger and re-engagement after close. Diagnosis found four of the leaks were intake-side; the optimization wave moved them inside two weeks.
Injection floor with the founder approving every changeover. Diagnostics ranked changeover and scrap above cycle time. Stabilization put standard work on changeovers; optimization removed the founder from the loop.
Red ocean: a great crew was not a moat. We built the sales floor that closed on value, set the retention model, and pointed AI cold-calling at the calendar. The founder stopped being the dispatcher.
One framework, four shapes on the ground. Each vertical is the same diagnostic discipline pointed at a different part of the operation.
Every engagement starts with the same hour. The diagnosis tells us, and tells you, the right shape from there.
One hour, one-on-one, on one specific problem. Written summary the same day. Credited toward any further engagement.
Root-cause analysis with the measured cost of the loss. Recommended phase and scope, in writing.
Defined objective, defined endpoint. Measured before/after on the agreed metric. Profit lift typically visible inside two to four weeks.