Swisslog

Series of rapid profit improvements fuel reinvestment in growth for Healthcare Manufacturer

These guys {Inside Consulting} coming in the door is the best thing that has happened to our business in 10 years. It has really created a paradigm shift in my team.- Mike Hoganson | President of Operations

Situation:

  • Earnings growth had been stalled for nearly 12 months
  • Managed engaged Inside Consulting to find rapid cost and revenue opportunities capable of delivering sustainable growth

Insights and actions:

  • Detailed analysis of their supply chain labor costs suggested that by changing a key make buy decision could drive significant savings.  By outsourcing the installations to local pipefitters on a contract basis improved utilization and reduced travel costs as they no longer needed to drive teams of pipefitters from city to city.  In addition, they realized average rate reductions by tapping into both union and non unionized labor pools (vs. 100% unionized).
  • Detailed review of the businesses outside spend led to both direct and indirect material price related savings that averaged over 15%.  In addition to the price related savings we achieved significant demand related cost savings by redesigning elements of the product which accounted for nearly 40% of the overall cost reduction.  The non-obvious opportunity was uncovered in the redesign of the operating CPU and software which enabled the client to use existing customer networks for component communication eliminating costly need to independently route wire throughout the hospital.  The labor savings was over $1 million alone.
  • Demand elasticity and price analysis suggested that many of their specified spare parts were comparatively in-elastic and thus underpriced.  We did a series of pilots testing different price levels confirming what our analysis suggested and easing sales concerns of the potential impact of raising spare parts price on customer satisfaction. 
  • Review of the contract maintenance program revealed several pockets of relative under-penetration with smaller customers. Further, many of the maintenance programs were highly customized yet mostly priced equivalently to their more standard offerings.  We worked with Sales Operations to develop incentives and track market penetration and price realization.

Impact:  

  • Increased EBITDA over $8M over a 12-month period, and $10M over a 5-year period.