Operations Consultants near you

The baseline comes first and it is not optional. Agree the measures, the data source and the period before any change is made, and get the operational managers to sign off the numbers. Retrospective baselines are always flattering.

Then pilot on one line, one shift, one depot or one team. A pilot contains the risk, produces a comparison group running the old way, and gives you a real answer about whether the change survives contact with your own staff.

Roll-out is a separate decision with its own case. Many projects are worth piloting and not worth rolling out, and a consultant who never reaches that conclusion is not measuring honestly.

GOV.UK explains that where TUPE applies, employees' jobs usually transfer to the new company, their employment terms and conditions transfer, and continuity of employment is maintained. Acas describes the same regime, covering both business transfers and service provider changes.

The service provision change limb is the one operations projects hit. GOV.UK gives three shapes: a service provided in-house, such as cleaning or workplace catering, is awarded to a contractor; a contract ends and is given to a new contractor; or a contract ends and the work is brought back in-house. GOV.UK also notes the protection does not extend to contracts for the supply of goods, or to single events.

Practically, this means the people cost of an outsourcing decision is not a clean slate. Identify the affected employees, plan the information and consultation, and price the transfer before the operational business case is presented as final.

A lean or continuous improvement trainer builds capability in your team and leaves method behind. That is valuable and slow, and it does not by itself fix a bottleneck this quarter.

A systems implementer configures software to a process. If the process is wrong, you get the wrong process faster and with an audit trail. Sequencing the operations review before the implementation is almost always cheaper than the reverse.

An operations consultant is hired to change a number in a defined period, using whatever combination of process, layout, scheduling and staffing achieves it. Ask which of the three you are actually buying, because the fee structures and timescales differ sharply.

Diagnostic and pilot phases are commonly fixed fee. Roll-out support is often day rate, because the pace is set by your operation rather than by the consultant.

Gainshare arrangements, where part of the fee depends on the improvement, only work if the baseline is agreed in writing beforehand, the measurement method is fixed, and there is an independent way to check it. Without those three, gainshare turns into an argument at the end of the project.

Exclude one-off effects from any shared saving: a strong quarter, a lost competitor, a price rise. The consultant should propose that exclusion themselves.