Operational Excellence Consulting

Operations

The disruption caused by COVID-19 underscores how critical it is for companies to achieve excellence in end-to-end operations, given the potential gains in efficiency, agility, and performance. BCG helps clients achieve operational innovation to meet this imperative.

Our Approach to Operational Excellence

Cost excellence goes beyond simple cost-cutting measures. End-to-end (E2E) operational excellence can deliver impressive value for companies—including a 5% to 15% boost to EBITA; cost reductions of 5% to 10% in third-party procurement spending, 15% to 30% in operations overhead, and 10% to 25% in warehousing and distribution; and a 50% to 80% reduction in carbon footprint.

BCG’s operational excellence consulting teams help clients achieve these gains by supercharging efficiency and effectiveness in key steps in their operations value chain. We also assist clients with holistic value-chain transformation to enhance service and quality, reduce costs, and mitigate risks.

Clients choose BCG as their operational excellence partner for:

Unlocking new value fast—by zeroing in on the most promising operational innovation opportunities
Tying operational excellence to business strategy—by aligning capabilities and performance to key enterprise strategies
Sustaining success—by working with leaders across the organization to make sure that operational gains persist for the long term
Strengthening their own capabilities—by equipping them with the digital tools, skills, and knowledge needed to tackle their toughest operational challenges on their own
Optimizing the supply chain across functions—by breaking down silos and enabling transparency throughout the operational process

The result: a leaner, more agile enterprise that can flex as needed to win—not just now but also far into the future.

How BCG Helps Clients Achieve Operational Excellence in End-to-End Operations

BCG is uniquely positioned to help clients extract maximum value from their operational excellence programs, bringing several core strengths to every project, including:

Global, Integrated Teams. BCG boasts 500-plus operational excellence consulting experts based in nearly 80 offices around the world. Our teams work closely with BCG’s specialty businesses—including investment and incubation specialists at Digital Ventures, data scientists at BCG GAMMA, and IT implementation experts at BCG Platinion—to launch transformation programs that deliver results across the operations value chain.
Strong Track Record of Success. In recent years, our operational excellence consulting teams have completed more than 3,600 projects across industries and sectors as diverse as industrial goods, consumer packaged goods, financial services, automotive, health care, high tech, media, manufacturing, infrastructure, and public service. Drawing on insights gained from these projects, we regularly publish studies and articles that provide leading-edge, practical advice for clients seeking to take the next step in their operational excellence journey.
Extensive Suite of Services and Tools. Through our comprehensive suite of services and tools, we help clients unlock value from every aspect of their operations, including transforming key business processes and optimizing supply chains. For example, we offer tools that enable clients to diagnose inefficiencies in their design-to-value, sourcing, and manufacturing processes; identify ways to optimize their asset networks; and assess their digital maturity to pinpoint the most promising improvement opportunities.

Meet more of our operational excellence consulting experts

The following offerings and tools provide a glimpse into the level of sophistication and rigor we bring to every client engagement:

End-to-End Process Transformation (E2E PT)

End-to-End Supply Chain (E2E SC) Optimization

BCG Advanced Network Optimization (BCG ANO)

Our Operational Excellence Work with Clients

Consumer Packaged Goods

A regional spirits manufacturer aiming to become a global brand asked BCG to help optimize its supply chain. A comprehensive overview pinpointed improvement opportunities in areas such as bottling-plant capacity and S&OP efficiency. The analysis unveiled significant value-creation opportunities--including $70 million to $80 million in inventory reductions and $11 million to $13 million in COGS.

Industrial Goods

Two industrial goods manufacturers merged and asked BCG to help them capture synergies, maximize service quality, and minimize costs and complexity in products and materials. Projects including cost modeling, plant capability assessments, and supplier negotiation strategies positioned the new entity to achieve $130 million in run-rate savings—more than 1.5 times the initial synergy target.

Automotive Industry

A global Tier 1 automotive supplier enlisted BCG to help stabilize its supply chain network as the pandemic struck. We established a COVID-19 task force with focus areas including health and safety and volume forecasting, and supply chain and logistics control towers to boost efficiency and decrease operating costs. Encouraged by these moves, the client considered extending the work into the following year.

Infrastructure

A federal government agency engaged BCG to create a COVID-19-response roadmap and evaluate infrastructure-investment risks, including supply shortages. Through investment-scenario modeling and interviews with senior government officials, we confirmed supply stability for most materials, identified potential logistics choke points, pinpointed bottlenecks in project-approval processes, and identified procurement-process improvements--setting the stage for recovery and resilience.