Engagement structures
Two ways to work together.
One ends on the deck.
One ends on the P&L.
A 4–6 week fixed-scope audit that hands you a written diagnosis, and a 12–24 week implementation project that puts the savings on the P&L. Driven by DMAIC — Define the dollar problem, Measure against a baseline you can defend, Analyze to a Pareto, Improve in the order the operator can absorb, Control the gains before they leak back out.
Engagements are confidential. The first conversation is always a 30-minute scoping call.
Engagement shapes
Pick the shape that matches how much execution help you want.
Both end with a written diagnosis. One of them ends with the savings on the P&L — the audit findings, executed in priority order, with the consultant on the floor for the moves that actually have to happen in person.
4 – 6 weeks
Delivered
- Current-state map & baseline KPIs, built from your own data in week two
- Quantified finding register, ranked by payback and ease of execution
- Remediation roadmap with owners and milestones the leadership team signs off on
- Read-out deck for the leadership team, plus the written report you keep
12 – 24 weeks
Delivered
- Everything in a fixed-scope audit, run identically in the first four to six weeks
- Cycle-count program designed and run-in, supervised on the floor
- DC / warehouse layout re-slot — done by the team, supervised by the consultant
- 3PL / carrier renegotiation play-by-play, including an in-flight RFx if the math says to replace
- Targets committed, in writing, against the week-two baseline — three numbers with current owners
The audit, week by week
A 4–6 week engagement that hands you a written diagnosis.
Three weeks on the floor and at the data, two weeks turning the findings into a written report and a leadership-team read-out. The baseline is built from your own ERP / WMS / OMS in week two — never from industry medians.
W1 – W2
A working session with the operations lead, the controller, and the warehouse supervisor. ERP / WMS / OMS data pulled and reconciled. On-floor walks at every DC and key 3PL — bin slotting, pick-path, wave design, replenishment, dock-door rotation, returns flow.
Engagement lead on the floor; analyst owning the data pulls.
W3 – W4
A defensible KPI baseline at the SKU level — order accuracy, turnover, carrying cost, dock-to-stock, stockout frequency, logistics spend / unit. Findings ranked by payback. The Pareto identifies the three to five root causes driving roughly eighty percent of recoverable cost.
Analyst owns the baseline; engagement lead owns the Pareto and the finding register.
W5 – W6
A written report and a leadership-team read-out with the remediation roadmap in the room: owners, milestones, dependencies, savings case tied to the baseline. Engagement ends here for fixed-scope audits; implementation projects pick the roadmap up in the next phase.
Engagement lead presents; leadership team signs off on owners and milestones.
Ownership at handoff
- Cycle-count program run-in: the program the audit designs, operated by your team from week six onward.
- Slotting change execution: the new pick-path and slot map come out of the floor-walk; your warehouse team executes the move.
- Carrier RFx execution: the rate benchmark and renegotiation playbook come from the audit; your procurement team runs the RFx.
The implementation, week by week
A 12–24 week engagement that puts the savings on the P&L.
The first four to six weeks are an audit run identically to the fixed-scope track. The remaining eight to twenty weeks are the fixes — cycle-count program, DC re-slot, carrier renegotiation, control plan — supervised end to end.
W1 – W6
Same working sessions, same data pulls, same floor-walks, same baseline. Same Pareto and finding register, owned by the same team. This phase is not scoped separately — it is the runway the later phases stand on.
Engagement lead + analyst, identical staffing to the fixed-scope track.
Begins where a fixed-scope audit ends
W7 – W12
Cycle-count program designed, piloted on the highest-value SKU classes, and run-in under a weekly cadence with a written exception log. The DC / warehouse re-slot happens on the floor, not on the deck — this consultant is there for the move, not for a memo afterwards.
Engagement lead on the floor for the re-slot; warehouse supervisor owns the cadence going forward.
W13 – W20
Carrier rate benchmarking against current lanes, an MSA / escalation-language review, and a renegotiation playbook executed in partnership with your procurement lead. An in-flight RFx if the math says to replace the incumbent.
Engagement lead runs the negotiation; procurement lead owns the relationship afterward.
W21 – W24
A control plan with a written cadence (cycle-count frequency, dashboard review, exception owner), a dashboard the team actually uses, and targets committed in writing against the week-two baseline. Engagement ends when the plan is signed, not when the deck is delivered.
Engagement lead drafts; leadership team signs; named owner inherits the plan.
Targets committed in writing
- Inventory turnoverAnnualized — measured against the SKU-level turnover built in week two. Reviewed quarterly against the committed target.
- Stockout frequencyPer-SKU-class stockout rate, weighted by sales. Reported monthly against the baseline.
- Logistics spend / unitTotal outbound + inbound logistics cost per unit shipped. Reviewed monthly against the carrier / 3PL renegotiation outcomes.
Typical client baseline
Directional KPI ranges we move.
Directional ranges from completed engagements. Your baseline is the only one that matters — we build it from your data, not from industry medians.
Order accuracy
99.4%
+1.8 pts
pick / pack / ship
Inventory turnover
7.2×
+2.1× YoY
annualized
Carrying cost
−21%
of GMV
vs. baseline
Dock-to-stock
38 min
−62%
receiving → bin
Directional ranges from completed engagements. Your baseline is the only one that matters — we build it from your data, not from industry medians.
Engagement posture
Pricing aligned with the savings, not the hours.
Fixed fee per scope, not hourly billing. No per-seat math, no surprise change orders, and no retroactive upsells once the baseline is in.
Implementation projects are priced against the gross savings target — so our incentive aligns with yours. A fixed-scope audit is priced against the number of sites, SKUs, and 3PL relationships in scope, with a clear ceiling on what changes it.
If the math does not say an audit will land, we say so in the scoping call — the same way we'd want a vendor to say so to us.
Get started
Start with a 30-minute scoping call.
Tell us your operation, the KPIs you care about, and the constraint that's blocking the savings. If engagement isn't the right move, we'll say so.
Replies within one business day.