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GDI Consulting & Training (GDI)

GDI Consulting & Training (GDI) provides practical solutions to complex business and managerial problems in manufacturing and related industries. Our firm has successfully assisted clients around the world for more than 38 years, having performed >190 significant and complex projects in >120 companies in 24 countries. GDI applies specialized and common-sense solutions... not overly-intellectualized approaches... to numerous types of challenging client problems in manufacturing and distribution industries, including:

  • Enterprise transformation and core business process re-engineering
  • Business strategy formulation
  • Organization design & improvement
  • Factory & distribution center layout & design
  • Factory & distribution information systems implementation
  • Cost management systems
  • Quality management systems design & implementations
  • Information systems data integrity & reliability improvements
  • Enterprise performance metrics & compensation systems
  • Complex problem solving
A GDI Consulting & Training Company Business Development Presentation

A GDI Consulting & Training Company
Business Development Presentation

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History

A Brief History of GDI Consulting & Training Company

Brief History of GDI Consulting & Training Company
  • Started in 1980
  • Focuses mainly on manufacturing & distribution industries.
  • On leading edge of manufacturing, distribution & logistics methodologies, systems & issues.
  • Major Alliance Partners (Formal & Informal) include:
    • Caltech Center for Technology & Management Education… Executive Education Venue Partner
    • Engaged Capital, LLC… Shareholder Value Modeling & Portfolio Analysis Partner
    • Lincoln Leadership Institute… Unique Leadership Training
    • ASCM… Association of Supply Chain Management… Premier Global Supply Chain Association
    • Manufacturing Executive Institute… Sister Company
  • Focus on the three to six critical issues necessary to achieve dramatic & sustainable long term performance.
  • Concentrates on issues that will “slingshot” clients past their competitors.
  • One of the early consulting firms to actively promote client/consulting partnerships & the client’s project management responsibilities.
  • Makes substantial intellectual & behavioral investments in our people.
  • Works in a collaborative manner, never ending an assignment with the client dependent on GDI Consulting & Training Company.
  • Expert at blending strategy consulting with operations improvement, information technology use, & behavioral change consulting.
  • Creative at applying behavioral techniques to mobilize client personnel & project team members.
  • Has replaced offices with appropriate use of information technology resources.
  • Dismisses buzz words & buzz phrases.
  • Adds to formal “Lessons Learned” database at conclusion of every project.

Wherever possible, we attempt to practice internally what we preach externally!

GDI Core Business Beliefs

  1. Creating wealth for shareholders is the most important goal in any business.
  2. Leadership is far more consequential than analyses and diagnostics, making it more difficult to execute.
  3. Implementation is far more difficult than training & planning.
  4. Improvement initiatives should be based on factual analysis.
  5. Benchmarking often leads only to parity. Innovation & courage is a prerequisite to market dominance.
  6. Industry leaders are not afraid to break rules of the industry.
  7. Mastering the basics of the business & the economics of the marketplace takes precedence over implementation of new technology & management concepts.
  8. Changing behavior is usually more critical than changing technology.
  9. Methodology is at best, a guideline. Overly prescriptive change processes often become the end instead of the means.
  10. All improvement initiatives should be supported with a solid business case & high level of employee mobilization.

Samples of Past Consulting Engagements

The Enterprise:

A large multi-industry conglomerate serving aerospace, defense, advanced materials, and automotive markets.

Enterprise’s Problem:

The company had fallen from #1 or #2 market share position in most of its markets to #4, #5 or #6. The company continuously underperformed peer companies in most metrics, including share value predictability and growth.

Our Engagement:

Using GDI’s Integrative Transformation Methodologysm, we identified and rationalized several internal projects that if implemented, would substantially improve global operating efficiencies, improve cash flows from a smaller suite of gross assets, improve focus on markets the company could dominate, streamline product introduction and after-market service capabilities, and ultimately improve enterprise valuation by >40%. We worked with senior leadership to define and specify these transformational and restructuring opportunities.

Engagement Results:

With our assistance, the company’s annualized CFROI grew from 5.6% to 8.3% in 24 months. Global annual overhead costs dropped by >$600 million, global inventories reduced by >28%, average manufacturing cycle times reduced by >22%, and the company shed >$1.0 billion in “out-of-focus” manufacturing and distribution assets through disinvestment, sale, and consolidations. The company’s stock price grew by >47%.

The Enterprise:

A large government owned, contractor operated national laboratory serving national energy and defense needs.

Enterprise’s Problem:

The U.S. has several national energy laboratories, each with a specific mission. Most of the labs are focused on energy research, including nuclear, renewables, and advanced energy forms. The lab we consulted with needed to transform itself from a cold war nuclear support mission to a laboratory that focused on peacetime use of nuclear and adjacent capabilities. With a culture that supported >45 years of cold war nuclear activities, the lab’s leadership knew transformation would be more organizational, culture and behavioral than technical in scope.

Our Engagement:

GDI was engaged to assist the lab through its necessary transformation from cold war nuclear support to a new peacetime initiative that could leverage the lab’s immense capabilities in everything nuclear. GDI was engaged to utilize its six-step Integrative Transformation Methodologysm to lead lab personnel through the transformation. During the project design phase, we developed a series of initiatives that would refocus the organization and free cash to pursue new peacetime initiatives.

Engagement Results:

With our assistance, the lab’s annualized operating costs were reduced by >$800 million, mostly through shedding projects that did not meet the newly established mission requirements. This resulted in a reduction of >500 staff, and the redeployment into new mission projects of >600 existing staff. New projects had to be screened though a new process that added implementation risk and a variant of economic payback to the project funding process. This resulted in on-time project completions improving by >65%, and in-budget project completions improving by >40%. Direct savings to taxpayers exceeded $1.0 billion annually.

The Enterprise:

A large branded commercial bakery specializing in unique bread and adjacent products distributed through North American retail channels.

Enterprise’s Problem:

The company was growing fast, straining its capital resources. It needed to reduce costs, significantly improve OEE performance in all its bakeries, preserve capital and dramatically improve efficiencies and throughput. It also needed to invest significant capital to improve the performance of existing bakeries and to construct a new bakery to better serve distant markets.

Our Engagement:

GDI was engaged to assist client personnel to rethink process flows, bakery automation, and plant management skill sets. We identified numerous technical improvements in the bakeries, including eliminating on-site frozen finished goods warehousing by moving products directly from packaging into frozen trucks. Organizationally, we reposition the Plant Manager role as one that requires chemical processing background, in addition to traditional bakery-only background. By rethinking bread manufacturing as a chemical process, more precise process measures were possible.

Engagement Results:

OEE improved by >25%, resulting in deferment of new capital equipment for 2+ years. Additionally, the elimination of frozen finished goods warehouses combined with the implementation of more 3PLs resulted in substantial facility efficiencies and >15% improvement in product flow dynamics. Improvements in process metrics resulting from the new “chemical processing” view also improved flow and reduced scrap by >15%. Ultimately, the company internally generated most of the capital needed for expansion.

The Enterprise:

A large manufacturer of high-precision gas flow and gas analytics equipment serving petroleum refineries, natural gas producers and pipeline companies, and chemical producers across the globe.

Enterprise’s Problem:

Demand for the company’s industry-dominate products exceeded the company’s ability to manufacture its products. Also, the company’s inventories were too high, resulting in the systematic draining of capital necessary to expand production to support the company’s growth.

Our Engagement:

GDI was engaged to determine cost and throughput benchmarks. This was followed by a transformation project that focused highly on just-in-time production systems, 5S implementations, and organization realignment. Partnering with our client, we reengineered the entire production process and planning functions.

Engagement Results:

Product throughput increased >20% utilizing a “receiving dock to shipping dock” JIT implementation. OEE in existing equipment improved by >10%. Rework and scrap were reduced by >40%. Direct labor content was reduced by approx. 8%. On-time deliveries to customers improved by >60% and volume from the same factory increased by >15%. EBITA increased by 22% and CFROI by >8%.

The Enterprise:

A mid-market titanium and aluminum forging company primarily serving aerospace, aircraft, trucking, and defense industries.

Enterprise’s Problem:

The company used standard cost accounting processes for determining COGS for a wide variety of products. All products absorbed common factory burden and factory overhead costs using standardized rates. Because different products used different elements of factory burden and overhead, certain products effectively subsidized the COGS of other products, leading to inaccurate product cost reporting. This led to inaccurate bidding and ultimately lost sales of higher margin products.

Our Engagement:

GDI was engaged to evaluate the efficacy of factory burden and factory overhead rates used in product pricing models. Utilizing our proprietary Integrative Activity Costing & Leadershipsm (IAC&L), model, GDI demonstrated that real applied factory burden and factory burden costs varied widely by product. After demonstrating each product’s real burden and overhead rates, we were able to specify several products that were losing money on every unit shipped, as well as products that were substantially more profitable than previously believed.

Engagement Results:

Accurate product cost data led to a product line rationalization initiative that in turn saw numerous products either being trimmed from the company’s product offering or repriced to achieve proper margins. Similarly, some products that were more profitable than previously known received additional marketing capital. These series of initiatives increased enterprise EBITDA by >12%. Topline sales grew >8% and enterprise incremental COGS reduced by >4%.

The Enterprise:

A large distributor of dry goods to small restaurants in several metropolitan regions. The company operates several large (1 million sq/ft+) high bay warehouses and >200 trucks.

Enterprise’s Problem:

Order retrieval efficiencies and picking volumes were substantially lower than peer group companies. This resulted in substantially higher labor costs, slower throughput, and extra costs to serve customers. Defective warehouse pick quality was also decreasing. On-time deliveries suffered because of these warehouse operating problems.

Our Engagement:

GDI was engaged to establish new pick performance metrics and then to evaluate picking and adjacent methods. We were then to model and recommend technical and organizational improvements and assist the company to implement them.

Engagement Results:

Increased average individual pick volumes to >120/labor hour, up from <70 per labor hour. Also streamlined the picking process by innovatively relabeling storage racks, changing scheduled put-away and pick hours to reduce congestion, and implement a new storage algorithm based on dynamic demand patterns. Direct labor costs were slashed by >20% while reducing pick errors by >65%. OP increased by >11%.

The Enterprise:

An operator of one of the world’s largest open-pit copper mines, located in the U.S.

Enterprise’s Problem:

Copper prices dropped below fully distributed extraction costs requiring the company to consider a shutdown scenario. After analysis, it was determined that shutting the mine down would create unacceptably high startup costs when (and if) copper prices increased. The company needed to find ways to dramatically reduce costs and increase free cash flows to survive.

Our Engagement:

GDI was engaged to assist the client to rethink operating costs and priority of expenses. Using our Integrative Activity Costing & Leadershipsm (IAC&L) model, we determined accurate costs of each mining process. We then conducted numerous process innovation workshops using analytic elements from our Integrative Transformation Methodologysm. Once new processes were identified, tested, and rationalized, we established joint teams to implement new methods throughout the mine. Significant and innovative solutions implemented included haul truck fueling innovations, electric shovel in-field maintenance innovations, spare parts consignment and storage innovations, and numerous innovations in scheduling and planning.

Engagement Results:

Reduced the cost to mine and process a ton of copper by >25%. Removed 6% of the haul trucks from the asset base and $12,000 gallons per day of required diesel fuel because of rethinking haul truck turnarounds, maintenance and fueling processes. Project resulted in the mine becoming profitable even in a market of deflated prices. When copper prices turned around, this mine became the most profitable large-scale copper mine in the U.S.

The Enterprise:

A global market dominating manufacturer of electric garage door openers and accessories.

Enterprise’s Problem:

New product introductions had become painfully slow, resulting in a slight chipping-away of the company’s global market shares, particularly in the U.S. Worse, the slowness of new product development was putting the company’s expansion into foreign markets at jeopardy.

Our Engagement:

GDI was engaged to assist the company in understanding the deep roots of these problems. Ultimately, we discovered amongst other root causes, the company lacked qualified project managers and a useful project management process/culture. Working with company leaders, we developed a serious project management function, staffed with highly qualified, skilled, and dedicated project managers. This new organization took charge of new product development and introduction with startling and positive results.

Engagement Results:

New product development cycle times reduced by >50% and time to market also reduced by nearly 50%. A steady stream of new products was (and still are) introduced to the company’s markets at a record pace. This fed the company’s product line expansions and cemented the company’s #1 position in virtually every market it served.

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P.O. Box 205
Temecula, California 92593