TRAVERSE CITY, MI – “Most businesses are fixable if they have volume,” says Dave Wolgast, managing director of manufacturing consultant BBK Ltd.
The Southfield, MI-based company has grown to 80 people over the last 30 years, working with OEMs to save key suppliers from shutting down production.
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The biggest general problem facing suppliers today is overcapacity, Wolgast says. Suppliers must react quickly to get rid of unused space and machinery or diversify their customer bases.
Wolgast, an exhibitor at the Management Briefing Seminars, describes a successful operation BBK performed on a General Motors Corp. supplier. A year ago, GM asked the consulting firm to step in at a family-owned plastic-injection-molding company that was in danger of failing.
“We made process changes, removed family members who were in over their head, put in the proper metrics that needed to be measured and eliminated a lot of scrap,” he recalls. “Now they are turning a profit.”
Sometimes, however, just having volume isn’t enough.
BBK is helping wind down the bankrupt Collins & Aikman Corp., re-sourcing parts for its OEM customers and finding buyers that will keep production going.
Management Briefing Seminars