How to Choose the Right Manufacturing Advisory Service

8 min read

Manufacturing can be a complex industry with many challenges and obstacles, often requiring manufacturing advisory services.

Whether you are new in this business or already have years of experience, today’s business environment has become more and more demanding. Moreover, there are many factors influencing your production costs and profitability. Global supply chain disruptions, increasing raw material costs, labor shortages, IT disruptions, and cyber threats are all too real in this current economy. Not to mention regulatory changes and compliance requirements.

So, it’s no wonder it’s difficult to see the forest from the trees. However, the good news is that you’re not the only one facing struggles. And luckily, you don’t have to go at it alone.

Why Hire a Manufacturing Advisory Service Consultant?

Firstly, it doesn’t really matter whether you are a large or small manufacturing business. It also doesn’t matter if you outsource your manufacturing like many companies such as Apple nowadays do. Given the circumstances, each may need an advisory service consultant to help solve issues in their specific fields.

You may also think that hiring advisory service consultants may be too cost-prohibitive for your company. But consider this: hiring a manufacturing consultant will give you time and opportunity to grow your business or expand into new areas, while not having to deal with day-to-day problems and situations.

A good service consultant will analyze your manufacturing processes, remove friction and slow-downs, streamline your operations, provide cost-saving solutions, help build your team, and much more.

Just think: when was the last time you looked at your business and manufacturing operations and segmented each part of the process into an efficient cost/profit analysis? Likely, it’s been a long time. Manufacturing advisory service consultants are experienced and trained to do just that. They can give your operations a critical and fresh look, not clouded by “the way things are done around here.”

Moreover, they can give an outside perspective, recognize opportunities, and bring about solutions available to solve problems. And if you then compare their cost with the gains you invariably will experience, it’s becoming a no-brainer.

What are the Benefits of Hiring Manufacturing Advisory Services?

First off, choosing the right advisory service consultant is crucial to your success. You want someone who has experience in manufacturing, who has a heart for your business, who cares for the client, and who understands your team.

Additionally, you want a relationship and team builder who pulls the whole company together and grants importance to each aspect of your business. The benefits are plenty:

You will learn to really understand the relationship between cost and gain and measure those intelligently;
You will end up with a more cohesive team and true partnerships among the various divisions of your organization;
You will experience that there are solutions to the problems and challenges in your company and the tools to deal with those effectively;
You will find increased efficiency in your operations, and
You will be able to concentrate on future projects and expansion and work on these while your day-to-day operations are cared for.

When Would You Need Advisory Consulting Services?

It’s certainly true that not every manufacturing business will need a services consultant. But it’s definitely wise to consider that there are quite some challenges that can make manufacturing difficult, complex, cost-inefficient, and unrewarding. Solink, a premier security and loss prevention company, listed no less than 40 threats to the manufacturing industry in 2024.

Take, for example, environmental issues. Sustainability has become a key factor. New regulations to curb pollution and waste are necessary but, if unpredicted and not adopted timely, can place a choke-hold on your production volume and profitability.

Similarly, economic pressures can cause problems if they’re not timely or prepared for. We have all experienced the losses caused by the Covid pandemic and few of us could have foreseen the enormous consequences for our economy. Other factors, such as decreased demands or simply an increased cost of raw materials or transport, can create stress in a manufacturing business. It can also push down your bottom line.

There don’t always have to be disasters and economic downturns for a manufacturer to seek the assistance of an advisory service consultant. But it helps enormously to have someone on your side of the game, who thinks and works with you to embrace solutions.

These include diversifying the product range and helping you adjust to economic, regulatory, and market changes, thereby minimizing their impact on your business.

How to Choose the Right Consultant

There is a great article on LinkedIn (A Client’s Guide to Selecting the Right Consultant), which gives very useful directions to navigate your selection process.

In this guide, Establishing Trust comes first. This includes defining the issues you are seeking help with and finding someone with proven experience in dealing with these situations. You want someone who already knows what you are running into and who has successfully solved such problems before.

Next, Valuing Teamwork is listed as the second most important quality. This means that your candidate consultant can seamlessly integrate with your staff and executives. Moreover, they will be able to encourage any needed changes while maintaining support for the company’s leadership. Your advisory consultant should be knowledgeable and willing to educate your teams if such is needed.

Lastly, your Relationship with your advisory consultant is probably the most important factor and should be one of mutual trust and respect.

Conclusion

The decision to hire a manufacturing service consultant is an important one. Therefore, the hiring process is not a quick affair. Be sure to contact and speak with several consultants to select your perfect fit.

While cost is important, the perfect fit isn’t always the cheapest. So, it’s best to realize that hiring a service consultant is an investment in your company. The better the candidate consultant fits your needs, the higher the return on your investment will be.

Given a full overview of your business, a clear idea of the issues you are facing, and the goals you envision for your company, it’s likely that you will select the consultant who will achieve the most for you and the future of your business.

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Apr 15, 2024

About the author

Max has been working in the ecommerce industry for the last six years helping brands to establish and level-up content marketing and SEO. Despite that, he has experience with entrepreneurship. He is a fiction writer in his free time.