There was a client.
They made bread.
On the scale. Network, distribution - everything is as it should.
But at some point, the bread began to fall apart. And business too.
It's not a metaphor. The loaves really began to fall apart. Lumps of raw dough, excess flour, cracks, left dimensions. There was no quality control. The percentage of marriage went through the roof. In the warehouse - a warehouse hell was going on. Everything is on nerves. And revenue is getting closer to a heart attack.
How it all began
We came to the colloquium of consultants and met Arseny. He talked about his problems, and in response he heard some kind of esotericism that "you need to revise values, employees, calibrate with other companies."
I asked a simple question:
"Do you have a statistical office?"
Answer:
"What is it?"
Then I gave him medicine and described all the stages, transitions, and Arseny unexpectedly called us to production: "see if you can help with anything."
We came. We looked. And yet they sat down. Because such a number of invisible losses are rarely found in one place.
What we saw
- Expiration dates were tracked on shipment (when it is too late).
- Shelves were bursting with products with different deadlines and even different SKUs.
- No FIFO - the pallets stood as they wanted, in dead ends, in the aisles, interfering with themselves.
- Employees worked "by eye," in the head kept the scheme of the warehouse. Seriously.
Their warehouse resembled Tetris, where all the blocks are already at the top and the player just watches them fall.
And in production - its own picture. No one knew exactly how much raw material really went into the dough, how much went into waste, and how much was simply lost. The preparation of shifts was opaque, as was the transfer of cases between sites. Standards - if there were, then more in the memory of the older shift than in the system. And this despite the fact that the plant worked at full capacity, around the clock.
Plunged deeper: not just processes, but a product
We started by thoroughly studying the technical characteristics of the product. We asked for complaints from customers, collected feedback, identified real defects and conducted an analysis - what really is a deviation and what is not.
We met with key clients. Together we walked along the entire chain and calibrated according to TX. Launched quality gates.
We equipped desktops: standards, instructions, templates - everything is in place. When we went further and began to look even deeper, we reached the banal: crooked sections.
We looked at the car, checked the blade travel, finalized the design - now it was not necessary to adjust it manually every time, and the cuts became even.
And with the cracks on the bread there was a whole story.
We even did a joint study - we went shopping, cafes and just asked people: is this normal? what do you think?
And suddenly it turned out: cracks are not a marriage. This is a noble indicator of the handmade quality of the product. This is a signal of real artisan baking. And we're like, "Oh, that's how bread should look!."
After that, we completely painted the technical process.
We assessed what happens in the ovens, how it is baked, how they work with flour.
We laid everything out in steps, posted production analysis boards, passed a consumer audit.
There were 60% of marriage - it became 6%.
What did we do? Everything.
Put things in order. Real. Not in theory
- A complete zoning of the warehouse was carried out.
- Introduced hot, warm, cold zones.
- Configured mesh storage, FIFO and LIFO. Everything began to move logically, and not by inertia.
2. Built a WMS system on Excel
- At first - simple, but alive.
- Accounting for each cell, pallet, item. All actions are recorded.
- Warehouse, commerce and production - finally began to speak the same language.
3. Digitized everything
- Standards, instructions, algorithms for the supply of raw materials, accounting for offcuts and mixed pallets.
- Reporting - in one click.
- Dashboards - from temperature zones to rotation speed.
4. BPMN process mapping
- The entire chain - from order to shipment - is on the diagram.
- Timing, bottlenecks, production simulation, Power BI.
- Bottom line: we found 17% of the reserve and accelerated the line 8 times.
But not everything was smooth
The team is very unresponsive.
They didn't give a shit at all.
Some executives sabotaged: they fired people whom we trained in a new way.
Kringe.
But everything changed when it became clear: there will be a transformation.
With them - or without them.
Was → Became
Was: 60% of marriage → Became: 6%
Was: weekly complaints about quality → Became: almost zero
Was: 10% loss by time → Became: < 1%
Was: 17 hours shipment → Became: < 6 hours
Was: 35% mixed pallets → Became: up to 5%
It was: accounting system in the head → It became: registered and learned
It was: the effectiveness of the direction X → It became: x8
Why did it work?
Because we didn't just draw diagrams - we went into the mud.
Straight to the shift, straight to the warehouse.
They listened to the storekeepers, argued with the shift supervisors, analyzed the reports, felt the dough.
And then they wrote instructions that work not on paper, but in shift at 03:45 at night.
"We just stopped being dumb and started seeing," the operations director said afterwards.
"Before you, I did not understand how to manage this all," the CEO added.
And the financial director simply sent us a finger-up emoticon and a revenue report.
Main conclusion
Business thought bread was the problem.
It turned out - in management.
As soon as they cleared the structure, digitized the processes, introduced control rituals and gave people normal tools - growth became simply inevitable.
And bread?
It is now without lumps, with a normal shape and with an understandable control system at every stage.
Do you want the same?
No, seriously - do you want?
Because it's not "just putting things in order."
This is to enter the heat, collect data, structure chaos and build processes that work when you sleep.
If you're ready, we'll show you exactly how.
If not ready - be sure: your bread is still alive.
In some corner of the warehouse.
Under other pallets.
