Services
Operations leadership, in the shape your company can actually use.
I work as an embedded operator, on the floor and in the weekly meeting, accountable to the outcomes we name. Most engagements are one to three days a week. Some are full-time on an interim basis. Many start with a short diagnostic so we both know what we are walking into.
Fractional COO / VP of Operations
You get a seasoned operations leader on a regular cadence—usually one, two, or three days a week—who owns a short list of outcomes, runs the weekly operating rhythm, and coaches the supervisors or managers already in the building.
It is the right shape of help when the company needs senior judgment and a steady cadence, but a full-time COO or vice president would be more seat than the work can fill. I have held full P&L as a GM and as an owner, and run multi-site plants, so I am comfortable in the numbers, on the floor, and in the conversation with an owner who still cares deeply about how the place runs.
Typical work includes standing up or tightening a weekly operating review, making a few metrics trustworthy, clarifying who decides what, and staying close to delivery, quality, cost, and the development of the team. We can step the days up during a busy stretch and step them down once the rhythm holds. See how an engagement is structured.
Interim Plant and Operations Leadership
Sometimes the seat cannot sit empty. A plant leader leaves. An acquisition needs a calm hand. A site is listing and the company cannot wait out a six-month search. In those cases I step in more fully, often for a defined number of months, and treat the assignment as stewardship.
The first ninety days follow a sequence I have written about in detail: see the plant as it is, protect safety and output, install a cadence the team can run, and leave an honest picture of what still needs a longer-term decision. I will not reorganize in week one, and I will not promise a transformation on a clock that cannot support one.
If you are already searching for a permanent leader, interim coverage can also make that hire better. By the time you interview, we know what the job actually is. Read a practical first ninety days.
Operations Diagnostic
A diagnostic is a fixed-scope look at the operation, useful even if we never work together again. I follow how work actually moves, name two or three operating metrics worth managing, and leave you with a ninety-day plan the existing team can recognize themselves in.
At the end I will also give you a direct recommendation about the shape of leadership you need: a full-time hire, interim coverage, a fractional cadence, or a short list of changes you can make with the people you already have. The diagnostic has to stand on its own. It is not a long brochure for more of my time.
Change Management and Leadership Transition
When an owner or CEO steps back, the plant does not just need a new name on the org chart. It needs decision rights, a rhythm that does not depend on the founder being in the hallway, and a way for the owner to stay informed without remaining the bottleneck.
This work is as much about people as it is about process. Supervisors will keep walking issues up to the founder out of habit. The founder will be tempted to catch those issues quietly. I help both sides make the transition real: redirect instead of rescue, close loops in public, and grow the internal leaders who should carry the operation after the intensive period is over.
It is one of the two problems this practice was built around, and it is common in closely held manufacturers across Southwest Missouri and the Midwest. Keeping operations steady when the founder steps back.
Growth-Stage Operations Build-Out
Some companies do not have a transition problem. They have a growth problem: volume is up, the informal system that used to work is creaking, and the tempting answer is to hire a full-time operations executive and a layer of coordinators around them.
Before you add that G&A, it is worth building the operating system the next stage actually requires. A simple weekly cadence. A schedule people can see. A short list of metrics. Clear ownership at the supervisor level. Capital and capacity conversations that are tied to the work, not to a wish. I have justified and installed new production lines and stood up the operating routines a growing shop needs; I have also seen overhead get ahead of the plant, and I will tell you when a hire is early.