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Greater flexibility, lower product costs

Production Consulting

Flexible production—while keeping manufacturing costs under control. In volatile markets, this is a decisive competitive advantage. Those who can quickly switch between product variants, production volumes, and markets can simultaneously ensure quality and delivery reliability without sacrificing profitability. This is precisely where our production consulting comes in: As an international boutique management consultancy with insights into over 680 production sites, our team of consultants at KBC supports you—from strategy and production optimization to AI-based solutions—in making your production future-proof.

Discuss the Project
A man, bald, with blue eyes and glasses, smiling, wearing a white shirt and a dark blue suit, standing with both hands in his pants pockets
A man, bald, with blue eyes and glasses, smiling, wearing a white shirt and a dark blue suit, standing with both hands in his pants pockets
Martin Betz
Director
A man, bald, with blue eyes and glasses, smiling, wearing a white shirt and a dark blue suit, standing with both hands in his pants pockets
A man, bald, with blue eyes and glasses, smiling, wearing a white shirt and a dark blue suit, standing with both hands in his pants pockets

Your contact

Martin Betz

Director at KBC and management consultant specializing in manufacturing, with 10 years of experience in supply chain management

Challenges in Production

Today, production systems are caught between cost pressures and an ever-increasing variety of product variants—and those who fail to strike the right balance will see their returns decline. This is precisely where our production consulting comes in: with an approach that supports you from plant setup through to the end of the production run.

KBC combines methodological expertise with experience gained from over 680 production sites optimized worldwide. As co-developers of quality standards, we support you or your suppliers from the initial concept through production strategy to on-site implementation. The result is a high-performance production system—efficient, resilient, and delivering a measurably higher return on investment for your company.

More flexible competitors are leaving you in the dust

The wide variety of products, fluctuating order volumes, and new markets are overwhelming established production structures.

Rising costs are eating into your returns

High production costs and sustainability requirements are weighing on your returns. Opportunities for savings remain untapped.

We are unable to deliver the promised quantities

During the initial production phase, plant efficiency is insufficient to meet the contractually agreed production targets.

Quality defects result in significant losses

Scrap and rework result in unnecessary costs and jeopardize the scheduled delivery of the manufactured parts.

There is a lack of a solid data foundation for decision-making

A lack of analytical methods and tools, as well as a lack of visibility into your own data, are hindering the optimization of your production.

Paths to Sustainable Manufacturing

In addition to production strategy, KBC’s consulting services for manufacturing include production optimization and capability enhancement, digitalization and AI, as well as make-or-buy analyses.

From a production strategy to a manufacturing strategy

Which products are manufactured where, at what level of detail, and with what degree of flexibility? Working closely with your team, we develop a production strategy that accounts for shifting product portfolios and volatile markets. This allows you to strike the right balance between flexibility, cost efficiency, and quality. From there, we derive specific manufacturing strategies for your plants. As a result, your facilities will be optimally prepared for future demands—while maintaining maximum operational stability.

Production Optimization and Empowerment

Production optimization works on two levels: In the short term, we stabilize your production when acute problems arise; in the medium and long term, we reduce waste and ensure your long-term ability to deliver. As part of our production optimization consulting services, KBC’s team of consultants analyzes your production’s performance, quality, and bottlenecks—and develops concrete measures. To ensure these improvements are sustained, we support your team’s capacity-building efforts.

Digitalization & AI

Every production process generates data continuously—most of which goes unused. At KBC, our team of consultants integrates AI-based analytics tools and agents and guides the necessary digital transformation to highlight patterns and anomalies in your processes. This allows you to reduce lead times and ensure quality through automated, AI-powered defect detection. Decisions are based on facts rather than gut feelings—and make your production ready for the future.

Production Consulting by the Numbers

Cost of goods manufactured
Overall Plant Effectiveness
On-schedule ramp-up of production

This is how we view management consulting for manufacturing

Ultimately, it’s always about identifying the root cause and resolving it. This can only be done with production experience—you have to know where to look.

Martin Betz, Director at KBC

Industries we advise on manufacturing

Automotive

Industry & Mechanical Engineering

Technology

Topics that strengthen your business

Supply Chain

Logistics

Shopping

Answers that drive your production forward 

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How can sustainable production remain affordable?

Anyone who wants to implement sustainability in production quickly runs into the practical question: Is it even worth it?

At our BOLD Center for Innovation, we use a radically different approach to address the very areas where your production is currently wasting costs and resources: energy, materials, and inefficient processes. The funds freed up are channeled specifically into sustainable measures—from more energy-efficient equipment and secondary raw materials to closed-loop material cycles.

In this way, sustainability in production becomes not an additional cost factor, but an economic lever.

How can KBC help during acute supply shortages?

If your production is on the verge of a shutdown and every minute costs money, traditional planning tools are too slow: they require hundreds of inputs and approvals before they can respond. In this situation, KBC immediately goes straight to the source of the problem:

We identify the root cause right on the production floor and stabilize the process to ensure your ability to deliver as quickly as possible. To do this, we work with your team to assess the gap between demand and available capacity while simultaneously prioritizing all effective measures—from alternative equipment or additional shifts to material substitutions with separate approvals, as well as changes in transportation and operational escalations with the carrier or customs. 

Thanks to our experience at hundreds of production sites, we can immediately identify which steps will get your production back on track—and which issues you can address later at your leisure.

Our processes are already optimized—where does KBC still see potential for savings?

On paper, across-the-board cost cuts seem simple—but implementing them in reality without sacrificing quality is the real challenge. To address this, KBC looks not only at the numbers but also at the processes: Where are unnecessary steps, poor timing, or unstable processes holding back returns?

As an international boutique consulting firm with many years of experience in supply chain management and manufacturing, we identify the levers that will sustainably reduce your production costs—and support your team in maintaining this efficiency on a day-to-day basis. 

When necessary, we draw on the Disruptive Cost Optimization approach developed by our BOLD Center for Innovation to fundamentally reexamine and redesign cost structures. This turns general promises into real savings on your balance sheet.

What can we do to ensure that production starts on schedule?

Often, when the deadline is fast approaching, the question is no longer “how,” but rather a straightforward “whether.” Many companies sense that the deadline is in jeopardy, but lack an objective factual basis for making a decision.

KBC ensures exactly this level of transparency: We assess the maturity of your processes and equipment and, if necessary, take immediate corrective action to ensure a smooth start-up. This means you won’t just be starting “somehow”—production will run smoothly and meet the required quality standards from day one.

A man, bald, with blue eyes and glasses, smiling, wearing a white shirt and a dark blue suit, standing with both hands in his pants pockets
A man, bald, with blue eyes and glasses, smiling, wearing a white shirt and a dark blue suit, standing with both hands in his pants pockets
Martin Betz
Director

Talk to us

Whether it’s production strategy, production optimization, or digital transformation: In a brief discussion, we’ll determine which steps make sense and how KBC—an international boutique consulting firm based in Munich—can help you move forward. We’ll get back to you shortly.

Discuss the project