A method with five steps and no mystery
Every Birch & Elm engagement follows the same arc. You always know which step you are in, what it costs, and what lands at the end of it.
01 · The call
Thirty minutes, no charge, no slides. You describe the symptom; we ask about a dozen questions and tell you honestly whether this is something we do well. Roughly a third of these calls end with a referral elsewhere.
02 · Scoping visit
Half a day on site. We see the operation, meet the people who will be involved, and gather enough to write a scope that will not need renegotiating. Also free.
03 · Written proposal
Scope, deliverables, dates, named consultant, fixed fee, and what we need from you. Two pages, plain English, no annexes designed to be skipped.
04 · The work
Floor time, data, interviews, analysis, and a written diagnostic within ten business days of the last site day. Then a two-hour readout with everyone who will have to act on it.
05 · Implementation & handover
Where you have engaged us to implement, we stay for a defined period, train your people, document the new standard, and check back at 30, 60 and 90 days.
“The proposal was two pages. I read it standing at the counter. That told me more about how they work than any capabilities deck would have.”
What we actually use
No proprietary framework with a trademark. These are the standard tools of the trade, applied properly.
Value-stream mapping
Current and future state, with real cycle times measured on the floor.
Time & work sampling
Observation studies to separate touch time from wait time honestly.
Cost-to-serve analysis
Margin by customer, product and route — often the most uncomfortable page in the report.
Constraint analysis
Finding the one step that sets the pace, before anyone buys another machine.
Standard work
Written by the operators, edited by us, posted where the work happens.
Structured interviews
Confidential, across levels. The floor always knows; someone has to ask.
Changeover reduction
Internal versus external setup, filmed and rebuilt with the crew.
Risk mapping
Key-person, supplier and single-point-of-failure exposure, scored and ranked.
What we ask of you
Access, honestly given
The floor, the data, and permission to talk to people without a manager in the room. Filtered access produces filtered findings, and you will have paid for them.
A decision-maker in the readout
Whoever can approve a change should hear the findings first-hand. Reports relayed second-hand lose their edge in a day.
Willingness to be told something unwelcome
Occasionally the constraint is a person, a customer, or a habit of the owner's. We will say so respectfully, in private, and once.
Ninety days of follow-through
Nothing on our list works if it is abandoned in week three. We build the schedule with you so that it is realistic before you sign it.
Let's look at the numbers together
A first conversation costs nothing and takes about thirty minutes. Bring one problem that keeps resurfacing — a late shipment, a bottleneck, a report nobody trusts — and we'll tell you honestly whether we can help and roughly what it would take.