choosing the right Food Manufacturing Consultant

Food and Drink Manufacturing Consultants have got two tasks;

To make your business more efficient (more profit from existing business) or, to increase your capacity (more profit from more business).

If you need help to choose the right person for your business, read on…

Four attributes to look for in a Food manufacturing Consultant;

Here are my recommendations on what to look for when choosing a Food Manufacturing Consultant:

1.        Experience – more than just food manufacturing.

2.        A fully stocked analysis toolkit – change needs methodology.

3.        Excellent communication skills – the most important attribute.

4.        Ability to deliver – can your consultant help you get it done?

1.Experience

You might think that this attribute is obvious, and you’d be right. Of course you want someone who has had plenty of hands-on experience that matches your needs. And, whilst you can find out whether they have that experience through testimonials and case studies, there’s no substitute for a good face to face discussion to find out whether they are a good cultural fit for your business.  But there’s plenty more to a good consultant than just having worked in your industry.

Commercial Acumen 

Your consultant is going to advise you on business improvement so they should not only understand the manufacturing process but also have a solid grasp of business fundamentals. It’s all well and good advising on a change programme but unless that programme can show a realistic return on investment, be well funded and can be supported by internal business functions (management, HR, financial etc.) then it may fail.

A good consultant will stay within a well-defined scope, but a great consultant will look beyond the scope for potential impact across the whole business.

Wins and Losses

There’s an old adage that says, ‘When employing a CEO, make sure they have had two successes and one failure’. That adage also applies to a consultant. The best advice will come from a person who knows what good looks like but who also knows where the bear traps are. Being able to use the experience of mistakes to inform business improvement advice is the sign of a good consultant.

Industry insights

Your food manufacturing consultant will not know everything about everything, but they should at least know someone who knows!

For example, your consultant will likely review whether there is a business case for improved automation at various process steps. That doesn't mean that they are a robotics specialist, but they should know who to turn to for trusted professional advice in that discipline.

So, don't expect immediate answers to everything but do expect well researched, precise answers over time.

2.Analysis Tools

An experience consultant will be able to pick from a well stocked toolkit to analyse your existing processes and to measure the impact of those improvements. A bad consultant will enjoy telling you all about the tools, over use acronyms and perhaps drop the odd Japanese term into the conversation at every available opportunity.  Using the jargon of process analysis among people who are not schooled in the discipline is quite simply bad communication.

A good consultant will use the fewest number of tools to get the job done in order to maintain clarity of purpose and efficiency of delivery. 

An efficient plumber will only take the necessary tools from their van to fix your central heating boiler, they will not need the whole van!

3.Communication Skills

Excellent communication is the most important attribute that you should look for in a consultant. The quality of communication will define the degree of success of your project. All great consultants have great communication skills. 

At the outset, your consultant's engagement with the business/project owner needs to be professional and efficient. The consultant must show that they have understood your business’s needs and then translate them into a project plan that will get 'buy-in' across your team and will deliver the outcomes that your business needs.

Clear, precise, transparent and accessible communication across all stakeholder groups is a critical component of a well-managed and well executed business improvement project. So make sure that your consultant is a consummate communicator.

4.Project Delivery

When existing processes have been analysed, improvement targets have been set and buy-in has been achieved across stakeholders then it’s time to get things done.

You may employ your consultant as a hands-on project lead or perhaps in an advisory capacity to mentor key personnel in your team. Either way, you need someone who is focused, calm, robust but flexible. They need to be single minded in delivering the improvement project whilst being responsive to changing circumstances and empathetic to the requirements of the people affected by change.

I recommend engaging a consultant who delivers projects in a modular, progressive format. Staged project development is a pragmatic approach and allows for review and amendment at key stages. In most circumstances this method gives a greater degree of control for the business/project owner who will have the facility to pause, reflect and amend a project's direction according to changing circumstances.

A multi-disciplinary perspective

Make sure that your food manufacturing consultant addresses impacts of change across all the key disciplines that are required to make food or drink products;

• Food safety / legality

• Health, wellness and safety of employees

• Environmental impact

• Product consistency / quality

• Consumer satisfaction

• Supply

• Ingredient / packaging storage

• Manufacturing capacity

• Process efficiency

• Wastage

• Finished product storage

• Despatch / delivery

There's no point in re-configuring your manufacturing processes if one of the outcomes is a negative impact on employee wellness or food safety!

Can you do it yourself?

Yes, you can but be aware of the degree of focus and attention that you need to give to make any major changes in your business fixed and permanent.

For a major project, you are going to need the time to stand back from your business, analyse the movement of products, people and information,  and then, create a strategy for improvement, put that strategy into action, get 'buy in' from your teams and then make that strategy happen?

When your change project is small, you may be able to handle this successfully in-house. But for larger projects, typically, business operators are too close to the day-to-day management of their businesses to be able to give the time and objectivity that such a major project needs.

Conclusion

Some business owners don’t think they need outside help, some recognise that they could use help but don’t want to spend money, some are too busy keeping their business going to have the time and space for improvement. Some business owners recognise the valuable help that a fresh pair of eyes can bring to their business.

Whichever category you fall into, perhaps you should think about contacting a food manufacturing Consultant to discuss how they could help improve your business? It’ll cost you nothing for that first meeting and, you never now, it might be the start of a whole new chapter in your business’s growth!

and finally...

In this article, I’ve highlighted my top 4 attributes that I hope will help you to select the right consultant for your business needs.  There is however, one more question which, perhaps should be at the top of your list when choosing someone who will be integral to working with you to take your business to the next stage…do you like them?

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