The situation
Recover a plant’s performance, and make it hold
An underperforming plant — delivery slipping, cost and quality under pressure. I diagnose on the floor, stabilise the basics, install the operating rhythm, and leave it holding after I go.
The report never shows you the real constraint
When delivery, quality or cost has slipped, the instinct is to reach for the obvious fix — more headcount, more overtime, a new machine. Usually that is not it. I go to the floor, find what is actually constraining the plant, stabilise the basics, then build the rhythm that keeps performance up long after the engagement ends.
I take operational charge of the recovery from diagnosis to handover — the plan, the priorities, and the daily rhythm that has to outlast me. I work with the team already in place wherever possible, changing roles only where I must, because a recovery that depends on new people rather than a new way of working rarely holds. The work starts on the floor, where the real causes usually sit, and connects straight up to governance so the fixes stay fixed. I have led recoveries like this from several chairs — engineering manager, operations manager and plant director — on operations under genuine delivery pressure throughout.
What I own
- The diagnosis and the practical plan, set on the floor
- The operating rhythm — daily management, KPI cadence from shift to site
- The constraint attack, ranked by cost per unit of capacity gained
- Supply chain and planning brought back under control
- The ownership handover, so it holds without me
Delivery lifted at a high-volume plant from 90% to 97%, sustained for years — with productivity up 7% a year, delivered as a hard annual target, on a plant already running at a high baseline.
The method
How I run a turnaround, end to end
Every plant is different; the method is not. This is the sequence I run to recover delivery, quality and cost, and to leave the operation running it without me.
Diagnose on the floor
I start at the machine and the shift meeting, not in a slide deck — what the takt, the losses and the people on the floor are actually saying, set against what the reports say. The two rarely fully agree, and the gap between them is where the real fix starts.
Done when the real constraint and its root cause are named, not just its symptoms.
Stabilise the basics
Before any improvement can hold, the basics have to: safety, standard work, 5S, and a plan-versus-actual that everyone trusts. Quick wins are taken immediately — visible enough that the floor believes the situation can change.
Done when the operation runs to a stable, agreed baseline on every shift, not only on the good days.
Install the operating rhythm
Daily management, shift handover and a KPI cadence that runs from the machine to the site — the same numbers, the same format, reviewed on a fixed clock rather than only when something goes wrong.
Done when the operating rhythm runs on schedule without me chasing it.
Attack the constraints
Define the real customer demand, the takt and the cycle time at each station, then rank every option — equipment, method or layout — by the cost per unit of capacity it buys. The cheapest fix that clears the constraint goes first, tracked daily against plan.
Done when the constraint has moved and the next one is named.
Build the ownership
Train the people who will run the rhythm after I leave — not just to follow it, but to own it: to chair the meetings, read the KPIs and make the next call themselves.
Done when the leadership team runs the daily and weekly cadence without me in the room.
Hand over holding
Stay accountable until performance holds on its own, across a full cycle, not only on the day of the handover. Close with a structured review of what is now built in, and what still needs watching.
Done when performance holds for a sustained period with the organisation driving it, not me.
Across all six steps, two things never move: safety and quality are held to target, and delivery keeps running throughout — the two things a customer and a workforce feel first.
Where this fits
Where it applies
The same method, aimed at whichever part of the operation has slipped furthest.
- Underperforming plants and delivery problems
- Output, quality and reliability recovery
- Weak operating rhythm and governance
- Supply chain and planning under strain
- Cost and productivity pressure
Separately, in a manual-assembly operation, I cut customer lead time in the order-driven flows — CTO/ETO from 26 working days to 5, and MTO from 29 to 7 — while bringing critical equipment back in-house.
Common questions
Recovering a plant, answered
How fast do you see results?
Fast enough to see the trend turn within the first weeks, on a scale that matters within a quarter — though I will not put one generic number on it, because every plant starts from a different baseline. What I can promise is the discipline behind it: diagnose fast, fix what is cheapest and fastest first, and track it daily so the direction is visible, not just reported. Done right, the engagement pays for itself before it ends.
What if the real problem is the team or the governance?
Then that is what gets fixed first. A recovery that only tunes the machines while the governance stays weak does not hold. I treat capability and structure as part of the diagnosis, not as an excuse, and I work with the team already in place wherever I can — changing roles only where I have to, and building daily ownership everywhere else. Most of the time the team was capable of more than the old rhythm ever asked of it.
Do the gains stick after you leave?
That is the actual measure of success, not a bonus outcome. The operating model — daily management, the KPI cadence, trained owners at every level — is built with the organisation, not handed to it, so it stays theirs to run once I am gone. At the plant where I have the longest track record, delivery was lifted from 90 to 97 percent and held there for years after the changes were made.
Turnaround or interim leadership — which do I need?
If the plant needs someone in the seat filling a real leadership gap for a defined period, that is interim leadership. If performance has slipped and you need someone to diagnose it, fix it and hand back a plant that holds, that is a turnaround, and it can run alongside your existing leadership rather than replacing it. Quite a few engagements are both at once; we settle which one fits in the first conversation.
Related situations: Interim operations leadership · Prototype to serial · Operating partnerAll services · About Soheil
Let’s talk
Plant underperforming?
If delivery, quality or cost has slipped and needs to be fixed — and held — let’s have a conversation. Fifteen minutes is usually enough to see whether I can help.
I reply within 24 hours.