Industry · Manufacturing
Virtual CFOs for manufacturers — find the margin leak before it finds you.
Cost accounting, cash-flow against long supplier terms, shop-floor process — all in one boardroom.
Where it hurts
The manufacturing pains we step into.
Cost-of-goods-sold accuracy
Inventory cost is inherited from the last person who set it up. Overhead is allocated by tradition, not by data. We rebuild your cost model so the COGS line tells the truth.
Cash flow against long supplier terms
Suppliers want 30 days, customers take 60, and your wages run weekly. A working-capital plan and a 13-week cash forecast turn the bank-balance roulette into a calendar.
Process inefficiencies on the shop floor
The bottleneck moves. SOPs drift. We send an Operations Strategist in for a process audit, then leave behind documentation your team will actually use.
Investor- or bank-required reporting
If a lender or shareholder is going to ask, we'd rather they read your management pack than send you a list of unanswered questions.
What "fixed" looks like
Outcomes we work toward, 90 days in.
Pattern-based engagements drawn from a CIMA-CGMA finance career. Not client-specific case studies — the first published case studies launch with our pilot customers in 2026.
Pattern 1 of 3
The COGS reset
The situation: Margin is slipping and no one at the management table can point to exactly why.
What we do
- Trace one product line through the real cost model — raw, overhead, labour, yield.
- Re-allocate overhead onto a defensible base rate that reflects today's mix.
- Rank the leaks by rand impact and fix the biggest one first.
Outcome shape
Typically 200–400 bps of gross margin recovered in the first 6 months — without changing list prices. Directional, not a guarantee.
Pattern 2 of 3
The 13-week cash plan
The situation: Supplier terms are tightening, retailer payments are stretching, and the weekly wage run doesn't blink.
What we do
- Build the 13-week rolling cash forecast tied to real AR/AP ageing.
- Renegotiate the worst supplier terms with data, not goodwill.
- Size and pitch a working-capital line that matches the cash gap.
Outcome shape
Bank-balance volatility moves from weekly panic to a calendar event. Working-capital line approved within 90 days in most cases we've seen.
Pattern 3 of 3
The lender-ready bank pack
The situation: A credit-line review is six weeks out and last year's pack was thrown together the night before.
What we do
- Covenant tracking, ageing analyses, projected ratios — built once, kept current monthly.
- Rebuild the 13-week cash in the format the lender actually reads.
- Stress-test the model against the bank's downside scenario before they ask.
Outcome shape
Renewal conversations move from defensive to strategic. Better terms in roughly 1 in 3 cases — never a promise, always the goal.
Outcome shapes are directional and drawn from JD's prior engagements. Your situation will differ — the free 30-minute diagnostic is where we calibrate.
Most-relevant seats
The right people for manufacturing.
Frequently asked
The questions you'd ask if we were across the table.
The margin is in there. We'll find it together.
Walk into the boardroom. Pick the seat. Book a free 30-minute diagnostic — we'll show you where to look first.