Business and market structure
Industrial performance depends on the interaction of product mix, customer terms, purchasing and production. A volume increase can change capacity use and working capital while leaving the reported margin difficult to explain. We examine those relationships using the business's commercial, financial and operating records. The analysis can inform pricing, portfolio and cost decisions without substituting for engineering, safety or environmental assessments.
Areas of work
- Price realization
- Reconstruct invoiced prices, rebates, freight allowances and other customer terms. Examine how product specification, order size, channel and contract provisions explain price differences.
- Cost and capacity
- Assess the cost drivers behind production and service requirements. Test proposed changes against capacity, demand variability, implementation costs and operational constraints.
- Product and customer mix
- Compare contribution and cost to serve across the portfolio. Identify complexity that affects purchasing, production scheduling, inventory or customer support.
- Portfolio and investment
- Review expansion, equipment and business-unit proposals using consistent commercial and financial assumptions. Make shared costs and dependencies visible in the comparison.
Questions to assess
- Which commercial terms account for the gap between list and realized prices?
- How do small orders, specification changes and delivery requirements affect contribution?
- Does a proposed saving remove cost or shift it elsewhere?
- What demand and capacity assumptions support the investment plan?