Process design & improvement
Less hassle, more flow
Are your processes slowly sucking the life out of you and your employees? Are they frustrating and inefficient, or producing totally variable outcomes?
Let’s do something about that!
There are proven principles we can apply to your new or existing processes to make them easier to perform, more accurately produce results that meet your customers’ requirements, without any more expense, space, or time.
Really?!
Our services include:
Process design and innovation workshops
Process improvement workshops
Helping you create standard work
Teaching you the principles of effective processes: flow, pull, quality, visuals, proximity, reliable technology, and leveling the workload.
We’ll help you see things as they really are, then identify and execute changes to achieve the outcomes you want.
Once you know these things, you will have the ability to continuously improve and adapt your processes to face changes in demand, product type, technology, volume, and customer requirements.
Process is not just for the shop floor!
You have a process for everything you do. You just might not have thought about it that way before! We have redesigned processes including:
Budgeting & forecasting
Hiring
Marketing campaigns
Executive meetings
Purchasing & payments
Sales pursuits
Insurance claims
…in addition to physical processes such as receiving, stocking, food production, construction, picking, packing, shipping, and asset movements.
Case Study: Return to Profitability for a Worker-owned Food Producer
This client came to Growing Wild because it was losing ground, despite earlier attempts implementing Lean. Even with steady demand and a strong brand, its cost structure was unsustainable: direct production labor costs were too high be profitable, and loads of defective product were being scrapped. With quality a non-negotiable and price increases off the table, the business needed a smarter way forward.
Growing Wild led two consecutive improvement kata challenges, embedding a cycle of analysis, experimentation, and reflection. We involved the frontline team directly, helping them gather data, diagnose inefficiencies, and test solutions. We helped them pinpoint machine issues and bottlenecks that were hindering the production process.
Over four months, scrap dropped from 16% to nearly zero, and labor utilization improved by 10%. As the team’s confidence and freed-up time grew, they were able to launch a new value-added product line. Work became calmer and more collaborative, and the business returned to profitability: direct labor costs fell from 28% to 23% of revenue.
What made this engagement special was not just the results, but the culture shift: the people closest to the work were empowered, engaged, and now lead ongoing process improvement. As the Co-Owner put it, “Laurel has helped our diversified food business become more profitable… if we’d accessed what she does sooner, we’d be so much further ahead. Now, we’ve learned to fish.”