01« Our costs are rising faster than our prices. »
Decision
Where to act (purchasing, processes, range) without losing quality.
Deliverable
Cost map by step and a costed gains plan.
A few weeks
Operations and Operational Excellence
Find the bottleneck that limits everything else.
Costs, lead times, quality, capacity, suppliers: when margins tighten, operations decide. Aegryn maps your flow from order to cash, decides where to act first, then leads implementation with your teams.
What we observe
≈ 1 in 4
MEM industry companies (machinery, electrical, metals) had a negative EBIT margin in 2025; a further 29% barely covered their capital and R&D costs
Swissmem, August 2026
−3.8%
revenue for MEM industry SMEs in the first half of 2026, versus +2.5% for the sector as a whole; capacity utilisation of 81.1% in Q2 2026 against a long-term average of 85.6%
Swissmem, August 2026
70.0
Swiss industrial purchase price index in September 2026 (50 = stable), while the overall index remains in expansion at 55.3
procure.ch–UBS, via Trading Economics, 1 Oct. 2026
The recovery is uneven: orders are returning and large groups benefit, while SMEs see revenue fall and capacity run below usual levels. Meanwhile, purchase prices remain under pressure.
Nearly three in four MEM SMEs rate their situation as unfavourable in the April 2026 Swissmechanic survey, and about four in ten saw margins decline in the first quarter. The gap does not close through everyone’s effort: it closes by treating the right point first.
What this changes
An improvement nobody measures disappears within six months. The question is not “what can we optimise?” but “which bottleneck limits the whole, and how will we know it is fixed?”.
What you get
01
A flow measured end to end, with one indicator per step.
02
Verifiable gains, tied to a lever and an owner.
03
An organisation that holds the improvements after we leave.
Six situations
Where you stand. How we step in.
01
02« Our lead times and quality vary from order to order. »
Decision
Which processes to standardise, which to keep bespoke.
Deliverable
Key-process mapping, service indicators, standardisation plan.
Short engagement
03« A critical supplier puts us at risk. »
Decision
Diversify, stock or integrate.
Deliverable
Supplier-dependency map and securing plan (second source, safety stock).
A few weeks
04« Our capacity is under-used, or saturated. »
Decision
Invest, outsource or reorganise.
Deliverable
Capacity-bottleneck analysis and three costed scenarios.
One to two months
05« We must cut costs without damaging the company. »
Decision
Which costs, in what order, with what risk for the teams.
Deliverable
A costed reduction plan by lever, with a timetable and stop criteria, respecting staff information and consultation duties.
Three to six months
06« We are taking over an activity: how do we run the whole? »
Decision
Which sites, processes and suppliers to keep.
Deliverable
Operational integration plan (sites, purchasing, systems).
One to two months
What we do: deciding (Frame)
- 01Map the flow from order to cash and its bottlenecks.
- 02Diagnose costs, lead times and quality step by step.
- 03Analyse capacity (sites, teams, equipment) and arbitrate investing, outsourcing or reorganising.
- 04Assess dependency on critical suppliers and define the securing plan.
- 05Define purchasing and inventory policy, linked to the cash plan (Finance and Performance).
- 06Size the cost-reduction plan and its risks.
Our framework
The Flow Map, from order to cash
A two-page document, updated at every step of the programme.
A real order
Follow one real order, from customer request to payment.
Step-by-step measure
Measure lead time, quality and cost at each step.
Bottleneck
Identify the bottleneck that limits the whole.
One at a time
Treat one bottleneck at a time, and measure the result before moving to the next.
Deliverable
The flow map and its indicators table, reviewed weekly by the team.
Implement
Implementing what was decided, through to acceptance.
- 01
Lead the improvement programme: process standardisation, indicators, steering routines.
- 02
Implement the purchasing plan: renegotiation, second source, tracking of gains.
- 03
Roll out the operational dashboards (custom tools where needed, see Technology and Sovereignty).
- 04
Lead the cost-reduction plan with management, with change management from Talent and Organisation.
An operations director or part-time operations lead can reinforce the team: this assignment runs through Talent (interim profiles).
Engagement modes: we deliver, we deliver with experts, or we coordinate experts of your choosing.
Going further
Confidential scoping call
Thirty minutes with a named expert from our network, accountable for their scope. No commitment at this stage; terms follow the scoping call.
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