Two hours. A fresh pair of eyes. A clear picture of where productivity is being lost — and how to win it back.

Almco’s free 2-hour operational excellence diagnostic gives manufacturing MDs and Operations Directors an honest, structured view of where the operation is leaking time, cost and margin — and exactly where to act first. No obligation. No jargon. No sales pitch.

Book Free Diagnostic

THE PROBLEM

You know something isn’t quite right. Delivery slips. Costs creep. Margins squeeze. The team is working flat out but the numbers aren’t moving. The frustrating part is that you’re too close to the operation to see clearly where the real problem sits — and where the quickest, highest-impact win actually is.

That’s what the diagnostic is for.

WHAT YOU GET

In two hours, on your shop floor, you’ll walk away with:

  • A clear, honest baseline of how your operation is performing across six critical areas
  • A visual scorecard (radar chart) that pinpoints your strengths and your biggest improvement opportunities
  • A short list of priority actions — what to tackle first for the biggest return
  • An evidence-based starting point you can use whether you work with us or not

No 40-page report. No consultancy speak. Just clarity.

THE SIX AREAS WE EXAMINE

The diagnostic measures your operation against six dimensions that, together, determine whether you’re competitive — or quietly bleeding margin.

  1. Purpose & Customer — Are you set up to deliver what your customer actually values?
  2. Quality — How well do you build it right first time?
  3. Cost — Where is money being lost to waste, rework and inefficiency?
  4. Delivery — How reliably do you hit promised dates?
  5. Flow — How smoothly does work move from order to despatch?
  6. People — Are your team engaged, equipped and aligned to improve?

Each area is scored against defined criteria and weighted by impact — so your final scorecard reflects where the biggest opportunities actually sit, not just where things feel uncomfortable.

WHAT YOUR RESULTS LOOK LIKE

You’ll receive a simple, visual scorecard — a radar chart showing your performance across all six dimensions at a glance. No spreadsheets to wade through. No jargon. One picture that tells you, and your senior team, exactly where you stand and where to focus.

HOW TO PREPARE

To get the most out of your two hours, a small amount of preparation makes a big difference.

Before the visit, please:

  • Brief your team. Let people know a diagnostic is taking place and what it’s for. This is not about pointing fingers or suggesting anyone isn’t doing their job. It’s a fresh pair of eyes on the operation — drawing a line in the sand so you can see what’s working well, what could be better, and where.
  • Have evidence ready. Recent performance data — OTIF, scrap rates, productivity, downtime, key KPIs — saved somewhere accessible. We don’t need it all polished. We just don’t want to lose time hunting for it.
  • Identify two or three people we should walk the floor with. Ideally a mix — someone strategic, someone operational, someone hands-on.
  • Block the time properly. Two uninterrupted hours. Phones down where possible.

The clearer the picture going in, the sharper the picture coming out.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

There’s no catch. The diagnostic is free because we believe you should know what you’re buying before you spend a pound on improvement. If the diagnostic identifies work worth doing and you’d like our help, we’ll discuss that separately. If not, you keep the scorecard and the action list — no obligation, no follow-up sales pressure.

A short conversation with you and your key people, a structured walk of the operation, and a quick review of the evidence you’ve made available. We score as we go, building your scorecard live. You’ll get the radar chart and the priority actions before we leave site.

You (MD or Operations Director) for the opening and closing conversation. One or two operational leads to walk the floor with us. We don’t need to disrupt the whole team — but a brief, honest conversation with two or three shop-floor people helps us calibrate what we’re seeing.

A Lean audit usually grades you against a methodology. The Almco diagnostic measures your operation against what actually drives competitiveness — quality, cost, delivery, flow, people, and strategic fit. It’s outcome-led, not tool-led. And it’s grounded in over 30 years of hands-on improvement work across manufacturing and other complex sectors.

You own the scorecard and the priority actions. You can act on them yourself, hand them to your team, or — if you’d like — we can scope a focused piece of work to tackle the biggest opportunity together. Whatever you decide, the diagnostic stands on its own.

Ready to see where your operation could be performing harder?

Operations Manager getting ready to book an operational excellence diagnostic with Almco

Book your free 2-hour Operational Excellence Diagnostic. We’ll come to you, work alongside your team, and leave you with a clear picture of where to focus first.

Book Free Diagnostic

Please review our diagnostic terms & conditions before booking.

Almco Ltd · Operational excellence for UK manufacturers · almco.uk