Harbour-Felax Group

Areas of Expertise

Business Assessments
Our consultants perform an on-site examination of the total operation from receipt of raw material through finished goods including support functions, i.e. purchasing, materials, human resources, finance, information technology, program management and engineering. Our standardized evaluation tool allows for comparative analysis across commodity groups. Upon completion, we provide a dashboard and several other analyses along with observations and recommendations for improvement.

Performance Improvements
Harbour-Felax Group teaches clients to employ specific tools in transforming their operations and sustaining that success for the future. The tools we use include: policy deployment, operational improvement/lean systems; APQP integration and implementation; Six-Sigma methodologies; launch support; product development efficiency; supplier development; minority company growth; and program management to name a few. This performance improvement is based on our four phase model to reach competitiveness. Additionally, we support companies with turnkey launch readiness support and program management to assist launch managers in their challenging role. Our team understands the launch process and can effectively help your company and your suppliers get your product, process and people ready.

Supply Chain Management
At Harbour-Felax Group we have teamed with some of the best partners in the industry to provide full service capabilities in Supply Chain Management. Our team helps companies assess their purchasing operations and develop dramatic improvements in efficiency and cost in a short period of time. Additionally, we are supporting customers with low cost country sourcing, consolidation of parts, cost reduction and strategic sourcing. Then when the time is right we help companies develop a proactive supplier development program and work to assess suppliers and keep them profitable and healthy for our customer.

Strategic Advisory, Business Growth Advisory and Benchmarking
With our hands-on experience in the manufacturing industry, including the United States, Europe and Asia, many companies around the globe and Wall Street and financial institutions call on the Harbour-Felax Group's knowledge of the industry to provide trend analysis, background information, and investment recommendations. We are working with several companies to assess their operations and develop detailed strategies to face the head winds coming at them or position them well for the future.

One of the largest concerns of many companies is how do I diversify my business? If I’m an auto supplier I would like to win business with the Japanese or German. If I’m in plastics I want to expand to medical or aerospace from automotive but how do I do that? Also they need to know how to support customers globally. With our expertise in planning and operations our team assists companies to grow their business with foreign companies in order to balance their portfolio as well as supports companies that are looking to move out of one industry into another.

Lastly transformation starts with understanding the company's current state. In addition to the Automotive Competitiveness Challenges: Going Beyond Lean study, we have conducted other specialized benchmarking studies and intend to publish a detailed automotive tooling study in the fall of 2008. This study will focus on the cost differences among OEMs for supplier tooling along with the comparison of tools made in low cost countries versus North America and highlight inefficient practices in product development, process engineering and purchasing among major OEMs globally.

Additionally, Laurie Harbour-Felax personally provides “State of the Industry” presentations to many suppliers, financial firms and private equity firms. These presentations typically consist of half day visits that include a detailed presentation tailored to meet the needs of your organization along with discussion and often times break out sessions to plan or focus on a certain area of concern. If you are interested in this type of presentation for your future planning and education of the team simply contact us at 248-320-3584 for more information.

Harbour-Felax Group is also frequently called upon to provide industry expert commentary for the media and at various key automotive and manufacturing conferences.