Member of Russell Bedford International, a global network of independent professional service firms.
Member of Russell Bedford International, a global network of independent professional service firms.
Raw material costs shift by the week, your workforce shifts by the season, and the margin you’re counting on can disappear faster than most business owners expect. For more than 54 years, Cray Kaiser has worked alongside manufacturers throughout the Chicago area, both on the floor and in the financials. That vantage point is what lets us catch issues early and help you turn them into stronger margins.
Manufacturing is a dozen different industries, each with their own cost drivers, margin pressures, and blind spots. Over five decades, we’ve worked alongside manufacturers across a wide range of sectors, including:
From raw materials to finished goods, we understand how the details shift from one production floor to the next. Our manufacturing clients also include:
Our team has spent decades on the floors of Chicago-area manufacturing plants seeing firsthand what separates a profitable operation from one quietly losing money. In this conversation, managing principal Deanna Salo and principal Brian Kot talk through the real challenges they see most often with manufacturing clients, from costing models to an incomplete bill of materials.
We’ve walked a production floor mid-shift change and watched twenty employees stand idle for two hours with no one managing the schedule. We’ve reviewed time records and found that temporary labor hours were never being approved the same way full-time hours were, a gap that was quietly inflating labor costs every week. And we’ve seen how manufacturers, with vendors scattered across the globe and money moving constantly between them, face a level of cybersecurity exposure that most businesses don’t. These aren’t hypothetical risks. They’re patterns we’ve caught in real engagements. It’s that kind of hands-on attention that sets our approach apart.
Your bill of materials is only as useful as it is complete. We consistently see manufacturers underpricing their products because their costing models leave out real expenses, like the employment taxes layered on top of an hourly wage, or the rent and overhead that quietly never gets accounted for. A fully loaded BOM (bill of materials), reviewed regularly as raw material costs shift, is what protects your gross profit margin. Learn more about how inventory tracking and costing accuracy affect your bottom line in our blog.
Whether it’s a costing model that needs a second look, a labor process that could use tighter oversight, or tightening up your procedures and controls around bill payments, our team is ready to help. We believe in empowering our clients with the knowledge and understanding needed to make confident decisions. As your trusted advisors, we’re here to make that happen.
