UK Manufacturing Consultants Helping You Understand Why Your Factory Isn't Performing
When you give customers a delivery date, is there a real plan behind it or hope?
Levantar is a UK manufacturing consultancy helping manufacturers increase factory capacity, reduce lead times and improve delivery performance; without automatically adding people, equipment or space.
We diagnose why factories aren't performing, establish what to fix first and work alongside manufacturing managers and teams to implement the improvements.
Start with a Factory Performance Diagnostic
Your factory is busy. But is it performing?
Delivery is slipping
Orders are late, priorities keep changing and customers need chasing.
Output isn't keeping up with demand
You've tried overtime, more people, Lean, software or equipment but capacity still feels tight.
Management is firefighting
Production managers are solving today's problems instead of controlling tomorrow's work.
These often look like separate problems. Usually they aren't. The first job is to understand what is actually causing them.
Most factories jump straight to "quick" fixes.
New systems; ERP, CRM, Shop Floor Recording. Lean projects, Leadership changes, More Staff, Overtime, New Bonus Schemes.
These solutions are often fixing the wrong thing.
Before making changes, the most valuable step is to get a clear, fact-based view of:
what your factory can realistically deliver, every week, every month
where capacity is actually constrained, what is really holding you back
and why delivery dates, lead times, costs are being missed
What Happened After the Right Problems Were Fixed With Levantar
Yorkshire Machinery Manufacturer
10% → 90%+ On-Time Delivery, achieved within 10 weeks. Turnover UP 40% for the year
Cambridgeshire World Leading Digital Machinery Manufacturer
Build time reduced 47 → 20 days build time, alongside On Target Delivery improving from 20% to 95%.
Agricultural Fabrication Manufacturer,
Weekly throughput increased £120k → £190k achieved within one month while recovering the order backlog.
Real Results from UK Manufacturing Firms include...
What Happened After Levantar Fixed the Right Problems?
✅ On-time delivery: 10% → 90% in four months
A Yorkshire machinery manufacturer improved production control and kitting. Assembly times reduced by 20%, while annualised output increased from £43m to £58m.
✅ Lead time: 47 days → 20 days
A Cambridgeshire digital machinery manufacturer improved OTD from 20% to 95%, reduced build time by more than half and removed recurring build-quality issues, using lean manufacturing techniques.
✅ Production scheduling: £120k → £190k per week
A fabrication manufacturer that was a full month behind caught up on its order book after introducing better scheduling, daily management meetings and the Golden Hour, to get the improvement took just a month.
✅ Manufacturing capacity: 7 → 12 orders per month with the same-sized team
Improved scheduling, daily meetings, factory re-layout and Kanban increased throughput without increasing team size. In just 3 months the business increased output by 70%. It increased the options for the operational strategic directions that the company could explore.
Same factories. Better flow, capacity and control.
In each case, the answer wasn't more people or equipment. It was finding and recovering capacity already being lost.
Levantar is a UK manufacturing consultancy helping manufacturers understand why their factories aren't performing and what to fix first.
With over 30 years of production and operations management experience, we help businesses improve delivery, increase output, reduce lead times and regain control — without automatically investing in more people, machinery or software.
Our Factory Performance Diagnostic Review & Action Plan identifies what's holding your factory back, what needs to change and where to start.
Under pressure to deliver? Call Mark on 07712 669396 for an initial conversation about your factory's performance.
Signs your manufacturing system is no longer in control?
r Late deliveries affecting customers?
r Growing WIP and queues?
r Overtime without enough extra output?
r Constantly changing production priorities?
r Departments blame each other for production problems?
r Managers spending their day firefighting?
r Investment in people, systems or equipment that hasn't solved the problem?
What it feels like to improve….
✅ More finished output
✅ Shorter and more predictable lead times
✅ Reliable production schedules with less chasing orders
✅ Managers working and planning ahead rather than chasing today
✅ Growth without constantly adding people, space, machines and overtime
How Levantar Improves Factory Performance Differently
1. Understand the factory you're actually running
A production line, batch manufacturer and complex machine builder need different approaches to planning, scheduling, stock, skills and managing production.
We identify which of the five Manufacturing Operating Models fits your factory, so we can establish the right production controls, buffers, skills and management structure.
2. Factory performance comes from flow, not busyness
No that isn't a typo.
Keeping every machine and department busy doesn't necessarily increase factory output. Sometimes it makes things worse.
We focus on how work moves through the entire factory, not the efficiency of individual machines or departments.
Read why: Why Maximising Every Machine Can Reduce Factory Output
3. Manage the factory ahead of time
When managers spend today chasing yesterday's late orders, nobody is preparing the factory for tomorrow.
We help managers develop the planning, daily routines and skills to anticipate problems, keep production moving and stay in control.
4. Diagnose before improving
Don't start with Lean, ERP, new machinery or replacing managers until you know what's actually causing the problem.
As factories grow, their original ways of working often struggle to cope with greater demand and complexity.
We identify the underlying causes, not just the symptoms, so improvements address the real problems.
Imagine what a fresh pair of eyes might help you to see.
If you're trying to work out where the real problem is, I've set out the process I use in How to Diagnose Why a Factory Isn't Performing.
From Diagnosis to Lasting Improvement
We don't just identify problems and produce reports. We work alongside your managers and teams to design and implement improvements, then build the management routines needed to sustain them.
Start with a Factory Performance Diagnostic Review
1
DIAGNOSE
2
PRIORITISE
3
DESIGN
4
IMPLEMENT
5
EMBED
Which of our Manufacturing Consulting Services are Right For Your Factory?
Factory Performance Diagnostic Review & Action Plan
Not sure what's wrong or what to fix first? We review your factory from order to dispatch, uncover what's limiting performance and give you a prioritised action plan to improve capacity, delivery and control.
Lean Manufacturing & Process Improvement
Have previous improvement programmes failed to deliver lasting results? We work alongside your team to eliminate wasted time, improve production flow and make practical improvements that deliver measurable results.
Manufacturing Leadership Coaching & Mentoring
Are your managers struggling to deliver the results you need? Develop the skills, confidence and management routines your production leaders need to run the factory, solve problems and sustain improvements.
Manufacturing Operations Strategy
Is your factory ready for the next stage of growth? Plan the capacity, production systems, organisation and investment your manufacturing business needs to grow successfully.
Factory Layout & Relocation
Moving factory, expanding production or reorganising your workspace?
We help you design layouts that improve material flow, make better use of space and support future production requirements.
Mark Greenhouse - UK Manufacturing Consultant
Mark Greenhouse is a UK manufacturing consultant with more than 30 years’ experience in manufacturing and operations. It's his experience that we've distilled into these services for manufacturing firms.
He helps manufacturers understand why their factories are not performing and what to fix first and then helps with hands-on guidance.
About Mark and his manufacturing experience, podcasts & presentations →
And you can find more information about Lean Production Systems if you're not sure what Lean is or what that means.
Manufacturing Insights, Tip and Stories - on Linkedin
Most Days I Share Insight, Tips and Stories About Management in Manufacturing, Industry and Factories On Linkedin. The Latest Posts To My Feed are Shown Below.
If you want to connect on Linkedin either search for my name OR click the link here Mark Greenhouse Linkedin Profile.
levantar (verb) - to lift, to raise up
Leeds University – Lean Management Workshops
Since 2010 we’ve taken well over 4,000 people through our Lean Manufacturing and Management workshop thanks to the Operations and Supply Chain team at Leeds University Business School.
Manufacturing Consulting – Transform
Want to know what a manufacturing consultant actually does? Read our guide → What Does a Manufacturing Consultant Do?
Frequently Asked Questions About Factory Performance
Why is my factory missing delivery dates even though everyone is busy?
A busy factory is not necessarily a well-controlled factory. Orders can still run late when work is released too early, priorities keep changing, too much WIP is in the system, the true constraint is not being managed or managers spend the day reacting to today’s problems instead of protecting tomorrow’s production. The issue is usually not effort; it is how work flows through the whole manufacturing system. Your diagnostic guide already sets out these underlying failure mechanisms very clearly.
Read more: How to Diagnose Why a Factory Isn’t Performing
Why can a factory have a capacity problem when machines are not fully utilised?
Because factory capacity is not the sum of how busy every machine is. Overall output is controlled by the resource, process, skill or decision that limits flow through the system. A factory can therefore have spare capacity in several departments and still be unable to produce enough finished product. Trying to maximise every machine can actually create more WIP and longer lead times without increasing throughput.
Read more: Why Maximising Every Machine Can Reduce Factory Output
How do I know which factory bottleneck or problem to fix first?
Start by identifying what is actually restricting finished output, delivery or lead time rather than making a list of everything that could be improved. I look at demand, how work really flows, the true constraint and why that constraint exists. Improvements can then be separated into Fix First, Fix Next and Fix Later so management focuses on the small number of issues that will materially improve factory performance rather than launching dozens of projects at once. Levantar
Read more: How to Diagnose Why a Factory Isn’t Performing
Can excess work in progress increase manufacturing lead times?
Yes. If work enters the factory faster than the system can complete it, queues build between processes. That work then spends more time waiting rather than being processed. If throughput stays the same but WIP increases, manufacturing lead time increases too. More work on the shop floor can therefore make a factory look busier while customer orders actually take longer to complete.
Read more: Why Maximising Every Machine Can Reduce Factory Output
How do I know whether I need more equipment, more people or a manufacturing consultant?
First prove that you genuinely have a capacity shortage. A busy machine, overloaded department or regular overtime does not automatically mean the factory needs another machine or more people. Capacity may already exist but be lost through waiting, poor scheduling, changeovers, work release, material shortages, batching or an unmanaged constraint. A proper diagnosis should tell you what is limiting throughput before you commit capital or permanently increase headcount.
Read more: Factory Performance Diagnostic Review
Why do manufacturing managers end up constantly firefighting?
Firefighting usually develops because the management system is reacting to problems too late. The schedule stops controlling priorities, managers chase shortages and urgent orders, recurring problems are repeatedly fixed rather than prevented, and nobody has protected time to look ahead. Good factory management needs to operate across three horizons: manage today, learn from yesterday and prevent tomorrow’s problems.
Read more: Your Production Manager Needs A Golden Hour