Frequently AskedQuestions.

Trapped Cash is working capital created by cross-functional decisions rather than by demand: safety stock created by forecast error, buy-ahead purchasing against supplier variability, WIP built by batch logic, and receivables stretched by commercial concessions. Each decision is locally rational; together they routinely hold 25 to 35% more working capital than the business needs. Because no single department created the problem, no single department can see it or fix it.

Common signals: inventory growing faster than revenue, days inventory outstanding creeping up, a lengthening cash conversion cycle, working capital that keeps coming back after every reduction program, and departments that all hit their KPIs while cash stays tight. If two or more of those sound familiar, a working capital diagnostic will almost certainly find recoverable cash.

Across manufacturers we analyze, the interactions between departments typically hold 4 to 12% of revenue in recoverable cash, margin and throughput. In the cases on our Results page, identified Trapped Cash ranged from $6.2M at a $50MM manufacturer to $30M at a $500MM manufacturer.

Lean improves flow and Six Sigma reduces variation within processes. Both are valuable inside their boundaries. Enterprise Value Intelligence™ operates one level up: its unit of analysis is the interaction between functions. It measures in dollars how purchasing decisions change inventory, how scheduling changes delivery, and how maintenance changes throughput. Those tools improve parts of the system; we quantify the value trapped between the parts.

ERP tells you what happened, function by function. Financial reporting tells you where the money landed. Dashboards aggregate departmental KPIs, and every metric can be green while enterprise value declines, because losses live in the trade-offs between metrics. Enterprise Value Intelligence™ uses your standard ERP data but analyzes it relationally, tracing decision chains across functions and pricing what each interaction costs.

Senior manufacturing executives with 25+ years of operating experience: people who have run plants, managed supply chains and owned P&Ls. The people you meet on the first call are the people who do the analysis. There is no bench of junior analysts.

Conventional reviews benchmark inventory and receivables against industry ratios and mandate reductions. We trace the specific cross-functional decisions that create each pool of trapped cash: forecast practice, purchasing behavior, batch sizing, supplier performance and payment terms drift, and we price each mechanism. The result is a cause-level map, validated by your Finance team, so cash is released by engineering, not decree.

Before you see the final result, every opportunity is reviewed with your own Finance team: assumptions, baselines and math. Finance signs off, and that validated number becomes the benchmark the engagement is measured against. You never have to defend consultant math to your board.

One week. Days 1 and 2: data and executive interviews using ERP extracts and financials you already have. Days 3 to 5: enterprise analysis tracing cross-functional interactions. Days 6 and 7: Finance validation and executive readout. No new systems, no six-month diagnostic, no disruption to the operation.

A fixed fee, agreed before we begin, scaled to the size and complexity of your operation. In our experience the validated opportunities identified are a large multiple of the fee. If we don't believe your situation will produce that, we tell you before you spend anything.

Enterprise Value Realization fixes the cross-functional causes: stabilizing schedules, correcting batch and safety-stock logic, restructuring buy-ahead purchasing and tightening order-to-cash. Opportunities are sequenced by the best combination of value, speed to cash and feasibility, so cash arrives early and the program funds itself. In published cases, 79 to 80% of identified cash was released within 90 days.

No. Mandated inventory cuts hurt service because the causes are untouched and the system rebuilds the inventory. We release cash by fixing the system that made the cash necessary. In every published case, service levels were maintained or improved while cash was recovered.

The third stage of the model, where Seniors works as your Operational Excellence partner: sustaining and expanding the gains across margin, throughput, quality and on-time delivery, building management capability, and preventing value from becoming trapped again. It is typically funded by the cash Realization has already released.