Profit improvement for an aerospace and defense manufacturer

For more than 40 years, the Cherokee Nation Industries (CNI) family of companies has operated as government contractors in aerospace and defense manufacturing.

CNI supplies valuable parts to organizations such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Sikorsky and NASA’s International Space Station. Operating out of manufacturing facilities in Stilwell, Okla., Pryor, Okla. and Tahlequah, Okla., CNI’s aerospace and defense manufacturing businesses provide electrical, electro-mechanical, interconnect solutions, distributing, kitting and manufacturing cable and wire harness assemblies for commercial and military aircraft as well as various missile and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) programs.

For several years, CNI’s profitability was not meeting expectations. Maven was engaged to provide recommendations to CNI management on how the business could improve profitability. In the first phase of the work, a comprehensive profit diagnostic was conducted across the entire business where the Maven team identified 25+ profit improvement opportunities. In the second phase of the work, the 10 best opportunities were refined and action plans for achieving the results were develop in conjunction with the CNI management team.