If your business has any of these signs, please contact us to discuss ways to improve.
Financial Dirty Dozen signs of decline:
- Declining revenue
- Declining gross margin
- Increasing overhead against flat or declining revenue
- Sustained losses, especially for more than 12 months
- Stretched accounts payable
- Substantial back taxes
- Vendors require cash on delivery or cash in advance
- Liquidity crisis — scramble to meet payroll
- Going concern opinion
- The bank has recommended the client hire an outside consultant
- Assigned to their lender’s workout group or operating under a forbearance agreement
- Filed, planning to file, or asking about bankruptcy
Operational Dirty Dozen signs of decline:
- Disorganized shop, dirty machines, poorly kept grounds, office clutter
- Scrap bins are full/high rework
- Poor delivery performance
- Excessive inventory — especially work-in-progress
- Excessive material movement
- Idle equipment/low equipment utilization
- No work instructions/no standard operating procedures
- Lack of visible metrics
- High employee turnover
- Absence of employee and management interaction
- High accident incident rate
- Management defensiveness