Strategy and operations services for consumer products

Wipfli’s assessment services provide an effective, accessible way to evaluate your performance and establish internal and external benchmarks.

We take the results of our annual assessments — conducted in multiple sectors, including retail, distribution and manufacturing — and our analysis of your organization and turn them into actionable insights for your improvement.

Our assessment data can better position your company for long-term success by helping you identify gaps, opportunities and relevant best practices.

Access the custom research and data you need to develop more effective strategies with Wipfli’s benchmarking services.

Throughout the year, we collect and analyze data from hundreds of companies in multiple sectors, including retail, distribution and manufacturing. We then leverage that data to help you establish appropriate business and operations benchmarks.

Our tools include:

Optimize your operations and drive measurable results.

Wipfli’s operational improvement services are designed to help consumer products companies reduce costs, improve efficiency and build resilient operations. We work closely with your teams — from plant floor to the back office — to identify root causes, align stakeholders and implement lasting change.

Lean process improvement

We help eliminate non-value-added activities across your supply chain and production processes, enabling you to focus on what matters most: delivering quality products to your customers, faster and more efficiently.

Value stream mapping

Using value stream mapping and root cause analysis, we help you visualize your end-to-end processes — from raw material intake to finished goods — and identify opportunities to reduce downtime, improve yield and streamline workflows.

Operational analysis and benchmarking

We help you implement industry-specific best practices and actionable recommendations to improve throughput, reduce waste and enhance agility.

Technology enablement

We support the selection and implementation of ERP, MES and automation tools that streamline operations and improve traceability.

Automation

From packaging line automation to back-office process digitization, we help you identify and implement automation opportunities that reduce manual effort, improve accuracy and scale with your growth.

Documentation

We provide detailed process documentation that supports training, compliance and continuous improvement.

Wipfli’s overhead allocation workshops help provide clarity on how indirect costs flow through your business. We take a structured, collaborative approach that empowers leadership teams to make smarter decisions by aligning cost drivers with the activities and resource usage that drive overhead, enabling more accurate cost insights and informed decisions.

By participating in these workshops, consumer products companies gain more than just accurate cost allocations, they unlock clearer visibility into product and channel profitability, strengthen cross-functional alignment and establish a foundation for continuous improvement.

Participants leave with documentation of finalized allocation rules and recommendations for implementation and system integration. We also provide a clear action plan for testing, rollout and ongoing refinement.

Our workshops include:

Pre-workshop preparation

We begin by reviewing your chart of accounts, current allocation rules and organizational structure. This allows us to identify key cost areas and tailor the session to your business model.

Workshop kickoff

We start the session by aligning on your goals and clarifying key terminology so that all stakeholders are working from a shared understanding and are focused on the same outcomes.

Mapping overhead costs

Together, we identify and group overhead accounts into meaningful cost pools. We guide your team through discussions on cost behavior and ensure all relevant indirect costs are accounted for.

Identifying cost drivers

We facilitate a collaborative process to determine the most appropriate cost drivers for each pool. These are then linked to measurable business activities — such as headcount, square footage or machine hours — to help ensure accuracy and relevance.

Allocation modeling

We walk your team through how overhead costs will be allocated using the selected drivers. Using real-world examples, we validate the logic and help ensure alignment across departments.