Fractional COO Leadership for Manufacturing, Distribution & Logistics

Scale throughput and profitability without losing control of the operation.

Demand may be strong, but growth does not automatically create a stronger company. When sales, purchasing, production, inventory, warehousing, fulfillment, and customer service are not operating from the same plan, more revenue can produce more expediting, overtime, inventory, and margin pressure.

Duke BCG provides hands-on Fractional COO leadership for established manufacturing, distribution, logistics, and 3PL companies over $10M in annual revenue. We align leaders, systems, and operating priorities so the company can grow with greater control, visibility, and profitability.

When growth starts outrunning the operating system

At this stage, the problem is rarely effort. Teams are busy and experienced. The problem is that decisions, information, and accountability do not move through the company consistently enough to support its current scale.

Does this sound familiar?
Revenue is increasing while gross margin remains flat or unpredictable.
Inventory records cannot be trusted without manual checking.
Sales commitments are disconnected from labor, production, warehouse, or carrier capacity.
Supervisors are technically strong but have not been developed to lead people and performance.
Expediting and last-minute schedule changes have become normal.
Critical scheduling knowledge lives with one or two experienced employees.
Production, warehouse, sales, and customer service teams work from competing priorities.
Quality problems, rework, late orders, and customer escalations are treated as separate incidents rather than symptoms of the operating system.

How Duke BCG helps

We do more than recommend improvements. We work alongside your leadership team to install the operating discipline needed to execute them.

Align demand, capacity, and execution

We create a practical planning rhythm that connects sales expectations with labor, materials, production, inventory, warehouse, and fulfillment capacity. Leaders make tradeoffs together instead of passing surprises downstream.

Build operational visibility

We establish a focused scorecard and review cadence so the leadership team can identify constraints, missed commitments, and margin leakage early enough to act.

Clarify accountability across the value stream

We define who owns decisions, outcomes, and cross-functional handoffs—from forecast and purchasing through production, storage, delivery, and customer communication.

Improve critical workflows

We identify and strengthen the processes most responsible for delays, waste, errors, and inconsistent customer experience. The goal is repeatability and control, not documentation for its own sake.

Strengthen frontline and functional leadership

We coach managers and supervisors to set expectations, use data, solve root causes, and hold teams accountable without relying on the founder or senior executive to intervene.

Turn improvement into an operating habit

We create clear owners, timelines, and follow-through for improvement priorities so initiatives do not disappear beneath urgent daily work.
What we may measure together
On-time-in-full delivery
Order cycle time and schedule attainment
Throughput, yield, scrap, and rework
Inventory turns and inventory accuracy
Labor productivity and overtime
Forecast accuracy and capacity utilization
Gross margin by customer, product line, or service

The Four Phases

Blueprint

We assess leadership, operating flow, planning, constraints, performance visibility, and the recurring points where value or time is lost.

Structure

We align responsibilities, scorecards, planning rhythms, and leadership priorities.

Execution

We work alongside leaders to improve handoffs, resolve constraints, and complete the operational priorities that matter most.

Preparation

We leave behind stronger leaders, repeatable systems, and an operation prepared for sustainable growth or a future full-time COO.
Duke BCG is a strong fit for founder-led manufacturers, distributors, logistics companies, warehouses, and 3PL providers generally over $10M in annual revenue with established demand, operational complexity, and leaders who need a stronger system for working together.
You may be ready when
The company is growing but execution feels less predictable.
Margin leakage is difficult to locate or correct.
Daily urgency repeatedly displaces strategic priorities.
Senior leaders solve issues personally instead of improving the system.
You need experienced operational leadership before committing to a permanent COO.

Frequently Asked Question

Are you a lean manufacturing or supply-chain consultant?
We may use continuous-improvement principles, but our role is broader. We operate across the leadership team to connect strategy, people, accountability, metrics, and cross-functional execution—not optimize one isolated department.

Build an operation that grows stronger as volume increases.

Let’s identify the constraints limiting throughput, profitability, and leadership capacity—and create a practical path forward.

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