Seven Ridge Consulting

Manufacturing turnarounds for PE-backed companies

EBITDA from 5% to 20% in four months.

That was a $60M flagship plant with 300 unionized employees. Seven Ridge Consulting puts an experienced plant leader on site to find what's broken, install the operating rhythm to fix it, and hand a stronger team the keys.

Talk with Bob See the results
28 yearsin manufacturing, from the IT department to plant manager and VP
$250Mmulti-site operation led: 3 plants, about 600 people
60% fewerOSHA recordables after a behavior-based safety rollout
400 to 50 PPMcustomer quality defects, cut by 8x in two years

Recent results

Client names are kept confidential. Each of these was hands-on work inside the plant, measured in the client's own numbers.

5% to 20%EBITDA margin in four months

Flagship plant of a PE-backed building products manufacturer: $60M revenue, 300 union employees, 1 million square feet

Turning around the company's most important plant

The company's largest facility was running at a 5% EBITDA margin, far below what the owners needed from it.

  • Assessed the leadership team in the first weeks and made the hard calls: new leaders in safety, quality, supply chain, and operations over ten months.
  • Installed a review cadence that ran from the daily shift start-up all the way to CEO and board reporting, so everyone from supervisors to the board was working from the same numbers.
  • Led the on-site team that took critical waste out of the key processes.
  • Recruited a new plant manager and coached that leader side by side for six months, then led a line-by-line contract review to prepare for the next union negotiation.
85%fewer backorders, within weeks

Second plant, same manufacturer

Getting customers their orders again

A sister facility had a deep backlog of late customer orders and a real risk of quality escapes reaching customers.

  • Put triage rules, visual controls, and daily production accountability in place within weeks of arriving.
  • Brought in targeted process improvement help and a new inspection and control structure, improving quality 15%.
  • Selected and onboarded a new plant manager and handed off a working operating system so the gains would hold.
200 leaderson one operating system across a $250M, three-plant business

Multi-site store fixtures manufacturer, in Bob's leadership roles before founding Seven Ridge

Building an operating system that scales

As plant manager, then director of operations, then director of organizational development, Bob built the management system one level at a time.

  • Raised productivity 15% in one year at a 300-person, $180M plant with an integrated lean management system.
  • Designed a business operating system for planning, execution, measurement, and learning, and rolled out a values-based leadership model to 200 leaders in every facility.
  • Co-led a difficult union contract negotiation to an outcome that worked for both sides.

How an engagement runs

The goal is a plant that keeps performing after Seven Ridge leaves. Every engagement is built to end with a stronger team, not a dependency.

  1. Assess fast

    Walk the floor, read the numbers, and evaluate the leadership team in the first weeks.

  2. Install the rhythm

    Daily start-ups, visual controls, and KPI reviews that connect the shop floor to the boardroom.

  3. Fix and restructure

    Remove the waste, make the people decisions, and stabilize safety, quality, and delivery.

  4. Hand off

    Select and coach the leader who owns the results next, and leave the operating system with them.

Services

Engagements are shaped around the problem in front of you, from a diligence sprint before close to months on site after it.

Plant turnarounds

Rapid recovery of margin, delivery, and quality at underperforming facilities, including union environments and leadership restructuring.

Operating systems and lean management

Tiered daily management, visual controls, KPI cadence, and strategic planning that fit the size and pace of the business.

Leadership and labor transitions

Leadership assessment, plant manager selection and coaching, safety culture, and union contract preparation.

ERP and data

Rare combination of IT and plant leadership: ERP implementations that reflect how the shop really runs, plus KPI analytics leaders use.

Acquisition evaluation

An operator's read before you buy: operational due diligence, recast financial review, and a clear view of risk and upside.

Bob Mills

Bob has spent 28 years in manufacturing. He started in IT leading Oracle ERP migrations, moved onto the shop floor, and went on to run plants from 100 to 400 people and a three-plant, $250M operation.

He founded Seven Ridge Consulting in 2024 to do for private equity owners what he did as an operator: stabilize plants that have lost their footing and build the leadership systems that keep them performing.

He has also led a full plant closure, start to finish, covering finance, operations, logistics, and people. That experience helps when a portfolio needs to be reshaped, not just improved.

MBA, Creighton University
B.S., Computer Management Systems, Northwest Missouri State University

  1. 2024 to presentSeven Ridge ConsultingOwner and principal consultantTurnarounds at two plants of a PE-backed manufacturer
  2. 2019 to 2024Lozier CorporationPlant manager, director of operations, director of organizational development3 plants, about 600 people, $250M
  3. 2017 to 2019Columbus HydraulicsVice president of manufacturingDoubled constraint capacity, output up 18%
  4. 2015 to 2017Lindsay CorporationPlant manager400 people, $200M; OSHA recordable rate down 60%
  5. 2014 to 2015JELD-WENContinuous improvement managerLean deployment across 10 U.S. plants
  6. 1998 to 2014Eaton CorporationIT and operations roles, operations excellence manager, plant managerQuality PPM 400 to 50; on-time delivery 95% to 99%

Have a plant that isn't hitting plan?

Whether you're weighing an acquisition or need results from one you already own, start with a short conversation about what you're seeing.

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