F.I.C. specializes in efficiency improvements to sequential industrial processes, such as fabrication or assembly plants. Save thousands or millions of dollars just by tuning your priorities. And, best of all, pay based only on what we save you!

Quick! Call Firehouse for a Visiting Fireman!

In just a few days, sometimes just a few hours, we can analyze your industrial process. We optimize flow rates and your product mix, and we maximize net incoming money. All based on the numbers that you provide. We recommend specific improvements and show you how you can save serious money over what you've got now. And all without having to fire anybody or buy any new machines. We can help with strategic planning, too, if you want that. And you can sleep better, knowing that your company is producing the most money it possibly can from its current configuration.

How does it work?
We build a simulation of your company or process that takes into account known flow rates and capacities.
Then, based on your estimates for maximum potential market-demand rate for each product if you had unlimited capacity, and different wholesale prices for different markets, we check your current plan for realism. Sometimes, based on conflicting product lines, you're implicitly assuming a 36-hour day for key machines. This is bound to lead to disappointment, and it's better that you be told now than to have your boss or your directors telling it to you at the end of the year. This is the bad news. Of course, you're smart enough that you don't double-allocate, so we won't have to tell you anything in this phase.

Once we've agreed on the realism of the current schedule, we use your statistics to determine the key bottlenecks in your system; the optimal product mix; and the steady-state process rates required to produce this optimal mix. Then we show you how much more money you'll be making this year after you tweak things. This is the good news.

Next, we look at current floor-inventory levels, optimize these for emergency situations, and determine transient process schedules to suck that nasty inventory off your floor and out onto the sales racks where it belongs. The result turns your plant's flow from a bucket brigade into a dependable firehose that delivers a strong, steady, controllable flow of product out the door. So you don't have to spend all your time fighting fires anymore, you can put your energies into managing, and do what you know how to do best. Wouldn't that be nice?

You know it would take most people months to accomplish these results for you. The cool part is, based on our hot new Firehose technology, and assuming a floor manager who knows his statistics, we can start, finish and typically give you your results in a number of hours. Fireman quick. So you don't lose time from your day.

What kinds of problems can F.I.C. solve?
Currently we analyze steady-state flows and large batches for known market potential demands. Output is recommended rate schedules per machine, and product mix, to optimize net income. This is obviously most useful for companies that continually make the same products and sell to a known population of customers. By Fall 1997 we expect to handle scheduling for small batches and "what-if" strategic planning. Later research will deal with uncertain market demands and such issues as advertising effort.

Why does it work?
Firehouse uses a new generation of mathematics that works with equipment, processes, and inventory based on their actual value to you, rather than their book value. This results in more accurate planning models, which in turn permits us to make higher-quality decisions. The results are more money in your pocket. And it's objectively verifiable by you, based on the numbers that you give us yourself.

You are in business to make money. Since we optimize based on total net income to your plant or division, we make sure that you make the most money you can with your current set-up. Optimizing each process by itself doesn't always work, because of crosstalk between the processes. That's why we try to work with the system as a whole whenever possible, and come up with the answer for your entire plant that optimizes total net income. You'll be happy with the results.

Confidentiality
All data is kept in strict confidentiality. After all, we're in the business of helping you to make money, and we can't do that if you're losing information or you're not ridiculously satisfied with our service. We do ask the favor, however, of being able to advertise how much money we save you. (If you like, you don't have to be identified by name, just by industry. And you can say no if you want.)

Bottom Line
We would love to help you make more money than you think is realistically possible. Since we get paid out of the money we save you, all it costs is a few hours of your time. Our rapid consulting process will show you how you can save thousands or millions of dollars, or you won't owe us a penny. It's that simple. And it makes so much sense--this was designed to be a win-win situation. You can't lose. So even if you're skeptical, you owe it to yourself and your company to give us a shot. Because there's nothing that compares with the feeling of being told you're company's going to make millions of dollars more than your projections this year.

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