Model Factory in a BoxThe best way to build manufacturing capabilities fast, sustainably, and at scale

There’s no doubt about the importance of capability-building: half of C-suite executives say it’s one of their organizations’ top three priorities. But there’s plenty of hesitation about how to do

that. Only 25% of executives think they are “very effective” in preparing employees to drive business performance. It’s never easy to build new capabilities that can directly help employees in their

day-to-day jobs. But in today’s competitive customer-led world, performance improvement through capability-building is more important than ever.

That’s where McKinsey’s unique Model Factory in a Box comes in. It’s a brand-new way of delivering practical training – in a hands-on learning environment that is very similar to your employees’ everyday work scenarios.

The Model Factory in a Box doesn’t need you to do much more than to say “Show me.”

So let us show you.

The best way to build manufacturing capabilities fast, sustainably, and at scale

Model Factory in a Box

MODEL FACTORY

IN A BOX

In scenarios like those, your chances of success are that much less if you don’t have the capabilities you need.

So how do you acquire those capabilities quickly? How do you ensure that they directly improve performance by shaping how your employees think, feel and act every day?

Those are pertinent questions. Yes, businesses continue to invest in training and development. They send their employees to conferences and workshops and have them attend online seminars and practice sessions. But the newfound knowledge doesn’t always stick. In fact, many training investments are wasted. It’s rare for employees to deeply absorb the new capabilities required, and even less common for those capabilities to be applied the next day in the workplace.

What’s needed now are tools that accelerate the transfer of knowledge and skills so they can be applied quickly and directly to employees’ day-to-day jobs – tools that ensure rock-solid retention of what is learned.

McKinsey’s Model Factory in a Box will do that for you.

Confident you’ll get the capabilities you need?Let’s say you’ve got a major manufacturing transformation coming up. Maybe you’re starting a new product on a new line. You might be training a big group of new hires in lean methods. Or you need to master new digital tools such as predictive maintenance and yield analytics.

In today’s business environment, operational excellence in all areas is more critical than ever. Businesses must have reliable, rapidly improving operating systems if they are to meet soaring demand for better quality, faster delivery and lower price. This need applies not only to production, but also to indirect functions such as quality, maintenance and service.

Operational excellence and sustainable performance depend increasingly on building capabilities in technical execution and management and on reshaping the organization’s mindset and behaviors.

By receiving training in the realistic production and office environments of McKinsey’s model factories and offices, companies can gain hands-on experience that can help propel their operations to the next level of excellence.

With McKinsey’s Model Factory in a Box, your teams learn quickly by seeing the effects of small system improvements – and by understanding what doesn’t work and why.

What it doesShowcases tools and technologiesNot only do your teams learn about everything from basic lean awareness to advanced digital tools such as predictive maintenance and advanced analytics, but they get extensive hands-on practice with them

Motivates your teams to changeThe Model Factory in a Box experience is delivered in a series of modules where participants experience the frustration of a bad current state, and then are guided through a series of hands-on exercises to improve the production system. By seeing the gap between an ineffective “as is” factory and a highly effective “to be” system, your teams quickly see what needs to be done, and are inspired to push for improvements.

Adults learn best in environments that offer them rich, interactive experiences and the freedom to experiment and make mistakes without risk.

A typical staged process in experiential learning can be described as follows:

• Experiencing and exploring: doing• Sharing and reflecting: what happened?• Processing and analyzing: what’s important?• Generalizing: so what?• Applying: what works for me? McKinsey’s Model Factory in a Box provides all of those stages. Its dedicated “learning by doing” facilities offer the ideal combination of real production issues and opportunities with the flexibility and freedom to fail.

Experience shows that not only do people learn faster in such environments, but they also remember more and are better prepared to apply what they learned when they return to their everyday roles. The Model Factory in a Box enables all of your participants – operators or executives – to step outside of their day-to-day work environments and focus on the details of specific production set-ups. They are productive immediately because they get to use familiar workstations and standard fixtures and fittings.

how it works

how it works

The Model Factory in a Box quickly demonstrates how small changes can deliver big impact. Participants can apply real inputs on miniaturized but fully functional equipment and quickly see the effects on the resulting products.

Hands-on learning is the best way to develop new skills and set new aspirations to execute a successful transformationHands-on learning is the best way to develop new skills and set new aspirations to execute a successful transformation

SOURCE: Whitmore: Coaching for Performance; McKinsey Interviews

Knowledgeretained

Learning by

Knowledge retained from different learning approaches

Books andlectures

Simulations and games

Experientiallearning

80-100%

32%

65%

10%

Field andforumLearning

byBooks and

lecturesSimulations and games

Experientiallearning

Field andforum

10%32%

65%80-100%

The Model Factory in a Box is a fully operational miniature factory that produces real products on real equipment, with real controls.

There is no need for travel. We bring everything to you. We install an entire working factory anywhere in the world within 48 hours – in a space no bigger than a conference room. And we provide the trainers.

The Model Factory in a Box arrives at your site in a few boxes that fit easily in a medium-sized van or small truck. It installs in a matter of hours in the configuration that you require.

The factory is designed as a miniature version of a real manufacturing plant, with a remote computer control room, miniature centrifugal pumps, equipment sensors, exclusion zones, and industry-standard PPE requirements. The features are familiar, ensuring that participants can start learning immediately and can easily make the connections between what they’re learning and what they need to improve when they return to their production environments. You choose from a wide selection of training modules – from production topics such as 5S and workload balancing to maintenance issues such as asset integrity reviews.

The Model Factory in a Box is the ideal platform for learning about Industry 4.0 technologies. It features a host of digital modules that quickly convey knowledge about topics ranging from yield energy throughput and predictive maintenance to digital performance management, robotics, advanced analytics, and additive manufacturing.

what it is

what it isYou decide the capability-building level you want – and who you want to train.

The Model Factory in a Box works for all levels – from plant floor to boardroom. Not only does it provide an ideal environment for your current production employees to learn new skills, but it can expose your most senior executives to the realities of the decisions that your operators and engineers have to make every day. In a fast-paced, hands-on workshop just a short distance from their offices, C-suite management and even members of the board of directors can experience, first-hand, everything from new 3D printing processes to the impact of lean methods on long-established production set-ups.

Who it’s for

You select the capability-building level you want – and the audience you want to train.

“Awareness workshop” ( .5 days )▪ Become familiar with the tools▪ Derive implications for own company

“Deep-dive training” ( 1-3 days )▪ Learn about tools and techniques for achieving quality▪ Apply the appropriate tools and define the target state

“Boot camp” ( 3-5 days )▪ Become acquainted with selected advanced

tools in specific functional areas

(Multiple sessions)Inject energy and

expertise, challenge

and coach, “show the way”

without leading

Boardand top

management

Manager(e.g., plant,

quality, productdevelopment, purchasing)

Team supervisor and team

leader

operator and

engineer

A variety of curriculum modules available to tailor trainings to the audience

“Change agents”

Using McKinsey’s Model Factory in a Box, your organization will:

Learn betterThere’s no better way to learn than by doing. Our Model Factory in a Box is built on the principles of experiential learning – principles that transfer knowledge faster, ensure better recall – and lead to better business performance.

Act fasterGet ready to act fast: your teams will be so energized by what they’ve learned that they’ll want to put it into play immediately. That’s what we’ve seen with the more than 1,000 people we’ve trained this way to date.

Perform betterStronger capabilities are key to effective transformations. McKinsey’s research reveals a 3x better success rate (79 percent) for organizations that take a rigorous, action-oriented approach to transformation, implementing all necessary initiatives such as capability-building. EBIDTA margins can double.a

If done right, building capabilities at organizational and individual levels pays off through superior financial performance

Impact of exceptional capabilities on the organization’s financial performance

SOURCE: Scott Keller and Colin Price, ‘Performance and Health: An evidence-based approach to transforming your organization’, 2010.

x2.0

x1.5

x2.2EBITDA margin

Book value growth

Sales valuegrowth

Building capabilities is one of the actions you take today to perform better tomorrow

Increase

Increase

Increase

Don’t take our word for it

“It was important that our staff develop not only a theoretical understanding of modern production methods, but learn how to apply them, which allows us to quickly take improvements to our work area” Head of Operations, International Technology Group

Here’s what real users say about Model Factory in a Box:

“This is a great way to get people to work together and learn new skills – we can pitch the old boys and the graduates against each other and see who produces the most, then use that to make them think about how we can improve how we do things” Works Engineer, International Steel Producer

MODEL FACTORY

IN A BOXRead more about McKinsey’s approach to capabilities-building, and learn about the different

versions of “model factory” that McKinsey offers to suit the varying needs of businesses:

capability-center.mckinsey.comcapability-center@mckinsey.com

MFIB Team Christoph Schmitz, senior partner

Laurence Hauser, Expert Associate Partner

Isabel Böker, expert

Louis Rooney, specialist