How would you rank the Consulting firms out there that do Operations Consulting - process improvement/op models etc? Are A T Kearney and Deloitte up there?

without a doubt it's Proudfoot

GISTgistworld.com

A T Kearney for sure

http://www.paconsulting.com/services/business_operations_consulting/

PRTM - for its exclusive focus on operations consulting

Minor correction: PRTM markets itself as an operational strategy consultancy, not operations. They're not lean, six sigma types.

Thanks - it was worth waiting a year for this clarification :)

Most people would be surprised to find out that MBBB do fair bit of operations consulting, but ATK is right up there also. Deloitte are good in parts.

Not a big name, but Tefen is good.

Celerant Consulting

Link: http://www.consultingmag.com/article/ART637448T?C=COwc67M2oKbQB0wYJust scroll down and see rankings for service lines (incl. OM - Operations).

BOP in PA Consulting. Best of the lot.

www.uk.capgemini.com/lean

Interesting suggestions. Tefen & Celerant have lost proportionately for them a huge number of people in recent times and are not what they once were. Capgemini's Lean practice is relatively new and has some good Consultants, but is experiencing churn by losing a bunch of people ,IMO, they shouldn't have hired in the first place.McKinsey also has a Lean practice now and have cross sold into a lot of their clients with mixed reviews.

Not sure where you got your idea of "is experiencing churn by losing a bunch of people ,IMO, they shouldn't have hired in the first place" as I have not heard about this - would you care to expand on your statement?

Cap Gemini Lean leaves a lot to be desired. I am in industry and have bought a lot of ops consulting work before and the recent cap stuff i have seen is not great. Ex celerant guys run it (that are good) and the highest performers have all left within the past 12 - 18months. The remains are low calibre, old school types or junior grads with no experience of implementing. they have only sold 2 pieces of work ever, one large public sector which they messed up and a bit of lean in fmcg which they also messed up. Stay away, I would consider the Lean part of McKinsey, Kearney, Booz or for six sigma the guys that wrote the book ....George Group (now Acn).

Capgemini has one of the largest and most successful Lean Capabilities in the UK and its clients are satisfied with their work, so much so, that many of them are prepared to host visits by other clients as part of a knowledge share / 'go, look, see'. I'm unaware of any formal client complaint about Capgmeini's Lean capability or any Lean project performance in the past 8 years. Capgemini are typically chosen to provide the implementation of Lean (with their eo-system partners) following strategy-type work from the strat houses. More broadly, rather than point fingers at all the firms and point out their weakensses, I think it's fair to say that the Lean consulting market has moved on over the past few years as clients are demanding leaner approaches to 'business as usual'. Lean is HOT right now, particularly with the efficiency agenda prominence. I suggest you speak to all the firms who you think have the capability and test the metal with them DIRECTLY to form your views on whether they can service your requirements.

Do you work for them?

PA Consulting's BOP practice are full of high performing and motivated staff and have tonnes of really interesting central and local government assignments.

Yes and I'd be happy to talk to you.

Peak Traffic?

If you really want "lean" excellence why not talk to an expert in automotive? I believe Toyota still operate their OMCD division and many of the UK automotive companies have lean consultants that can be hired. Seems a better idea to go to the source than hire CG and a bunch of people who simply read a book and then claim to be experts.