Construction
Major projects where constraints, interfaces and readiness decide whether work happens on time. We help site teams plan, prepare and deliver with fewer surprises.
Operational excellence leaders
Better operations. Stronger performance. Sustainable impact.
We help construction and manufacturing organisations get more from the people, time and resources they already have, by removing the constraints that slow work down, sharpening performance management and building continuous improvement into everyday work.
Who we work with
Built for industries where delivery is everything
We work mainly with construction and manufacturing organisations, but the principles of operational excellence apply wherever people, process and performance meet.
Manufacturing
Production environments where flow, quality and changeover drive cost. We help teams see waste clearly and build standard work that sticks.
Wider operations
Any operation where work flows through people and process. If the way of working is holding performance back, the same disciplines apply.
What we do
Practical improvement that shows up in the numbers
Every engagement is shaped around your operation. Most draw on one or more of these services.
Operational diagnostics
An evidence-based view of where time, cost and capacity are being lost, and which few changes would make the biggest difference.
Constraint management
Identify, own and remove the blockers that stop work flowing, before they reach the programme or the production line.
Readiness and planning
Get work genuinely ready before it starts, with information, materials, access and people in place, so crews spend the shift working rather than waiting.
Performance management
Clear measures, reporting that drives decisions and regular review rhythms, so every team knows where it stands and what to do next.
Continuous improvement
Lean tools and structured problem-solving that your people learn, own and keep using long after we have gone.
Leadership coaching
Coaching leaders and supervisors to make improvement part of the day job, not a side project.
Start here
Operational excellence assessment
A structured audit of how your business really runs. We score it across the five levers of operational excellence and give you a spider diagram for each, so you can see which levers to pull first to make change happen.
- 1Strategy and direction
- 2People and culture
- 3Process and performance
- 4Systems, data and technology
- 5Resource and value
CurrentTargetBiggest gaps
Track record
Results delivered on major projects and production lines
A selection of measurable results from Caio Cropper’s recent work across construction, major infrastructure and manufacturing.
Recovering the critical path
17 weeks
cut from programme duration
Targeted improvement on the work driving the critical path shortened the programme and avoided significant cost.
400%
improvement in critical path efficiency
£2.5M
cost avoidance within six months
Matching resource to the work
£4.6M
a year of efficiency opportunity identified
An efficiency review of a large lifting operation found where resource could be better matched to the work, fully within the client’s lifting standard and with no compromise on safety or delivery.
£257K
a year realised from the first improvement
Cutting water use and waste
£2.4M
saved through waste reduction
Environmental improvement projects lifted process efficiency by 92% while cutting water consumption and liquid waste.
90%
less water used (2.5 million litres)
83
liquid-waste tanker loads eliminated
Stabilising quality and output
62% → 98%
first pass yield
Standard work, visual factory (5S, Kanban) and error-proofing across multiple product lines, with APQP embedded to keep quality stable.
+44%
units per person per hour
−16%
cycle time
£45K
lower overheads a year
Case studies
The work behind the results
In-depth stories of the challenge, the approach and what changed.
Our approach
Five principles behind every engagement
They shape how we work with every client, on every site and every production line.
Global perspective
Proven practice from across sectors, adapted to the realities of your operation.
Focus
We start with the few constraints that matter most, not a long list of initiatives.
Improve
Measurable gains in safety, quality, delivery and cost, tracked from the first week.
Empower
Your people own the tools, the routines and the results.
Lead
Leaders equipped to sustain the change long after we step back.
How we work
A clear path from first conversation to lasting change
01
Discover
A conversation about your goals, your pressures and what better looks like for you.
02
Diagnose
Time on site or on the shop floor with your teams, finding where performance is being lost and why.
03
Deliver
Focused improvement work alongside your people, with progress measured and reviewed every week.
04
Sustain
Routines, measures and coaching that keep the gains in place once we step back.
About us
Led by a practitioner who has done the work
Cropper Advisory Group is led by Caio Cropper, an operational excellence leader with more than 15 years’ experience delivering transformation across construction, manufacturing and complex infrastructure programmes.
Caio currently coaches multi-disciplinary MEH delivery teams on a major UK nuclear new-build programme, where he led the design of its Tiered Visual Performance Management system and embedded Last Planner and readiness planning. Before that he led business improvement across a national portfolio of nuclear and power projects, and drove continuous improvement in manufacturing, including the transfer of a multimillion-pound production facility from Germany to the UK.
- MBA (Merit) Manchester Metropolitan University
- Chartered Manager (CMgr MCMI) Chartered Management Institute
- Six Sigma Black Belt Sigma Breakthrough Technologies
- ISO 18404 Lean Practitioner Lean Construct
- MSc (Merit) and BSc (First), Engineering Design Manchester Metropolitan University
Start a conversation
Let’s find where your performance is being lost.
A no-obligation discovery call about your operation, your constraints and where the quickest gains are likely to be.
Book a discovery call
or email caiocropper@me.com