San Diego supply chain consulting
I'm Manny Sanchez. I evaluate purchasing, inventory, warehousing, and freight for small and mid-sized Southern California companies that import, distribute, manufacture, or supply the government. You get every problem priced in dollars per year and a ranked plan to fix it.
Whatever you stock — aircraft parts, utility hardware, industrial supplies, consumer goods — the problems look the same: the data, the counts, and the buying rules.
Where it hurts
Every evaluation I do starts with that question, answered in your own words. Most answers fall into one of nine. Here is what I do about each.
What it looks likeStock bought early or reordered on autopilot fills the building, while the items customers want run out.
How I helpI rank every item by annual dollar usage, list the dead and slow stock, and reset reorder points from real demand and lead time. See what yours costs with the free calculator.
What it looks likeOrders ship past the promise date, go out incomplete, or come back because the wrong item was picked.
How I helpI follow three real orders from release to loaded truck, time every step and every wait, and show you where each one stalls.
What it looks likeOvertime keeps climbing. Pickers walk the length of the building for fast movers and search for product every shift.
How I helpI measure travel per pick and lines picked per labor hour, then move fast movers forward and cut the steps nobody needs. Watch a picker walk the difference in 3D.
What it looks likeAisles and docks hold stock that has not moved in a year, and the lease renewal is coming.
How I helpI put a rent figure on the floor that dead stock occupies, so you know how much space you need before you sign. See it in a 3D warehouse bay.
What it looks likeFuel surcharges, expedited shipments, and extra charges show up on invoices and nobody can explain them.
How I helpI audit twelve months of freight invoices against quoted rates and surcharge tables, and recalculate landed cost for your top items at current tariffs.
What it looks likeDuplicate part numbers, wrong units of measure, bills of materials that don't match what's built, lead times nobody has updated in years. Every report starts from bad data.
How I helpI pull your item master and twelve months of transactions, flag duplicates and impossible values, count a sample against the system, and score your data health with the dollars it's costing you. See a sample count in 3D.
What it looks likePeople keep side spreadsheets, expedite by email, and ignore the system's exception messages. You paid for a system that the team works around.
How I helpI sit with your buyers, planners, and receivers, count the workarounds, find where training stopped, and write short procedures for the steps that matter.
What it looks likeRush orders, an expedite list that never shrinks, and overtime just to ship on time.
How I helpI trace your last ten shortages to the cause — a late order, a wrong lead time, a bad count, or late release — and price the overtime and expediting each one cost.
What it looks likeYou know which vendors are a problem, but you can't prove it, so nothing changes.
How I helpI build an on-time and quality scorecard from twelve months of purchase orders and receipts, rank suppliers by dollars at risk, and set up lead-time tracking.
Tell me about it on a free 30-minute call. No obligation, and I reply within one business day.
Sample deliverable
Twelve numbers, each with its arithmetic and a mark for how far the record behind it can be trusted. The company and figures below are invented to show the format. Yours is built from your own records.
Single-site wholesale distributor. $18.0M in net sales. Most recent twelve months.
| Metric | Value | The arithmetic | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inventory | |||
| Inventory turns | 3.1 | $12.6M cost of goods sold ÷ $4.1M average inventory | High |
| Days of supply | 119 days | $4.1M inventory ÷ ($12.6M cost of goods sold ÷ 365) | High |
| Inventory record accuracy | 82% | 164 locations counted correct ÷ 200 locations counted | Medium |
| Dead stock share | 12% | $492,000 with no movement in 12 months ÷ $4.1M inventory | High |
| Service | |||
| Fill rate | 91% | 167,440 lines shipped complete on first shipment ÷ 184,000 lines ordered | Medium |
| On-time shipment | 89% | 32,752 orders shipped by promise date ÷ 36,800 orders shipped | Medium |
| Order-picking accuracy | 98% | 36,064 orders picked without error ÷ 36,800 orders picked | Low |
| Warehouse and labor | |||
| Dock-to-stock time | 26 hours | Average from truck arrival to stock available to pick, across 412 receipts | Medium |
| Lines picked per labor hour | 20 | 184,000 order lines picked ÷ 9,200 direct picking hours | Medium |
| Overtime share | 11% | 3,432 overtime hours ÷ 31,200 total hours | High |
| Freight and space | |||
| Freight cost as a share of sales | 4.3% | $774,000 inbound and outbound freight ÷ $18.0M net sales | High |
| Space utilization | 92% | 2,208 storage positions filled ÷ 2,400 positions available | High |
Confidence reflects how each record was captured. A low mark means the number needs a better record before anyone acts on it.
How it works
For a single site: one week of data collection, two to three days on your floor, and one week of analysis and report-out. You always know where the work stands and what comes next.
A 60-minute kickoff. You tell me what hurts most, and we agree on one page what is in scope and what success looks like.
Twelve metrics calculated from your own records for the last twelve months, from inventory turns to freight as a share of sales.
Two to three days on site. I follow a receipt and three customer orders with a stopwatch, and ask your operators what slows them down.
Six functions scored 1 to 5 against the same fixed questions, with evidence behind every score.
Each finding gets a cause, an annual dollar value, and an estimate of the effort to fix it. Then I rank them.
You accept, defer, or reject each finding. Every accepted one gets one owner, one due date, and one metric.
What an evaluation is not. It is not a legal, financial, or safety audit. Where I see exposure in those areas, I flag it right away and refer you to counsel, a CPA, or a safety professional.
What you get
Each one is built from your own numbers, with the arithmetic shown.
Twelve numbers that describe your operation as it runs today, calculated from your own records.
Each gap written in one sentence, with its cause and what it costs you per year. The arithmetic is shown so you can check it.
Findings sorted by annual value and by effort to fix. Quick wins that need no capital come first.
I re-measure the baseline at day 90 and report the results against where you started. Three habits hold the gains until then.
Optional ongoing support. After the evaluation I can stay on month to month to help carry out the plan, and to help you build out your supply chain team: defining the roles you need, writing job descriptions and interview questions, and setting up the procedures and training new hires step into.
A free 30-minute call is where it starts. You describe what hurts, and I tell you what an evaluation would cover.
Questions
If your question is not here, ask it on the free call.
A fixed fee for the evaluation, quoted in writing after the free call. The fee depends on how many sites you run and how your records are kept. You know the full price before any work starts.
It takes 30 minutes. You describe what hurts, and I tell you what an evaluation would cover for your operation. If it looks like a fit, I send a written quote afterward. There is no obligation.
Twelve months of records for purchasing, inventory, orders, and freight. Two to three days of access to your floor. And a 60-minute kickoff with whoever owns the operation.
Two to four weeks for a single site. That is one week of data collection, two to three days on your floor, and one week of analysis and report-out.
You can carry out the plan with your own team. If you want help, I stay on for a flat monthly fee. I join the weekly review by video, work with each owner on their fix, and keep the numbers current. I come on site when the work calls for it. It runs month to month, with no long contract.
Yes. Before you hire, I'll help you define the roles your operation actually needs, write job descriptions built around your real problems, give you interview questions that test practical skill, and set up the procedures and training your new people will step into. You do the hiring; I make sure they walk into a system that works.
Not first. The process gets fixed first. Then I recommend the smallest tool that closes a measured finding. Sometimes that is a better-controlled spreadsheet.
Across Southern California, from a base in San Diego. The days on your floor are in person.
Who you work with
I'm Manny Sanchez. I have spent more than 30 years leading people and running supply chain operations, first in the Marine Corps, most of it in aviation supply, and then in federal service and commercial distribution.
I started North Helm to put that experience to work for Southern California companies. I use the same method on every job: measure before judging, price every finding, and finish with owners and dates.
When you hire North Helm, you work with me from the first call to the day-90 results.
From the field
Two examples from my own operations work before North Helm. They are not client engagements.
Get in touch
It starts with a free 30-minute call about your operation. Pick a time that works for you. If you would rather write first, send a note and I'll reply within one business day. No obligation.
Pick a time for your call