We have found that a sound standard approach is applicable to nearly any business. Familiarity with a particular business or industry only provides a ready vocabulary, and the vocabulary is learned quickly in any regard.
For business strategy development we use the methods of Harvard Business School professor and author Michael E. Porter who is best known for his "Five Forces" model of competitive analysis. This method systematically exposes a variety of ways to distance a company from its competition, increasing its profitability.
Throughput improvement is achieved by systematically identifying and widening bottlenecks, for process throughput can be no greater than the throughput of the process' bottleneck.
For Lead Time improvement the time a piece in a process waits between operations is measured, analyzed and shortened or eliminated. The minimal Lead Time is achieved when a piece does not wait between operations; when it is processed as "single piece flow." Our consultants' goal is nearly always to achieve single piece or small batch flow, and align all activities in the continuous improvement plan in support of that goal.