How we help you
Rising costs, evolving technology and workforce challenges — for manufacturers, navigating these challenges and an ever-changing industry can make it difficult to realize your vision of success.
Establish internal and external benchmarks.
Evaluate your performance against the industry.
Develop a future-ready business strategy.
Create an agile, high-performing business
Wipfli’s manufacturing services help your business stay future-ready, applying our industry experience and knowledge of your company’s needs to help drive sustainable growth.
Explore our strategy services
Our team helps manufacturers identify barriers to growth and implement practical solutions that strengthen performance across the organization.
With proven processes and methodologies, our strategy facilitators help you create an actionable plan that drives results. And our services go beyond the plan to provide holistic alignment that helps ensure your organization stays unified in achieving your objectives.
We can help you leverage strategy in key areas, including business planning processes and stress testing. We can also support your business with:
Sales process improvement
Driving sustainable revenue growth in manufacturing requires more than just sales training — it demands a strategic, data-driven approach that connects the front office to the shop floor.
At Wipfli, we help manufacturers align their sales strategy with execution. Our consultants begin by understanding your business goals, target markets and current sales performance through a deep dive into your operations and data. From there, we help you refine your go-to-market strategy, identify growth opportunities and build the tools and processes needed to support scalable sales operations.
Whether it’s implementing or optimizing your CRM, developing market studies or designing sales processes, we equip your team with the right systems and insights. We also provide ongoing coaching and support to help your sales leaders and teams stay aligned with your growth objectives.
Custom market studies
Wipfli provides tailored market studies designed specifically for manufacturers looking to expand to new regions or markets. Whether you’re diversifying your end markets or processes, evaluating a potential acquisition or seeking to understand competitive dynamics, each study is customized to your strategic priorities to help give you the clarity and confidence to move forward.
Wipfli’s assessment services provide an accessible, effective way to evaluate your company and establish external and internal benchmarks.
We take the results of our annual assessments — conducted in multiple sectors, from precision machining to tool and die — and our analysis of your organization and turn them into actionable insights for your improvement.
Our assessments can better position your company for short-term and long-term success by identifying your gaps, opportunities and relevant best practices.
Access the data and custom research you need to shape an effective strategy with Wipfli’s benchmarking services.
Throughout the year, we use tools to collect and analyze data from hundreds of companies in various sectors, including molding, stamping, die casting and precision machining. We then apply that data to help your company establish appropriate benchmarks for business and operations.
Our tools include:
- Commodity research
- Market research
- Customer insights
- Forecast information
- Competitor research
- Equipment and technology research
- Manufacturing site analysis
- Key metrics benchmarking
Insights and resources
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Supply chain risk management: Tariffs, disruptions and more
Supply chain risks are growing. A multitude of complex, interconnected risk factors are driving volatility and putting new pressure on manufacturing CEOs and COOs to adapt in response. Implementing a practical supply chain risk management strategy can help. Keep reading to learn what that looks like and how to get started. What are the top supply chain risks? Supply chain risks are largely shaped by government policy, geopolitical events and international conflict. Key risks include tariffs, the wars in Iran and Ukraine, energy shortages and USMCA ambiguity, as well as raw material pricing volatility — all of which are deeply interrelated. Here are the major supply chain risks explained in more detail: Tariffs: The Trump administration’s tariff policies have added new costs to U.S. imports (current tariff rates add 10-50% to the price of imported goods), with the volatility of the tariffs themselves also presenting a challenge. International conflicts: The Iran war has pushed oil and gas prices up significantly, while the war in Ukraine has affected prices for other commodities like wheat and cooking oil (while also resulting in current and possibly future sanctions on Russian gas and oil). Rising energy demand: The wars are affecting supply, but a growing U.S. demand for energy that’s driven largely by data centers has also pushed energy prices higher. Volatile raw materials pricing: Raw materials prices have continued to climb higher, including crucial materials like metals and resin, with supply chains for molds and dies also heavily disrupted. USMCA ambiguity: We don’t know whether the USMCA negotiations will successfully result in a new iteration of the trade agreement, creating additional uncertainty for manufacturers, especially those with cross-border operations. Driver shortage: New U.S. policies have limited the labor pool in the trucking industry, making it harder to move goods. Ending the wars with Iran and Ukraine may be a tall order for the average manufacturing business to take on. But that doesn’t mean you’re helpless here either. How do you implement a supply chain risk management strategy? Implementing a cohesive supply chain risk management strategy can help your manufacturing business weather the storm of today’s supply chain risks. The key here is to stop worrying about what you can’t control and focus on what you can do: 1. Map your supply chain Mapping your supply chain will help you better understand your specific risks so you can take steps to mitigate them. To do this, identify each of your vendors, evaluate all your different supply chain inputs throughout the entire process from quote to cash, consider how long you’re holding raw materials and finished goods, and note when payments are made. 2. Identify alternative vendors Based on your supply chain mapping, explore whether alternative vendors or geographies could lower costs or reduce volatility. For example, switching vendors to a lower-tariff country could help, as could finding a U.S.-based vendor willing to absorb certain tariff costs on its end. 3. Monitor supply chain pricing Designate someone on your team to monitor supply chain pricing and tariff updates. This can help your business react more quickly to changes , which is especially important in today’s volatile environment. 4. Rework costing and quoting Your expenses have changed, and your costing and quoting needs to reflect that. Rework it all to take today’s supply chain environment into account and price in tariff costs and volatility. 5. Find operational efficiencies Finding operational efficiencies and getting creative with AI can help you offset higher supply chain costs. Automation can be a game-changer here , especially if you use tax incentives like bonus depreciation and qualified production property to lower the barriers to entry. 6. Do scenario planning Planning for supply chain risks helps you better prepare to meet them. Game out different scenarios like tariff hikes or oil price spikes to evaluate what that could mean for your business and how you should respond. 7. Reevaluate customer and vendor contracts As you negotiate new customer and vendor contracts, take rising costs and volatility into account. Prioritize flexibility here: You don’t want to get locked into a long-term contract only to watch your costs spiral due to factors that are out of your hands. Shrinking margins mean the time to act is now In Wipfli’s recent survey of 456 manufacturing executives, those leaders reported that profitability is declining across the board . Today’s volatility has contributed significantly to that margin pressure, which means that acting to mitigate supply chain risks can help relieve it. The time to act is now. Businesses that adapt to today’s challenges will not just get through them but become more flexible and efficient in doing so. However, those who wait too long will only fall further behind the eight-ball — until it may be hard to catch up. Read more 9 top tariff mitigation strategies for manufacturing CFOs AI disruption is coming for manufacturing. How should your firm adapt? R&D tax credits can lower your tax bill. Do you qualify?
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Manufacturing risk management: Key threats and action steps
The manufacturing industry is in the midst of a volatile period. Manufacturers must overcome risks like tariffs, supply chain disruptions, international macroeconomic pressures from the wars in Iran and Ukraine, AI growing pains and more — all while protecting profitability. Implementing an effective risk management strategy can help your manufacturing business navigate today’s risks. Keep reading to learn more, plus how to assess and mitigate your own top risks. Why risk management matters for manufacturers Manufacturing businesses are currently operating in a high-VUCA environment. The acronym, which stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, describes many of the key pressures manufacturing CFOs and COOs face as they try to maintain smooth operations and combat shrinking margins. Risk management is a way to bring a little stability to that high-VUCA environment. There’s so much you can’t control — tariffs, international trade, wars, government policies — but by focusing on what you can do within your own four walls, you can still manage your risks enough to protect your value and operating income. This often starts with a mindset shift. If you’re willing to let go of your old ways of doing business and embrace changes like new technology or revamped processes, you’ll have taken a big first step towards making your business stronger and more adaptable. What are the major risks facing manufacturers? Manufacturers today face risks like supply chain concentration, workforce shortages and cybersecurity threats. Those risks are compounded by big-picture, geopolitical issues like tariffs and international conflicts, as well as the ongoing rise of AI. Top risks for manufacturers include: Tariff risks: Most U.S. imports are now tariffed at between 10-50% , raising materials costs for many manufacturers while also putting additional cost pressures on consumers. Geopolitical risks: The wars in Iran and Ukraine have strained supply chains and caused price spikes for oil and other essential commodities. Workforce risks: Manufacturing’s perennial labor problem hasn’t gotten any easier, with both worker shortages and high labor costs continuing to pressure businesses. Supply chain risks: Many manufacturers still put too many eggs in one basket, relying on overly concentrated supply chains with respect to both vendors and customers. AI risks: While AI can deliver significant benefits to manufacturers , the technology comes with major risks too , especially in areas like data privacy and shadow AI . Cybersecurity risks: Cybersecurity has increasingly gone from just an IT concern to a significant financial risk , as ransomware attacks or data breaches can lead to financial, operational and reputational harm. Shrinking margins: Rising costs on many fronts are cutting into margins, making it harder for manufacturers to get or stay profitable. Production risks: Depending on industry or process type, manufacturers also face production-specific risks around issues like safety and wasted open capacity. How to assess manufacturing risk Your manufacturing business may deal with many of the industrywide risks covered in this article, but it could also face others more specific to your region or niche within the industry. Conducting a manufacturing risk assessment can help you understand your unique risk environment and develop a strategy to mitigate it. Here’s a practical risk assessment framework for manufacturers (a risk advisory firm can help you work through it): 1. Identify and document risks Identify the risk areas and individual risks that could affect your business. This will likely include industrywide risks like tariffs or cybersecurity. Also consider factors more specific to your business, like a mission-critical employee who’s due to retire or production risks like food or chemical safety. 2. Assess the likelihood and impact of each risk Once you have a list of risks, assess each risk based on likelihood and impact. You can rate each of these factors using a scale of low, medium or high. 3. Prioritize risk based on likelihood and impact Prioritize your risks based on likelihood and impact, as well as your essential business objectives. For example, if supply chain disruptions are both high-likelihood and high-impact, that’s a risk you’ll want to tackle right away, while a low-likelihood, medium-impact risk will likely be much lower on your priorities list. Your C-suite should also discuss risk tolerance. 4. Identify existing controls and gaps Assess the controls, policies and procedures you already have in place to mitigate your high-priority risks. This will also help you identify control gaps that need to be filled, like a lack of AI governance or an ineffective system for tracking tariff costs. 5. Develop risk mitigation strategies Develop a risk management roadmap to tackle your top priority risks. This will typically include establishing new controls or policies to manage risk, as well as training, scenario planning and strategic steps like technology upgrades or inventory management changes. 6. Assign risk owners and accountability To ensure your risk management roadmap actually gets implemented, assign owners to each action step. Creating a system of accountability, like regular reporting at the C-suite or board level, can also help drive follow-through. 7. Monitor and assess risk regularly As you implement your risk management roadmap, continue to regularly monitor your risk environment and periodically reassess. Risks are constantly evolving, so your risk management strategy needs to be, too. How can manufacturers mitigate business risks? Implementing a risk management strategy can help manufacturing CFOs and COOs mitigate their top business risks. Depending on the results of your risk assessment, you may wish to consider strategies like: Work with a risk management advisor An advisory firm that works with manufacturers to manage risk and improve performance can help your business navigate today’s high-VUCA environment. Look to an advisor to conduct your risk assessment and help you implement internal controls, operational changes and strategic shifts to manage your risks. Strengthen supply chain resilience Diversify your supply chain to mitigate tariff and disruption risks. Start by mapping your supply chain and identifying possible alternatives for both sourcing and customers. You may also want to do a reshoring or nearshoring evaluation to determine if either could make sense for your business. Improve operational processes and controls Running your business more efficiently can help protect your margins from surging costs . One idea: Implement production monitoring to get a clearer sense of how your production is performing on a day-to-day basis (you’ll get a dashboard showing red or green status for your machines) so you can establish a baseline to improve on. You can also use AI to make predictive maintenance recommendations to reduce your risk of machine downtime. Strengthen your analytics The more data you have, the better you understand how your business is performing. This applies to not just production line performance but also areas like costs, pricing, inventory and organizational performance — all of which can help you identify inefficiencies and understand how what happens in your plant impacts profitability. Implement strong cybersecurity and AI controls You need effective controls for cybersecurity , data protection and AI. This typically includes establishing technology governance , implementing ongoing cybersecurity training and taking steps to make your business more cyber resilient . Improve financial forecasting and scenario planning CFOs should take advantage of AI’s analytical capabilities to do extensive financial forecasting and evaluate the impact of various scenarios. Forecasting and scenario planning can help you to both understand potential risk areas and decide which to prioritize in your risk roadmap. Regularly reassess risks and update controls and strategies Don’t assume today’s risks are the same as tomorrows. Make risk management an ongoing, living practice that includes periodic reassessments and updates to your controls and strategies. Stop putting off succession planning Succession planning isn’t just about who will own the company 10 years from now. Engaging in a thoughtful succession planning process makes your whole business more stable by ensuring continuity of knowledge after a long-time employee retires, passing sales relationships from one generation to the next and giving employees a path to move up in the business. Don’t ignore valuable tax opportunities Manufacturers can often offset margin pressures using tax incentives. Depending on the circumstances, these may include R&D tax credits , bonus depreciation or qualified production property , state-level incentives and even sunsetting energy efficiency deductions like 179D that could still apply to plant upgrades you’ve already made. Read More Can the qualified production property rule help your manufacturing firm reduce tax payments? Cybersecurity in manufacturing: Strategies to mitigate risk Manufacturing trends: What 456 leaders say about the industry today.
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How to improve manufacturing profitability and margins
Manufacturers are getting squeezed from multiple angles right now. Input costs are on the rise, supply chains are unpredictable and labor keeps getting more expensive. But in this environment, margin and profit improvements are achievable. They require discipline, an honest assessment of your operations and a willingness to act on what your data is telling you. Keep reading for strategies to improve your business’s profitability. What’s squeezing manufacturer margins right now? It’s no secret that margins are currently tight in manufacturing. The top two causes of that are supply chain challenges and rising labor costs. Supply chain instability Supply chain disruptions drive up costs and make planning more challenging. Manufacturers are dealing with significant supply chain volatility right now, due to the following factors: Tariffs continue to be unpredictable. The Canadian tariffs are the latest example. Resin availability is unpredictable and prices are going up. Steel and aluminum availability and pricing continue to be a challenge. Geopolitical uncertainty in places like the Middle East, Russia, China and Taiwan continues to create trade relationships volatility, making it nearly impossible for manufacturers to lock in stable demand and supply plans. Labor costs Starting wages in manufacturing have climbed to $17-$20 per hour in many markets. That’s compressing margins across the board. Even high-performing manufacturers are seeing margin compression right now as labor, benefits, utilities, supplies and indirect costs all trend upward simultaneously. The challenge isn’t just cost. It’s that many organizations haven’t raised prices fast enough to keep up. At Wipfli, we’re seeing a significant number of manufacturers’ balance sheets showing signs of financial distress, including covenant violations, forbearance situations or unsustainable debt-to-earnings ratios. If you don’t have a strong balance sheet when things get hard, survival becomes less likely. How to improve manufacturing profitability Consistently turning a profit is tough for manufacturers in today’s landscape. Here are some items to focus on that could improve overall profitability: Rethink your pricing strategy Most manufacturers do a reasonable job of incorporating the costs of raw materials into their pricing. Where they fall short is in recouping all the other inflationary costs, including direct labor, indirect labor, benefits, utilities and supplies. These line items are all going up, and the value-added portion of a manufacturer’s cost structure is taking the most compression. You must separate the raw material price conversation from the broader inflationary cost increase conversation. And it’s a conversation you must have with customers, even if it means breaking a contract or pushing back on a “no.” Pricing strategy also means evaluating your existing capacity. If you have open press time or machine availability, you can price more aggressively to fill that capacity and cover overhead. If you don’t have capacity and would need capital investment to take on new work, that changes the math entirely. Pricing a project that requires a large investment, the same as one that uses equipment you already have, can create real cash flow challenges. Maximize your technology ROI Automation investments are spendy. Manufacturers with tight balance sheets can’t afford to spend millions automating medium- or low-volume parts just because the technology exists. The right question isn’t “should we automate?” It’s “what level of automation do we actually need to run this profitably?” That spectrum runs from solid process flow and hand automation on the low end to fully autonomous cells on the high end. And many organizations that think they’ve fully automated are still putting an operator at the end of the line waiting for parts. That’s not automation. It’s a gap in execution. When evaluating a capital investment in automation, consider: Value-add vs. volume: Higher-volume parts justify more automation. Low-value-add parts may actually need automation most, because the economics don’t justify manual labor. Flexibility: Can this asset be redeployed if the project doesn’t meet volume expectations? Prioritize equipment that can be used across multiple projects over single-purpose pieces of equipment. Phased approach: Start with entry-level automation that has a lower payback threshold. Evolve the automation plan as volumes increase and the product matures. Think of capital investment like a ladder; you don’t have to start at the top rung. A phased approach that builds in flexibility de-risks the investment and keeps you from overextending on a project that hasn’t proven its value. Manage labor more efficiently As wages rise, it becomes more important to maximize throughput and value added per hour of labor. Here are a couple of practical strategies: Reduce reliance on temporary labor: Temp markups can run as high as 60-65%, while the cost of hiring someone full-time with benefits is closer to 20-30%. In this labor market, you’re not saving money on temps anymore. You’re paying a premium for flexibility you may not need. Temporary workers have their place, but should not be viewed as the easy button. Eliminate low-value work: Manufacturers frequently throw labor at small problems because they don’t want to spend the time or money to solve the root cause. This practice compounds labor challenges. You end up with a disproportionate number of people doing inspections, moving product unnecessarily or absorbing transactional waste that proper process design would eliminate. Control material costs Buying on contract or locking in a price through futures markets is a good option when available, but most manufacturers can’t rely on it. Distributors pass through market pricing, and a six-month PO doesn’t guarantee a six-month price. So the strategy shifts to speed and transparency. Identify when prices change quickly and be ready to pass those costs on. To show your customers you’re operating in good faith, pass along price drops the same as you do for increases. For manufacturers, those hard pricing conversations get easier when you have built trust with customers. Two other tactics that matter: Multiple suppliers and approved materials: If you’re single-sourced on a critical material, your leverage disappears. Qualifying a second vendor or second approved material takes upfront work but offers supply continuity and potential leg up in price negotiations. Lessons from COVID still aren’t being applied consistently. Don’t wait for the next disruption to learn this again. Pay suppliers on time (or early): Manufacturers with stretched balance sheets stretch their suppliers. That’s one of the fastest ways to lose material availability. Organizations that pay on time, or even early, for potential discounts, can expect more consistent supply and maybe preferential terms/price. Know your market Cost-plus pricing is a starting point, not a strategy. The best manufacturers actively build market intelligence into how they quote and how they assess their business. Track your own hit rates. Review your margin reports by customer and market. When you miss a quote, do some digging to understand where your pricing was off and whether it was material, labor or both. That feedback shapes how you quote the next job and how you structure your business to be more competitive overall. Build real cost visibility Cost visibility plays a key role in margin improvement. But many manufacturers struggle to understand all the costs that need to be factored into pricing. Start with your bill of materials: Audit your highest-volume and lowest-margin parts regularly. Are you running them the way you said you would when you priced them? If your actual cost differs from the standard cost by more than 5%, you need to understand exactly what’s driving the gap. It’s often a performance erosion problem, not a pricing problem, that is entirely within your control to fix. Price by part, not by blended rate: When it’s time to pass on a price increase, don’t tell a customer you’re raising everything by a certain percentage. Show them by part where costs are increasing and where they’re coming down. Not every part carries the same labor or material cost. The manufacturers who can walk into that conversation with part-level data look sophisticated. The ones who can’t look like they’re guessing. Be honest about your low-volume, high-mix parts: They can look like big profit drivers on paper. In reality, they create supply chain complexity, scheduling headaches and labor inefficiency. Do a tail analysis on your lowest-volume parts and customers. For the ones that don’t make sense, either reprice them, restructure how you run them or have a direct conversation with the customer about the arrangement. Know your money makers Finally, be honest with yourself about where you’re actually making money. If someone asks you what your 10 most profitable parts are, you should be able to answer without hesitation. Find ways to produce as many of those products as possible. Read more Cybersecurity in manufacturing: Risks and best practices The impact of Canada retaliatory tariffs on U.S. manufacturing Tax treatment for tariffs: How U.S. manufacturing companies should treat tariff costs and IEEPA refund uncertainty under U.S. tax rules
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