Operations Assessment
A two to three week review that quantifies where you lose margin, service, and inventory accuracy, with a prioritized 90 day plan and the dollar value of each fix.
Supply Chain & Operations Consulting · Fractional Leadership
Your operation is leaking margin. We find it and fix it.
Pursuing Excellence helps distribution, supply chain, logistics, and repair operations cut cost, raise inventory accuracy, recover service, and scale. You get a senior operator who has owned the P&L, not a theorist with a template.
Based in Greater Houston, Texas. Serving distribution, supply chain, and repair operations across the U.S.
DistributionInventory ControlRepair DepotsLogisticsFractional OpsTurnaround
The Problem
When the business outgrows the operation.
Growth, consolidation, and system changes expose the same failure points. Each one quietly costs money every day it goes unaddressed.
Inventory you cannot trust
Counts do not match the floor. Adjustments pile up. Customers get the wrong order and finance cannot close the books with confidence.
Service slipping after a change
A consolidation, move, or new system broke the rhythm. Orders ship late, complaints rise, and key accounts are at risk.
Cost climbing faster than volume
Freight, labor, and overtime keep rising. Nobody can point to the root cause or the dollar value of fixing it.
Processes that live in people's heads
No SOPs, no real KPIs, no operating cadence. When a key person leaves, the knowledge walks out with them.
A founder stuck in the weeds
Leadership is firefighting instead of building. The company needs a senior operator but cannot justify a full time executive yet.
A system cutover going sideways
The WMS or ERP go live created more problems than it solved, and service is paying the price during stabilization.
Services
What we do, and how you buy it.
Most engagements start with an assessment, then convert into hands on improvement, fractional leadership, or a turnaround. Each is scoped to a defined outcome and measured against cost, service, and inventory accuracy.
Fractional VP of Operations
Senior operations leadership on a part time or interim basis. Embedded, accountable, and focused on outcomes, without the cost of a full time executive.
Inventory & Distribution Improvement
Inventory accuracy, cycle count governance, and distribution center performance. We install the controls that make accuracy hold.
Repair Depot & Field Execution
Repair depot optimization, deployment, and field execution support for service organizations that need throughput and quality without chaos.
Operational Turnaround
Service recovery after consolidation, cost reduction, and stabilization. We restore control quickly and build the discipline to keep it.
Leadership & Operating Systems
Leadership development, KPI dashboards, SOPs, and operating rhythm design. We make excellence repeatable instead of heroic.
Why Pursuing Excellence
A practical operator, not a theorist.
01
We have done the work
Owned a $230M P&L, run five distribution centers, converted a 3PL to in house, and implemented Manhattan Active WMS. We start from experience, not a framework.
02
Outcomes tied to the P&L
Every recommendation carries a dollar value and an owner. You get a decision and a plan, not a study that sits on a shelf.
03
Speed without shortcuts
We move fast and still separate symptoms from root causes. Most stabilization shows measurable improvement in 30 to 90 days.
04
We leave you stronger
We build the cadence, KPIs, and leadership capability that let the gains hold after we step back. The goal is your independence, not our retention.
Results
Outcomes delivered in the field.
Representative results from the operating record behind the firm.
$8M/yr
3PL to in house in under six months
Converted a major distribution center to in house operations, with roughly $8M in annual savings and about 11 percent better customer experience.
14%lower
Transportation cost reduction
Cut transportation cost by roughly 14 percent through routing, vendor negotiation, and TMS enabled improvements.
7‑figuresavings
National carrier renegotiation
Renegotiated FedEx and UPS agreements for multimillion dollar annual savings while protecting service.
The Approach
A method built for speed and durability.
01
Diagnose
We walk the floor and read the data. Symptoms get separated from root causes across people, process, systems, and governance.
02
Prioritize
Findings are ranked by dollar impact and speed to fix. You receive a clear decision and a sequenced plan.
03
Stabilize
The highest impact moves launch first, each with a named owner, an escalation path, and a metric.
04
Scale
We install the cadence, KPIs, and capability that let the gains hold and compound.
Who We Help
Built for operations under real pressure.
✓
Small and mid sized businesses with operational complexity
✓
Distribution, logistics, and fulfillment companies
✓
Repair depot and field service organizations
✓
Companies fighting inventory accuracy problems
✓
Businesses scaling faster than their processes can support
✓
Private equity backed companies needing operational improvement
✓
Founders who need senior operations leadership now
✓
Executives who want a practical operator, not a theorist
Free Tool
The Operations Health Check Scorecard
A focused self assessment across the seven areas where operations quietly lose money. Score your operation in about 10 minutes and see exactly where the gaps are.
- 25 questions across inventory, service, cost, and leadership
- A simple score that shows your three biggest risks
- A full breakdown across all seven operational areas
25 questions across inventory, service, cost, and leadership.
Takes about 10 minutes. Unlock your score and your three biggest risks with your work email.
Start the scorecard →Free assessment. Your work email unlocks your results.
About
The operator behind the firm.
Warren Stout
Supply Chain & Operations Executive
Warren is a senior operations executive with more than 25 years leading distribution, fulfillment, transportation, manufacturing, and reverse logistics. He has owned operations carrying roughly $230M in P&L and $1.4B in revenue impact, leading about 700 people across five distribution centers and 3.2 million square feet.
His record includes converting a major distribution center from third party logistics to in house in under six months, renegotiating national parcel and freight agreements for multimillion dollar savings, reducing transportation cost by roughly 14 percent, and implementing Manhattan Active WMS with enterprise change management.
He holds an Executive MBA from DUCERE Global School of Business. His leadership model, truth and grace, pairs accountability with empathy and systems thinking with execution.
Supply chain & logisticsDistribution & fulfillmentInventory accuracyManhattan Active WMSTMS & carrier negotiationRepair & reverse logistics
Common Questions
What clients ask first.
Pursuing Excellence is a supply chain and operations consulting firm in Houston, Texas. We improve distribution, inventory, transportation, and repair operations, reduce operating cost, build KPIs and SOPs, develop operations leaders, and provide fractional VP of Operations leadership.
Yes. Supply chain is core to the work. We improve distribution, inventory, transportation, procurement, and reverse logistics, from network and footprint decisions through day to day execution, and we tie every change to cost, service, and inventory accuracy.
A supply chain and operations consultant diagnoses where a company loses margin, service, and inventory accuracy across distribution, transportation, inventory, and repair operations, then fixes the root causes and installs the controls, KPIs, and leadership cadence that make the gains hold. The work ties directly to cost, service levels, and the P&L.
Hire a fractional VP of Operations when operations have outgrown the founder or current leader, when service or cost is slipping, or when you need senior operating experience without the cost of a full time executive. The leader embeds part time and is accountable to defined outcomes.
An operations assessment is a short, structured review of your operation across people, process, systems, governance, and metrics. It separates symptoms from root causes and produces a prioritized plan with the dollar value of each fix. We deliver it in two to three weeks.
Inventory accuracy improves through disciplined cycle counting, clear ownership, root cause analysis of adjustments, accurate system setup, and controls at receiving, putaway, and shipping. Most operations reach measurable improvement within 30 to 90 days under a governed program.
Engagements are scoped to outcomes. A fixed fee operations assessment is the common entry point. Fractional and interim leadership is typically a monthly retainer or day rate, and improvement or turnaround projects are scoped to the work. Fees are tied to measurable impact on cost, service, and inventory accuracy.
Yes. We support private equity firms and their portfolio companies with operational due diligence before close and value creation programs after, including network design, systems stabilization, inventory governance, and cost reduction.
Pursuing Excellence is based in the Greater Houston area in Texas and serves clients across Texas and the United States, onsite and remote.
Find the gaps costing you money.
In 30 minutes we will pressure test your biggest operational risk and tell you whether an assessment is worth your time. No pitch, no obligation.
Contact
Tell us what is hurting.
Send the details below. You will get a direct reply, usually within one business day, with a clear view of whether and how we can help.
Direct
Based in
Greater Houston, Texas
Coverage
Texas and the United States