US Market Entry · Fractional COO · Advanced-Technology, Aerospace & Semiconductor Manufacturers
Compliant US operations for the defense industrial base.
Allied manufacturers turning a prototype into a secure US production line. New England shops defending the SPRS score that keeps their prime. I install the operating system that holds.
A maximum of four concurrent engagements. Response within 48 hours.
The landing zone
New England is America's defense corridor.
The primes, the supply base, and the compliance depth are already here. A compliant US operation in the corridor lands the work in New Hampshire: engineering roles, machinists, quality and compliance staff, and the suppliers that feed them.
- 10 to 30New Hampshire manufacturing jobs a single landed operation can seed within 24 months
- 2 to 3×regional supplier and service roles each direct manufacturing job tends to support
- Top tierdefense and aerospace sit among New Hampshire's largest manufacturing employers
Projected local impact per landed operation, pending client review.
Two ways in
One operator, one method, two doors.
01
You are entering the US defense market
An allied manufacturer standing up compliant US operations to win DoD business.
02
You run a US defense manufacturer
A New England shop holding the prime relationship on a defensible SPRS score.
Fault readout
The faults you already feel.
Revenue is up and the floor is busy. The losses live where the ERP cannot see. Six faults most defense shops run with today, scored the way a buyer scores a part.
The method
Standard Work 2.0, the operating system.
Standard Work 2.0 takes lean standard work off the production floor and applies it to the whole company, back office included. Four pillars, each tying a mechanism to a number the owner already watches.
IT / OT Convergence
One digital thread, not three networks
I merge the floor equipment's metrics into the financial dashboard, so MES, ERP, and SCADA become one auditable system the P&L can see instead of three compliance liabilities. The auditor follows one thread, whether I converge three legacy networks or stand up a greenfield US site.
Margin Engineering
Find the Hidden Factory, convert it to cash
Kaizen events aimed straight at the P&L. I map the value stream and cut the two things that bleed a mid-market margin: Hidden Factory errors the ERP never recorded, and spreadsheets standing in for a system. Recovered capacity becomes cash conversion days; the 20 to 40 percent loss Feigenbaum named becomes margin you can bank.
Human-in-the-Loop
AI handles the drudgery, people own the judgment
Smart workflows absorb the paperwork, so a line worker becomes a site lead instead of a form-filler. Verified human judgment stays on every decision that touches data integrity. Automation augments the operator, never replaces one.
Sovereign Tier
Compliance hardwired into the daily workflow
I hardwire ITAR, CMMC 2.0, ISO, and AS9100 into the daily build, so the auditor finds the controls running, not bolted on as a binder of PDFs. Compliance becomes a moat: the controls are evidence the day an assessor walks in. For a foreign-parented US subsidiary, this is where the US-person data boundary lives; transfers to the parent happen under DDTC authorization or not at all.
Proof of operating role
An operator, not an advisor.
- P&L owned
CEO and P&L ownership
Signed payroll and owned the P&L as CEO of a defense electronics manufacturer, where a turnaround doubled revenue, and directed the US and Canada operation of an Italian sensor multinational.
- 71 days
To ISO 9001:2015 certified
A global asset-tracking OEM's New Hampshire facility, taken from stand-up to ISO 9001:2015 certified with zero nonconformities in 71 days.
- $130K+
Software cost avoidance identified
At a defense ATE contract manufacturer: $75K in migration fees bypassed, roughly $55K a year in ERP license savings identified.
- 30 days
Operational triage to written plan
A defensible written plan in roughly five weeks at twenty hours a week, not a deck.
- US site stand-up
Foreign-parent onshoring, active
Standing up a compliant New Hampshire facility for a global asset-tracking OEM with Canadian and US R&D. Engagement in progress.
- 4 engagements
Maximum concurrent, by design
Capacity is the constraint and the proof. Engagements under NDA.
I speak P&L and shop floor in the same sentence: I have stood on the floor at 6 a.m. and answered for the number at the board the same week.
Engagement models
Four ways to put the constraint in front of an operator.
30-Day Operational Triage
The full diagnostic. A defensible written plan in thirty days.
The owner who knows something is eating capacity but cannot name it, and needs a plan, not another opinion.
- Value stream and swim-lane maps, top of funnel to cash, including the ECO and CAPA workflows where changes stall
- Gemba walks and targeted Kaizen events on the floor
- Leading and lagging metrics across the four pillars: People and Culture, Process, Products and Services, Cash
Fractional COO
Embedded operational leadership without a full-time hire.
The founder drowning in operations who cannot justify a quarter-million-dollar COO or keep running the floor and the board at once.
- Ongoing operational leadership at two to three days a week, embedded with your direct reports
- The full Standard Work 2.0 install across IT and OT, one auditable digital thread from quote to ship
- Real-time SQDIP reporting, quality tracking aligned to your prime's SCAR scorecards, and audit routines that hold after I step back
Strategic Consultancy
Standard Work 2.0 installed against one high-stakes problem.
PE operating partners and leadership teams facing one event: forensic diligence on an acquisition, a 90-day P&L triage, or compliance hardening before a prime gate.
- Forensic operational due diligence that surfaces the risk a financial model misses
- A 90-day P&L triage that cuts production variance and frees trapped working capital
- Compliance hardening for CMMC Level 2, an ITAR data enclave, and a QMS to ISO 9001:2015 or AS9100, built into workflow, not policy
Investor Readiness
The operational case an investor diligences, built before the first meeting.
The hard-tech, deep-tech, or defense-hardware founder with a raise ahead, who can show an investor the product but not yet the operation that scales it.
- A diligence-ready operating picture: value-stream and unit-economics maps from prototype to repeatable production, and what each unit costs
- The operational data room a technical investor asks for: scale-up plan, cost-down curve, supply and capacity assumptions, and compliance posture (ITAR, CMMC, AS9100) stated as fact, not intention
- The operator's answer to the question that sinks hardware raises, can you build this at volume, with a plan an investor can pressure-test
Featured collaboration
Investor Readiness | A Patent-Protected Plug-and-Play Electrical System
An Investor Readiness engagement: the prototype-to-scale operation and diligence case behind a patent-protected hardware system, the same work whether the hardware is a defense sensor or an electrical architecture.
Self-diagnostic
Six questions name the fault you are fighting. The result restates your situation back to you and points to the starting line. It runs ungated, and the answer stays yours.
Insights
The defense-manufacturing operations record.
Who I serve
Find the version of this that is yours.
Two situations, one operator. Each starts with what you stand to lose this year, then the mechanism that meets it.
NH / MA defense contract manufacturer
CMMC-ready operations for defense contract manufacturers. Keep the prime.
Your prime cannot award you covered work unless your assessment is current and posted, and DFARS 252.204-7012 binds today. CMMC Phase 2 was suspended on July 13, 2026; that moved the certificate and nothing else. The shop that loses the work loses it on a score it cannot defend, not on a date.
PE operating partner / diligence
Operational due diligence for PE operating partners, before the LOI hardens.
The operational risk a financial model cannot see torpedoes the LOI or resets the valuation after close. By the time it surfaces in the first quarter of ownership, you have paid for it.
Free tool
Score your CMMC Level 2 readiness in ten questions.
The DFARS-flowdown logic a prime applies to your shop, built into a scorer you run in five minutes and forward to your CFO. It maps your answers to the NIST SP 800-171 control families and returns a readiness band with the gaps named plainly. The score lands on screen, with no sales call attached.
What it checks
- Do you hold or process Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI)?
- Has a prime sent you a CMMC or DFARS 252.204-7021 supplier letter?
- Is your current SPRS self-assessment score posted and dated within the last year?
- Do you have a written System Security Plan (SSP) covering NIST SP 800-171?
- Are your MES, ERP, and SCADA environments mapped and access-controlled?
Ten questions, a readiness band, the gaps named in plain language. No sales call, no email required to see your score.
Capacity
I run a maximum of four concurrent engagements.
Strategic conversations for a full engagement open when an existing engagement reaches Phase 3. That is the real constraint, not a marketing line.
Time-critical situations move faster: a prime supplier letter, an affirmation date you cannot sign behind, an LOI in diligence. Name the trigger and I respond within 48 hours with a realistic window.
Full engagement waitlist
Fractional COO and 30-Day Triage slots open as engagements reach Phase 3. Name your trigger and I respond within 48 hours.
Time-critical? Start with a paid consult, available this week
A paid, time-boxed working session on one problem, no wait for a full slot. When a prime letter, an affirmation date, or an LOI is forcing your timing, it puts the constraint in front of an operator this week.
Request a Strategic Conversation
Name your trigger, a prime supplier letter, a CMMC window, an LOI in diligence. I respond within 48 hours with a realistic timing window.
Strategic Conversation
Only dates with openings can be selected.