The method
Standard Work 2.0™, the operating system.
Standard Work 2.0 takes the discipline of lean standard work off the production floor and applies it to the whole company, back office and shop floor alike. It runs on four pillars. Each one ties an operational mechanism to a number the owner already watches.
The four pillars
Four pillars. Each one ties a mechanism to a number you already watch.
The discipline of lean standard work, taken off the production floor and applied to the whole company. Back office and shop floor on one auditable system.
IT / OT Convergence
One digital thread, not three networks
I merge the metrics coming off the industrial equipment on the floor into clean financial-dashboard visibility, so MES, ERP, and SCADA stop being three separate compliance liabilities and start being one auditable system the P&L can actually see. The auditor follows one thread, and it holds, whether I am converging three legacy networks or standing up a greenfield US site built compliant from day one.
Kaizen events aimed straight at the P&L. I map the value stream and eliminate the two things that quietly bleed a mid-market margin: the undocumented Hidden Factory errors the ERP never recorded, and the manual spreadsheet taxes standing in for a real system. That recovered capacity converts into cash conversion days, and the 20 to 40 percent loss Feigenbaum named becomes margin you can bank.
Margin Engineering
Find the Hidden Factory, convert it to cash
Human-in-the-Loop
AI handles the drudgery, people own the judgment
Smart workflows absorb the cognitive drudgery of paperwork, so a standard line worker gets upskilled into a strategic site lead instead of buried in forms. In a regulated environment, verified human judgment stays in the loop on every decision that touches data integrity. Automation augments the operator, it never replaces the operator.
I hardwire ITAR, CMMC 2.0, ISO, and AS9100 into the daily build process, so the data borders sit where the controlled technical data actually lives and the auditor finds the controls already running instead of bolted on as a binder of PDFs. Built this way, the compliance posture stops being overhead and becomes a competitive moat: the digital thread is secure by design, and 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. Controlled technical data stays inside the American operation, and transfers to the parent happen under DDTC authorization or not at all.
Sovereign Tier
Compliance hardwired into the daily workflow
Fault, then response
What the method clears, one fault at a time.
The same faults you already feel, scored the way a buyer scores a part. Here each one reads CLEARED, with the pillar that does the clearing named on the line.
The unbuilt 800-171 floor
On July 13, 2026 the Department suspended CMMC Phase II, the mandatory third-party certification step originally scheduled for November 10, 2026, and opened a reform review. Phase I did not move: a Level 2 self-assessment every three years against the 110 NIST SP 800-171 Rev 2 requirements, with annual affirmation into SPRS. DFARS 252.204-7012 binds today, and per CyberSheath's 2025 State of the DIB report only 1 percent of contractors feel fully prepared.
Backlog outrunning cash
The order book grows while working capital tightens. AlixPartners found the aerospace and defense cash conversion cycle lengthened from 138 to 159 days between 2018 and 2022. The growth story hides a cash crisis.
The Hidden Factory
Undocumented rework, tribal knowledge, and off-the-books problem solving. Armand Feigenbaum estimated this loss can reach 40 percent of total company effort. Your ERP cannot see any of it.
SPRS score exposure
A wrong self-assessment score in the Supplier Performance Risk System is a false-affirmation risk. The DOJ Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative pursues exactly this under the False Claims Act.
IT and OT running as separate liabilities
MES, ERP, and SCADA sit on three networks with three owners. Each is a CMMC liability on its own. Together they are the digital thread an auditor follows, or the one that fails.
No full-time COO, founder at the limit
A full-time COO is a fully-loaded cost of a quarter of a million dollars and up. The founder is signing payroll, sitting the audit, and answering the prime's questionnaire at the same time.
The unbuilt 800-171 floor
Sovereign Tier builds CMMC, ITAR, and AS9100 into the work itself, so the 110 controls are already running and stand as evidence for the affirmation you sign today and for whatever the reform returns.
Backlog outrunning cash
Margin Engineering maps the value stream and converts recovered capacity into cash conversion days, so the order book stops starving working capital.
The Hidden Factory
Margin Engineering finds the rework and waste the ERP never recorded and turns the loss Feigenbaum named into margin you can bank.
SPRS score exposure
Sovereign Tier gets the score right and documented, so a self-assessment survives scrutiny instead of standing as a false-affirmation risk.
IT and OT as separate liabilities
IT/OT Convergence turns MES, ERP, and SCADA into one auditable digital thread the assessor can follow end to end, not three networks with three owners.
No full-time COO at the helm
Human-in-the-Loop lifts technicians into site leadership while verified human judgment stays on every decision, so the system holds without a quarter-million-dollar hire.
How it gets installed
The method runs through an engagement.
The four pillars are not a deliverable on their own. They get installed through one of four ways to work, scoped to the constraint you are actually fighting.
30-Day Operational Triage
The full diagnostic. A defensible written plan in thirty days.
Fractional COO
Embedded operational leadership without a full-time hire.
Strategic Consultancy
Standard Work 2.0 installed against a specific high-stakes problem.
Investor Readiness
The operational case an investor diligences, built before the first meeting.
Self-diagnostic
Six questions name the fault you are actually fighting. The result restates your own situation back to you and points to the right starting line. No email, no follow-up sequence.