The method
Standard Work 2.0™, the operating system for defense manufacturing.
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.
The four pillars
Four pillars. Each ties a mechanism to a number you already watch.
Lean standard work, 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 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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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, each reading CLEARED, with the pillar that clears it named on the line.
The unbuilt 800-171 floor
On July 13, 2026 the Department suspended CMMC Phase II, the mandatory third-party certification 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 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 sees none 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 it under the False Claims Act.
IT and OT running as separate liabilities
MES, ERP, and SCADA sit on three networks with three owners, each a CMMC liability. 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 quarter-million-dollar fully-loaded cost, and up. The founder is signing payroll, sitting the audit, and answering the prime's questionnaire, all at once.
The unbuilt 800-171 floor
Sovereign Tier builds CMMC, ITAR, and AS9100 into the work itself, so the 110 controls run as evidence for the affirmation you sign today and 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, turning the loss Feigenbaum named into margin you can bank.
SPRS score exposure
Sovereign Tier gets the score right and documented, so the self-assessment survives scrutiny.
IT and OT as separate liabilities
IT/OT Convergence turns MES, ERP, and SCADA into one auditable digital thread the assessor follows end to end.
No full-time COO at the helm
Human-in-the-Loop lifts technicians into site leadership while verified 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.
Four pillars, four ways to work, each scoped to the constraint you are 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 one 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 fighting. The result restates your situation back to you and points to the starting line. It runs ungated, and the answer stays yours.