Caravel’s Unique Approach: Why Our Benchmarking Delivers Results

Experienced, Hands-On Practitioners

Caravel’s team consists of former manufacturing executives, plant managers, maintenance managers, engineers, and operators – people who have lived the journey of operational improvement. This means our consultants can go on-site and immediately speak the language of the shop floor, gaining credibility and trust. We don’t just analyze data remotely; we engage directly with equipment and personnel to validate benchmarks and implement changes. One Caravel client noted that our team’s ability to relate to and communicate with shop floor employees was instrumental in building buy-in for a benchmarking initiative. By working side-by-side with client teams, Caravel ensures that benchmarking findings translate into practical actions that employees understand and support.

Broad and Deep Technical Capabilities

Caravel brings a holistic skill set that spans process engineering, maintenance and reliability, Lean Six Sigma, supply chain, and even business strategy. This breadth is crucial because improving performance is rarely about one thing; it often requires simultaneous changes in process technology, work processes, and organizational alignment. Caravel’s experts can dig into technical problems (e.g., troubleshooting a reactor’s yield issue) or high-level strategic ones (e.g., product portfolio rationalization) with equal ease. Our ability to integrate Lean and Six Sigma methodologies into our approach means our clients get statistically rigorous analysis coupled with practical problem-solving. Moreover, Caravel’s consultants have experience across a wide range of industries and manufacturing contexts, giving us a rich library of benchmarks and best practices to draw upon. Few organizations can say they have assessed 400+ sites and saved clients over $1 billion per year collectively through implemented improvements.

Bottom-Up and Top-Down Integration

A hallmark of Caravel’s approach is blending bottom-up engagement with top-down direction. Culturally, we know that sustainable change comes from within the organization, so we focus on empowering and coaching client teams to take ownership of improvements. At the same time, we work closely with leadership to ensure alignment with strategic goals and to secure the necessary resources and mandate for change. This dual approach is evident in how Caravel conducts benchmarking projects: our team might start by gathering front-line input on pain points and ideas (bottom-up data for benchmarking), while also presenting benchmark findings to executives to shape a vision and targets (top-down commitment). By facilitating communication between the plant floor and the C-suite, we help build a shared vision for excellence.

Focus on Change Management and Culture

Implementing improvements based on benchmarks is not just a technical exercise; it requires changing mindsets and behaviors. Caravel distinguishes itself with a strong change management focus. Rather than forcing changes, we act as a facilitator and catalyst, helping our client’s employees to make the change themselves. We emphasize coaching, shadowing, and frequent stakeholder interactions to nurture buy-in. Over time, our goal is to embed the benchmarking and improvement capability inside the organization, so the client continues to measure itself and drive further gains long after Caravel’s engagement. We provide ongoing coaching support until new ways of working become the norm. Clients have appreciated this commitment to “making change stick,” which is critical for capturing long-term value from any benchmarking exercise.

Results-Oriented Execution

At the end of the day, Caravel’s reputation rests on delivering tangible results, and our team is highly focused on execution. We don’t just write reports; we help implement solutions and capture the savings. Caravel is often willing to get its hands dirty in the plant. Whether that means supervising a maintenance outage, running training sessions, or configuring an AI monitoring dashboard, we ensure the improvements actually happen and sustain. This bias for action, combined with the clarity that benchmarking provides, means Caravel can achieve quick wins (building momentum) as well as longer-term transformations.