Sample War Map
Electronics manufacturing services War Map
EMS subcontractor · PCB assembly and box build for industrial customers · 1 site, 3 SMT lines · 180 employees
Every quote, shortage and end-of-life notice is handled one component at a time across distributor sites and Excel. Quotes go out late, and obsolete parts are found when a kit is already short.
A War Map is an operating map built from real cases and expert interviews. It shows where the business is fragile, what that costs, and what to fix first.
What you receive
- 01Operational Reality
How the work really runs: people, systems, handoffs and exceptions.
- 02Findings
What it costs: quantified problems, process gaps and key-person risks.
- 03Implementation plan
What to fix first: prioritized systems, timeline and value drivers.
30 minutes. We recommend the right starting point.
EMS subcontractor · PCB assembly and box build for industrial customers · 1 site, 3 SMT lines · 180 employeesThis War Map shows how we turn an operational review into an implementation plan. The dates show a possible sequence; the scope and schedule of a real engagement are agreed with you.
Operational Reality
This is what we deliver: a map of where the business is fragile, what it costs, what to automate first, and which systems should exist so leadership can stop carrying the operation by hand.
Illustrative five-week work plan, September 7 to October 9, 2026. Eleven interview roles across eight departments, one site with three SMT lines and six systems. Synthesis and handover take the final week.
Five-week sample timeline · five work blocks
One row per week. Open a week to see each working day.
- Week 1Sep 7 to Sep 11
Quotes, shortages and the line
Scope set. RFQ costing, the shortage list, kitting and delivery updates shadowed.
People: Frédéric Lemoine, Agnès Bertrand, Mathieu Caron, Yann Le Gall, Delphine Marchand, Gwenaëlle Tanguy
Daily detail · 5 days
Sep 7Kickoff + Scope AlignmentAgreed scope: quoting, component supply, obsolescence, test and returns. Listed the 60 active customers and the workflows to shadow.
Frédéric Lemoine · CEOSage X3ExcelSep 8RFQ Costing ShadowFollowed one RFQ from email to quote: a 212-line BOM for an industrial controller, three quantity breaks. Cleaning the BOM took 3 h 10. Pricing took 5 hours spread over four days.
Mathieu Caron · Costing EngineerExcelPortalsSage X3M365Sep 9Monday Shortage List85 open shortage lines, 14 on allocation with lead times above 40 weeks. Confirmed supplier dates are kept in Excel, not in Sage X3.
Yann Le Gall · Component BuyerSage X3PortalsExcelSep 10Planning and Kitting23% of jobs last quarter started with an incomplete kit. Missing parts were fitted by hand after reflow.
Delphine Marchand · Production PlannerSage X3MESExcelSep 11Customer Delivery UpdatesDelivery dates re-sent to customers after each shortage update, one email at a time. On-time delivery: 81% over six months.
Gwenaëlle Tanguy · Customer Service CoordinatorM365Excel - Week 2Sep 14 to Sep 18
Obsolescence, test and returns
EOL, alternate-part, test and RMA flows mapped. €260K of broker purchases and €640K of waiting kits found.
People: Claire Renaud, Sébastien Royer, Antoine Leroux, Morgane Guérin, Pascal Robin
Daily detail · 5 days
Sep 14EOL and Change NoticesAbout 60 notices a month land in a shared mailbox. The where-used search in Sage X3 misses parts stored under distributor references.
Claire Renaud · Purchasing ManagerM365Sage X3PortalsSep 15Alternate Parts + Engineering Changes11 alternate-part requests open with customers, the oldest at 71 days. Engineering changes logged in Excel with three different revision fields.
Sébastien Royer · NPI EngineerSage X3ExcelM365Sep 16Test Benches5 benches: in-circuit, flying probe and three functional. Results stay on each bench PC. The 2 oldest functional benches are not linked to serial numbers in the MES.
Antoine Leroux · Test EngineerTestMESSep 17Returns and Failure Analysis22 returns a month, report in 17 working days on average. The same capacitor failure appeared at two customers five weeks apart; nobody linked the two.
Morgane Guérin · Quality ManagerExcelMESM365Sep 18Finance Review€260K bought from brokers in 12 months. €640K of kits and work in progress waiting on missing parts at the last month end.
Pascal Robin · CFOSage X3Excel - Week 3Sep 21 to Sep 25
Internal Analysis
RFQ history, broker spend and EOL exposure measured. 15 workflows mapped.
People: No interviews this week
Daily detail · 5 days
Sep 21RFQ History Analysis12 months: 418 RFQs, 75 won (18%). Quotes sent within 5 days won 27%; those sent after 10 days won 12%. A correlation, used as a hypothesis, not as proof.
ExcelM365Sep 22Shortage and Broker AnalysisBroker prices averaged 3.5 times the franchised price, so about €185K of the €260K was premium. Expedite fees and late-delivery penalties reached €110K.
Sage X3ExcelSep 23Obsolescence Exposure ScanChecked 1,940 active part numbers against lifecycle data. 7% are not recommended for new designs or end of life; 31 sit on boards built in the last 12 months with no approved alternate.
Sage X3PortalsSep 24Time Allocation StudyGrouped the tasks of the 11 interview roles into five categories from shadowing notes and task logs. No extrapolation to the 180 employees.
Sep 25Process Map ConstructionBuilt process maps for the 15 workflows and compared each written procedure with what we observed.
- Week 4Sep 28 to Oct 2
Plan and validation
8 opportunities sequenced, value ranges built and findings checked with three leads.
People: Claire Renaud, Mathieu Caron, Morgane Guérin
Daily detail · 5 days
Sep 28Opportunity IdentificationSelected 8 opportunities across 4 departments. For each, named the decision that stays with a person: price, purchase, alternate approval or quality release.
Sep 29Key-Person Risk ReviewTest programs held by Antoine, labour estimates from Mathieu's memory of past jobs, allocation contacts known only to Yann.
Sep 30Sequencing + Value ModelBOM intake and the shortage board first, since pricing, kitting and EOL work all need clean part data. Low and high cases built for each initiative.
Oct 1Validation with Department LeadsWalked through the maps and the register. One adjustment: the 35 RFQs a month include re-quotes. Figures kept, wording updated.
Claire Renaud · Purchasing ManagerOct 2Internal QAChecked every figure against interview notes, the RFQ log, purchase history and the returns log.
- Week 5 · HandoverOct 5 to Oct 9
Synthesis and handover
War Map delivered and first initiatives agreed with leadership.
People: Frédéric Lemoine, Pascal Robin, Agnès Bertrand
Daily detail · 3 days
Oct 5Deliverable AssemblyAssembled the War Map in three chapters: operational reality, findings and implementation plan.
Oct 7Pre-Handover ReviewReviewed the value model line by line. Agreed that broker purchases above €2,000 need a second approval from Claire from month 1.
Frédéric Lemoine · CEOOct 9War Map DeliveryDelivered the War Map and the implementation plan. Named an owner per initiative and set a monthly review.
Frédéric Lemoine · CEO
What We Heard
“Half my week goes on cleaning customer BOMs. The costing itself, the part that needs me, gets squeezed into Friday.”
“I check the same 85 lines on five distributor sites every Monday. By Wednesday the answers have changed.”
“The alternate is ready in two days. Then we wait a month for the customer's engineer to sign.”
“When a board comes back I need its test log. On two benches that means opening the PC and searching folders by date.”
“We lose quotes we could win, only because we answer after the others.”
Team Members Interviewed
Systems Accessed
Strategy Session · 30 min
A real engagement is scoped in the Strategy Session and may begin with a War Map or a bounded Feasibility Sprint.