How it works
I do not start with a productized package and work backward to your plant. We start with a conversation, often a short diagnostic, and then we choose the shape of the work: a day or more each week, or a full-time interim stretch when the seat cannot sit empty.
Most of the work follows a simple path. Not every company needs every step. We will skip a step if the situation is already clear.
You tell me about the company, what is happening in operations, and what you are hoping will be true in a few months. I will tell you whether I am a fit, and I will say so if I am not. There is no charge for this, and no long questionnaire.
A short, defined look at how work actually runs, which measures are worth managing, and a ninety-day plan the existing team can see themselves in. The diagnostic should stand on its own, even if we do not continue. What a diagnostic should produce.
I come in on a set cadence, run the operating rhythm, own a short list of outcomes, and coach the leaders already in the building. Two days a week is a common pattern. We can work at one day when the team is already capable and needs a senior partner, or at three days during a transition or integration.
For a departure, a messy stretch, or an integration that needs a present leader. This is usually a defined period, with a practical first ninety days and a plan to hire, step down to a fractional cadence, or hand the work to an internal leader.
The point is not to stay forever. As the cadence holds, we reduce the days or close the engagement, with the work, the metrics, and the decision rights left in language the team can keep using.
The details change with the assignment. The sequence does not change much, whether the work is fractional or interim.
Days 1–30
I walk the floor, listen to the people closest to the work, and look at safety, quality, delivery, and cost without rushing to redesign the org chart. I get clear with you about what I am allowed to decide, and I start a short, reliable cadence if one is missing. The plant should feel a calm, present operator, not a whirlwind of initiatives.
Days 31–60
A daily or weekly review that actually closes issues. A few metrics the supervisors trust. Two or three outcomes for the next stretch, not a dozen. This is also when I start developing the internal leaders in the job, not in a seminar about the job.
Days 61–90
The cadence should run on a week I am lighter in the building. Decision rights should be written down in language a supervisor can use. The remaining gaps—a hire, a capital need, a process still on the list—should be named honestly, along with a recommendation about stepping down, continuing, or hiring full-time.
A closer look at the first ninety days in an interim plant role.
A full-time operations executive is the right call when the work would fill a week, every week—enough complexity, enough span of control, or a regulated environment that needs a named person always on site. If you already know the role will still be a real job in two years, start the search.
Fractional leadership is the better fit when the company needs senior judgment and a steady cadence, but the honest inventory of the work is a few serious days, not forty hours. That is common for owners in Springfield and across the Midwest who are stepping back, and for growth-stage companies that would otherwise hire early and then watch the role expand to fill the week.
The test I use is simple. List the decisions, meetings, coaching, and problem-solving that actually require a senior operator. Hire to that list, not to a title. When to hire a fractional COO instead of a full-time executive.
I do not publish prices on this site. Engagements are scoped to the work, and I will quote after I understand the cadence, the complexity, and any travel.
The comparison that matters is not an hourly rate. It is the alternative. A full-time operations executive is a loaded annual cost: pay, benefits, and the time and fee involved in recruiting. If the hire is early, the seat is hard to unwind, and the work has a way of expanding so the week looks full. You also carry that cost in the quiet months, not only in the stretches that need extra leadership.
A fractional or interim arrangement is a fraction of that commitment, and it is designed to move. We can step it up during a transition and step it down once the team is carrying the work. You are buying senior leadership for the days you need it, without adding a permanent G&A line before the company is truly ready for the seat.