Helping Manufacturers Improve Operational Performance and Increase Profitability

Experience shapes how we approach improvement.

OpEx Group UK brings together experienced operational professionals with backgrounds in manufacturing, asset management, maintenance, reliability, engineering and business improvement.

Our approach has been shaped by decades of working in demanding operating environments — assessing performance, identifying constraints and supporting organisations through practical implementation.

That experience has reinforced a simple principle:

Sustainable improvement depends on understanding how the operation works as a system, not improving individual parts in isolation.

Built on practical experience

More than 30 years of international experience has involved working with manufacturing and asset-intensive businesses across petrochemical, power generation, steelmaking, mining, speciality chemicals & coatings, fibres, paper and other industrial environments.

The work has ranged from operational assessments and due diligence through improvement programmes, work-process development, capability building and implementation.

It has involved working directly with site and business leadership roles, alongside Operations, Maintenance, Reliability, Engineering, Technical and supporting functions.

The perspective comes from working across the operation, not from one functional discipline.

We don't start with a methodology

Lean, Six Sigma, Continuous Improvement, technology and management systems can all contribute to better performance.

But experience has shown that no methodology compensates for weak operating foundations.

Asset capability, maintenance and reliability processes, operating practices, roles and responsibilities, technical capability, workflows, management systems and leadership expectations need to work together.

That is why our starting point is the operation itself.

Understand what is happening. Identify what is constraining performance. Establish what needs to change.

Assessment is only the beginning

Finding opportunities is relatively easy. Converting them into sustainable operating improvement is harder.

Recommendations need to work within the realities of the business — its people, assets, production requirements, organisational structure and existing ways of working.

Our experience extends beyond assessment into implementation: developing practical processes, defining responsibilities, building capability, establishing management routines and helping changes become part of normal operation.

The objective is not simply to recommend improvement. It is to help make improvement work.

Independent thinking. Experienced resources.

OpEx Group UK operates as an independent advisory business, drawing on experienced resources according to the requirements of each engagement.

This allows the work to remain focused on what the operation actually needs rather than fitting the problem to a predetermined method programme or consulting model.

Engagements can range from focused operational assessments and specific improvement requirements to broader implementation support.

The scale of the approach should fit the scale of the problem.

Rhys Bailey | Advisor

Rhys has more than 30 years of international experience working with manufacturing and asset-intensive businesses.

His experience includes operational assessment, asset operations, maintenance and reliability, organisational and work-process improvement, management systems, due diligence and implementation.

He has worked across multiple industries and operating environments, supporting business and site leadership as well as the functional teams from operational leadership to shop floor roles responsible for delivering day-to-day performance.

The common thread throughout that experience has been understanding how people, processes, assets and management systems connect to produce business performance.

Practical improvement starts with understanding the operation.

If the challenges facing an operation extend beyond a single function or obvious solution, our experience may provide a useful perspective.

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