Why Margin Problems Don’t Start with Pricing

Operational Reality: Margin

Most margin problems don’t start with pricing.

They start with bad numbers.

Inventory that isn’t accurate.

BOMs that don’t reflect reality.

Lead times no one believes.

So what happens?

Planning compensates.

Buyers over-order.

Operations builds buffers.

And leadership makes decisions using numbers everyone quietly questions.

That’s where margin erosion begins.

Not in finance.

Not in sales.

In the gap between what the system says…

and what the floor knows.

Before trying to improve margin, there’s a harder question to answer:

Do you trust the data driving your decisions?

If not, you’re not managing margin.

You’re reacting to it.

This is what I’ve learned the hard way.

#OperationalReality