The 2014 Excellence in Social and Community Investment Awards: West Monroe Partners

"We were facing a lot of constraints with our physical showroom, structure, layout, staffing, among other things," says John Vidosh, Director of Operations at Furniture Bank. "When West Monroe was here we discussed some of these issues that we were dealing with and it just so happened to be exactly in West Monroe's wheelhouse. The relationship just blossomed from there."

The FBCO serves nearly 5,000 families per year (more than 60 percent of those with children), and its goal is to grow that number to 7,500 without reducing the amount of time spent with each family. The organization's leaders and board members are making key strategic decisions about how to support the organization's growth goals. To make the best decisions, they needed insight in several areas related to its facilities and operations.

"We try to look for local charities that have a direct impact on the communities where we live and work," says Jeremy Tancredi, Senior Manger at West Monroe Partners. "We believe in the organization's mission which is to go out and help families in need and provide them with a service we think is a little more unique than some other organizations."

Chuck Camp, Operations Manager at the Furniture Bank of Central Ohio, says each family it serves needs about 15 pieces of furniture, on average. "Do the math and you'll see our goal is to be up over 100,000 pieces of furniture a year," Camp says. "When you're talking about those types of numbers, it becomes more and more critical that you have an efficient process in order to be able to be able to do that. West Monroe came in and has been immensely helpful with that."
The floor space utilization study produced detailed recommendations and guidance for: 1) splitting the FBCO's showroom space into two sections so that the organization could host two families at one time, and 2) staggering the start time for appointments, with new appointments every 7 or 8 minutes. Together, these recommendations would allow the FBCO to increase its capacity to nearly 11,000 families per year without adding showroom space, reducing appointment duration, or adding to staff hours.

The formal project accounted for about 160 hours of work, Tancredi says. Several West Monroe team members continued to volunteer time to assist the organization with specific needs, such as a capital expansion project—ultimately recognizing an opportunity to provide pro bono assistance in areas of expertise—supply chain management, workforce optimization and strategic planning—that can help the FBCO better support its constituents and the community.

"Most of our people are on the road quite a bit, so it's very important that when we're back home that feel connected to the community. It's rewarding for our consultants to have an impact here at home," Tancredi says.

Other recommendations included: 1) continuing to floor load all items at the remote storage facility to maximize space for donations; 2) adding a cross-dock extension to the donation facility to increase buffer stock space while allowing easy transfer of remote storage items; 3) constructing or installing a storage shed to store wood donations; and 4) purchasing portable aluminum ramps for loading and unloading. "What I love about this engagement is that it includes actionable items, things we could do right away." Vidosh says.