# Mick Holly

Mick Holly shares practical advice on manufacturing operations and finding hidden costs on the factory floor, including waste from long changeovers, scrap, excess inventory, and outdated supply-chain processes.

- Profile: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/creators/mick-holly/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mickholly
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUpSgWcLtW-JZPG4J5K4Q3g
- Topics: supply-chain, lean-manufacturing
- Based on 17 dated posts, latest 2026-10-08

## Summary

Mick Holly is most useful for helping manufacturers find hidden operational costs and connect them to margins.

- Best for: An enterprise operations-software brand targeting senior manufacturing leaders with a hidden-cost campaign.
- Not for: A consumer lifestyle brand seeking broad-reach entertainment or general consumer product demonstrations.
- Check first: Ask for available sponsorship formats and audience demographics before treating this as a paid campaign.

### Takeaways

- Excess inventory is a clue, not always the problem, and can reveal flow or reliability issues.
- Three diagnostic questions cover changeover time, scrap rate and supply-chain design.
- A packaging manufacturer case reports a $1 million inventory cost reduction.

## Main ideas

- **The margin problem is usually about visibility, not pricing**: Holly argues that manufacturers often treat a margin squeeze as a pricing or contract issue when the losses sit in routine floor activity. The recurring categories — scrap, changeovers, inventory, rework and downtime — are ordinary, not hidden. They persist because nobody chases the root cause and people get used to the losses. Holly’s conclusion: people are capable, but they cannot act on what they cannot see. Making the metric visible is the first step, not buying a new tool.
- **Three diagnostic questions: changeover time, scrap rate and supply-chain design**: Holly reduces the diagnosis to three measurable questions for an operations team: How long does the longest changeover take, and how long should it take? What is the scrap rate, and when was it last challenged? Was the supply chain designed for today’s market or the one ten years ago? Each question turns an accepted operating condition into a comparable number; an unanswered question is itself a finding.
- **Excess inventory is a clue, not the problem**: Visible work-in-progress invites the reflex to cut stock. Holly argues the better first question is why it is there: inventory can point to poor flow, unreliable equipment, long changeovers, quality problems, scheduling issues, large batch sizes or imbalance between operations. Following those clues can release working capital, shorten lead times, unlock capacity without adding people or equipment, and cut expediting — a bigger prize than inventory reduction alone.
- **The fix is a management system, not a better meeting or more reports**: The leadership argument parallels the one about the factory floor. Holly says companies that grow their bottom line twice as fast as their top line share one trait: leaders can answer questions about the floor. Not through micromanagement, but because a management system surfaces operational performance in real time and prompts action. The gap between the P&L and what happens on the line is where margin disappears.
- **Proof comes in dollars against the P&L or in working capital**: Holly anchors claims to finance-level results, not just process benchmarks, making the argument legible to executives and the losses concrete. The posts present figures as measured outcomes; one frames the broader opportunity as a range for manufacturers generally, not a single case.
- **Short diagnostic posts with a defined next step**: The format is a short text post built around one question or contrast, ending with a low-commitment next step; several put the booking link in the first comment rather than the post. The offer is a free 30-minute manufacturing margin review, followed — if both sides identify an opportunity — by a one-day site visit with zero production disruption. Holly states the qualification plainly, targeting people who own the P&L rather than operators.

## Work to read

- [Monday meetings: a lifeboat that rescues versus a lighthouse that prevents](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mickholly_leanmanagement-operationalexcellence-leadership-activity-7513927449194274816-rz7m)
- [Inventory is a clue, not always the problem](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mickholly_inventory-isnt-always-the-problem-its-activity-7510674009844371456-AAI2)
- [A PE-backed manufacturer's hidden margin leaks, quantified](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mickholly_a-pe-backed-industrial-manufacturer-portfolio-activity-7483524856957943809-yU7S)
- [Three questions worth asking the operations team this week](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mickholly_ask-your-operations-team-three-questions-activity-7490792701693505536-senc)
- [A packaging manufacturer's inventory problem was really a supply-chain problem](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mickholly_a-packaging-manufacturer-came-to-us-with-activity-7482801161972989952-VY5s)
- [Five things eating margin, and why it is a visibility problem](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mickholly_five-ways-youre-losing-margin-on-your-factory-activity-7488997246064222209-dhNS)

## Brand relationships

- **TBM Consulting Group** (disclosed_partnership)

## Partnerships

Mick Holly's posts promote a free Manufacturing Margin Review through TBM Consulting Group: a 30-minute discovery call with a senior consultant, followed, if both sides see a workable opportunity, by a one-day site visit that walks the production floor and produces quantified improvement estimates at no cost to the manufacturer. The lead-generation service targets CEOs, COOs, and CFOs at industrial or consumer-goods manufacturers, typically with $500M+ in revenue. The posts don't specify sponsorship or brand-partnership formats, sponsor terms, a rate card, editorial guidelines, or an official partnership inquiry page. Ask for those details to evaluate a creator-partnership package.

## Alternatives

- Eric Ciampoli (MBA): Choose Eric Ciampoli when the campaign centers on an operations-intelligence platform, ERP alignment, or plant documentation and knowledge systems. The posts show how plant data, procedures, and knowledge connect, alongside event-based outreach to manufacturers.
- Imran Choudhery, M.S., CSCP: Choose Imran Choudhery when the campaign targets utility or energy supply-chain teams and needs to distinguish demand planning from supply planning, or discuss min-max inventory, replenishment, and material readiness. The posts use detailed role and process language for those planning functions.
- Rizwan Khan: Choose Rizwan Khan when the campaign is about industrial AI adoption, data engineering, or connecting shop-floor signals to ERP, planning, and supply-chain systems. The posts frame AI value around organizational context, system integration, and choosing a small number of business problems.

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AI-assisted summary of public posts. Audience demographics are not available. Engagement appears only where we checked recent posts. Method: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/methodology/