Chad Bareither

The hidden math behind “cheaper parts” Imagine you buy a component with: Average daily demand:  20 units/day Purchase price:  $25/unit Safety stock:  10% (arbitrary, for illustration) Scenario A: 8-week lead time Lead-time inventory (basic approximation): 8 weeks × 5 days/week × 20 units/day = 8 × 5 × 20 = 800 units Add ~10% safety stock: 800 × 1.10 = 880 units Inventory value at $25/unit: 880 × $25 = $22,000 So, the “cost” of an 8-week lead time isn’t just waiting longer. It’s also $22,000...

"Goal Setting" may have started for you in Q4 of 2025. Maybe you are still refining your priorities and targets now in January. These aspirations usually kick off a flurry of good intentions… and a slow drift back into firefighting by mid-February. Why? They’re broad. They’re crowded. They’re built on assumptions nobody has verified on the floor, in the process, or in the data. At Bareither Group, we talk a lot about Focus  and Align —because stable results don’t come from inspirational...

A few weeks ago, a client surprised me in a way that (honestly) made me smile. They hit pause . Not because the business was slow. Not because they ran out of ideas. But because they finally recognized what was really happening: They were stacking strategic initiatives on top of an operation that hadn’t stabilized from the last round of change. So, the leadership team made a call: “For the next 90 days, we’re not launching anything new. We’re going to stabilize, solve problems, and build a...