An operations consulting firm. In weeks, not months.

The problem that keeps coming back usually starts somewhere else. We find where, in weeks.

Bring us the problem you already know about. We follow the work to where it really gets stuck and test the fix before you spend. You decide what happens next. One problem, a fixed fee.

Book a 30-minute conversation Which problem is yours?
A workflow with one constraint Five steps in a row. Work piles up in front of the third step, the bottleneck, shown in orange. The steps after it wait for work. Request Prepare Review Decide Deliver The bottleneck Everyone upstream is busy. Everyone downstream waits.
Work piles up in front of one step, the bottleneck, and the steps after it wait. Speeding up any other step doesn’t help.
Problems we solve

Which of these sounds like your company?

“The work is always late.”

Everyone is busy, deadlines still slip, and the backlog never clears.

How we fix it

“Everything goes through a few people.”

When they’re out, work stalls. When they retire, the know-how leaves with them.

How we fix it

“Decisions take too long, and they land on my desk.”

Approvals pile up, and problems climb to people who can’t fix them faster.

How we fix it

“Our AI spending isn’t showing up in results.”

People say they’re faster. The numbers haven’t moved.

How we fix it

“We’re busy, but margins keep slipping.”

Jobs close below the margin we quoted, and cost programs fade after a quarter.

How we fix it

“We sold more than we can deliver.”

A strong quarter, and suddenly the same few people are needed everywhere at once.

How we fix it
Why it keeps coming back

Most fixes go where the pain shows. The cause is usually somewhere else.

Late work, overloaded experts, and slow decisions are symptoms. Underneath, there is usually one place where work waits: one step, one approval, or one person everything goes through. That’s the bottleneck.

Speed up anything else, and nothing improves. Hire, add overtime, or buy a new tool for the wrong step, and the work just waits in front of the same bottleneck. Fix the bottleneck, and the rest starts to move.

The pattern is the same in every kind of business.

WarehouseOrderswait for the pack station
InsurerLarge-loss claimswait for two senior adjusters to sign off
Engineering firmProjectswait for the one engineer who does stormwater modeling
ManufacturerCustomer orderswait for engineering to release drawings
Software teamFinished codewaits for one senior reviewer
How it works

Three steps, and you decide at each one.

Step 1

Find where it really starts

We follow the work from request to delivery with the people who do it, using the data you already have, and find where it waits.

Step 2

Test the fix before you spend

We build a working model of the process and try changes on it first, so you see what each option does in hours, days, and money.

Step 3

You decide

You get the answer in plain language, with the evidence. Stop there, act on it yourselves, or take the next step with us.

Most clients start with a Snapshot: one problem, two to three weeks, about 8 to 12 hours of your people’s time in total, and a fixed fee agreed in writing. See how engagements work.

Chris Brennan, founder of Matrix Intralogistics
Chris BrennanFounder
Who’s behind Matrix

Built by someone who spent fifteen years on exactly this problem.

Matrix was founded by Chris Brennan, who spent fifteen years building the software that runs automated distribution centers, deciding in real time what every person, robot, and machine does next, at KNAPP, Invata, and Honeywell Intelligrated. Before that came economic crime investigation and systems work for the Air Force and the Department of Defense.

In a distribution center you can see the pile from across the floor. Matrix brings the same thinking to the work you can’t see: claims, quotes, projects, approvals, and decisions.

More about how Matrix began

Example

What a Snapshot can find.

Illustrative example: composite, synthetic data

Large-loss claims at a regional property insurer

Snapshot of a late-work problem

Fourteen adjusters, about 260 new claims a week. Large losses, about 18% of claims, need sign-off from one of two senior adjusters, who can each give about 20 hours a week to reviews. The manager’s words: “We’re always behind on big claims, and everything goes through two people.”

“I can’t close a large file until it’s signed off.” “Files come back for things nobody told me were needed.” “I’m qualified to sign those. I just don’t have the authority.”

What we found: the bottleneck was sign-off authority, not headcount. Nearly a third of review demand was rework, files sent back for missing photos or estimates. What changed: a checklist at intake, and sign-off authority for an adjuster who was already qualified. No new hire.

97% → 64%
reviewer load, before and after the third reviewer
0
new hires
30% → 10%
files sent back, with a checklist at intake

More examples: an engineering firm that sold more than it could deliver, and a manufacturer losing margin at closeout.

Reading as a leader?
For CEOsThe strategy is sound. Getting it done is the hard part. For CFOsMargins, forecasts, and spending you can defend. For COOs and operations leadersEveryone is busy, and the work is still late. For operating partnersFind what’s holding a company back, in the first 100 days.
Questions people ask

Before you book

My team doesn’t have time for this.

A Snapshot asks for about 8 to 12 hours of your people’s time, spread over two to three weeks: short interviews and one session checking the map. That budget goes into the scope, and we stay inside it.

We’ve had consultants. They took months and left a slide deck.

Then don’t buy months. Start with a few weeks on one workflow. You keep the model and the reasoning, and you decide what happens next. If it isn’t useful, you stop there.

Will I get locked into something bigger?

No. Every engagement ends with three choices: stop, act on it yourselves, or continue with us. Each step has its own fixed fee and its own decision.

Will this make my people look bad?

Usually the opposite. The person at the bottleneck almost always knows, and has often been asking for help. We report patterns, not names, and anything about a team goes to its leader first. Most constraints are built into how the work is organized, not caused by the people doing it.

We already know what the problem is.

You may well know a large part of it. People closest to the work usually know where it hurts. What’s often missing is the source, which tends to sit outside any one team’s view, and the proof that wins the budget. Sometimes the answer is the opposite of what everyone expects. We bring what you know together with what the whole system shows.

What does it cost?

Every engagement has a fixed fee, set in the one-page scope before anything starts. We’ll give you the number for the step we recommend in the first conversation.

Start with 30 minutes

Tell us where the work gets stuck.

A short, honest conversation. Here’s how the 30 minutes go:

  • 0–5We agree what we’re here for. Either of us can decide it isn’t a fit, and that’s fine.
  • 5–20You tell us what’s going wrong, in your words. Where does work get stuck? Who does everything go through?
  • 20–25We tell you honestly whether we can help, and recommend one step if we can.
  • 25–30You hear exactly what that step would ask of your people and what it costs. Then you decide whether to take it.

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