Supply Chain Performance · Find the value
Network & Footprint
Cameo Consulting is a distribution network design consultancy for middle-market companies across North America. The work answers four questions with numbers: how many facilities you need, where they should sit, what should flow through each one, and who should run them (you or a 3PL). Cameo Consulting works inside the network alongside your team, building the cost model in the open so every recommendation can be checked against your own numbers. On one engagement, Cameo Consulting identified $3M in annual savings on $30M of addressable warehouse spend. Companies that already know the shape of the problem can start directly on a network study or total landed cost model. An assessment is available for those still narrowing down where the value is.
Why do most distribution networks cost too much?
Most networks were inherited, not designed. A warehouse came with an acquisition. A lease got renewed because moving felt risky. A second DC opened to survive one bad peak season and never closed. Ten years of one-at-a-time decisions add up to a footprint nobody would draw from scratch.
The cost hides in freight bills, duplicate inventory, and half-empty buildings. And the fix is not always fewer facilities. Sometimes it is different facilities, different product-to-site assignments, or a 3PL taking volume you should not own. A network study puts a number on each option before you sign the next lease.
When companies call about this
When is it time for a network study?
Growth outpaced the footprint
Volume doubled but the network did not, and expedites and inter-facility transfers are quietly covering the gap.
A lease renewal or plant consolidation is forcing a decision
A lease expires in 12 to 18 months, or a plant is closing, and the next signature locks in the footprint for 5 or more years.
The 3PL question keeps coming up
Ownership wants to know whether outsourcing fulfillment beats running it in-house, and nobody has a defensible number either way.
Far regions keep complaining
Customers near a DC get orders in 2 days while customers three states away wait 5, and sales hears about it every week.
What does the Network & Footprint service include?
The work
- Network design and optimization. Where facilities should be and what flows through each one. Cameo Consulting models the current network against alternatives using your actual shipment history, not industry averages.
- Warehouse and DC strategy. How many buildings, what size, owned or leased, and what job each one does. Includes capacity math against a 3 to 5 year volume outlook.
- 3PL evaluation. Whether outsourcing beats self-operated, and for which volume. Cameo Consulting builds the cost comparison, runs the RFP if you proceed, and stress-tests provider bids line by line.
- Total landed cost modeling. The full cost to get a product to a customer: inbound freight, warehousing, inventory carrying, outbound freight. Options get ranked on that number, not on rent per square foot alone.
- Consolidation analysis. Whether fewer facilities actually saves money once transfer freight, service impact, and one-time move costs are counted. This is the analysis that identified $3M on $30M of spend.
What do you get?
- A baseline of today's cost and service by facility and lane, so every scenario is measured against a number you trust.
- Three to five network scenarios with cost, service, and risk side by side, including the do-nothing case.
- A recommendation with an implementation plan: sequencing, one-time costs, and payback period.
- A working model, built in a spreadsheet or a small application your team can rerun when volumes or rates change. Strategy that ends in working software, not a slide deck.
What does this look like in practice?
A $500M+ consumer products company brought in Cameo Consulting to review its warehouse footprint and inventory. Consolidation analysis identified $3M in annual savings across $30M of addressable warehouse spend, and a companion sales and operations planning improvement plan identified further savings.
Read the case → Consumer Goods Manufacturing Seasonal Consumer Goods ManufacturerA seasonal consumer goods manufacturer consolidated two plants into one and had to choose a warehousing setup before the peak build. In about 30 days, for a fixed fee, Cameo Consulting built a scenario tool comparing total landed cost, service levels, and KPIs across self-run and 3PL options. The team kept the tool and reruns it as freight rates move.
Read the case →What if we can't move facilities?
A locked footprint narrows the options but rarely kills the value. Cameo Consulting reworks which products and customers each facility serves, repositions inventory, redesigns transportation lanes, and prices 3PL overflow capacity for peaks.
Flow changes like these often capture a meaningful share of what a full redesign would, without a single lease signed or broken.
Frequently asked questions
What data do you need for a network study?
Twelve months of shipment history does most of the work: origin, destination, date, weight, mode, and freight cost for each shipment. Add facility costs (rent, labor, overhead), inventory by location, and a volume forecast if one exists. Most clients pull this from a TMS, an ERP, or carrier invoices in the first week. Messy or incomplete data is normal; cleaning it is part of the study, not a blocker to starting.
How long does a network design take?
A Rapid Diagnostic takes 2 weeks and answers whether the network holds enough value to justify a full study. A complete network design typically runs 4 to 6 weeks, the same window as the Full Assessment in the Supply Chain Value Assessment. Both are fixed fee, quoted after a 30-minute scoping call. Implementation support is scoped separately once you pick a direction.
What if we can't move facilities?
A locked footprint narrows the options but rarely kills the value. Cameo Consulting reworks which products and customers each facility serves, repositions inventory, redesigns transportation lanes, and prices 3PL overflow capacity for peaks. Flow changes like these often capture a meaningful share of what a full redesign would, without a single lease signed or broken.
Find out what your network should cost
A 30-minute call is enough to tell whether a network study makes sense for you and what it would cost. No pitch, just the questions that determine scope.
Or write directly: nick@cameoconsulting.net