When you scan the current management consulting industry, the one name that stands out amongst the others by virtue of their clients and their vast global reach is OMNEX. Founded in 1985 by Chad Kymal in Michigan, USA, today Omnex is a global force to reckon with an envious list of industry leading clients who utilize Omnex to accelerate their growth and ensure they stay on the leading edge of their industry. Automotive, aerospace, electronics, you name it, they have many a case study for your curious mind!
There is something really special about Omnex team. When you walk in to meet someone who is a disciple of Prof. C.K.Prahlad, one who has advised and trained many Fortune 100 corporations of the world, one who has been a part of writing many management standards, someone who has trained over 25,000 people around the world, an author of 7 management books, you expect to be meet someone who is an intellectual management Guru who is not approachable. However, Chad Kymal puts you at ease with his down to earth talk about the humble beginnings of Omnex, the company he founded 34 years grown ago. Today, Omnex is one of the most sought after consulting companies for Quality, Productivity, and Efficiency Improvement in automotive, aerospace, electronics and engineering industries with operations in as many as 30 countries.
Humble Beginnings:
Chad started his career at General Motors and KPMG prior to starting Omnex in his home office in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The advent of QS 9000, the first Automotive quality systems standard that brought the Big Three (Ford, GM, Chrysler) requirements into one standard, and the role Chad and colleagues played for writing QS 9000 and Quality / Business Operating Systems for Ford Motor Company led the way for leading Corporations to trust Omnex for their quality improvement needs. Mr. Kymal says “In the early 1990s when the automotive industry was thinking of global expansion, we were ready to help them around the world. No matter the location, be it Latin America, Asia, or Europe, we gave our commitment to our customers that we will be there with them and we were. This resulted in us helping the automotive industry’s emerging markets strategy in Thailand, China, India, Vietnam, Brazil and so on.”
Omnex has developed a set of core consulting solutions that integrates Skill building, Competency development, Process improvement & that are adaptable to any organization for Best In Class Management/ Operational Excellence.
Omnex Today
Today, Omnex has expanded their operations into four different companies namely Omnex, Inc, they train and implement organizational solutions; Omnex Systems: they create Enterprise Software for Integrated solutions; Omnex Academy: they focus on Skill Development, Quality Inspection, TPM and Omnex-Plantech: they focus on providing high skilled manpower.
Omnex works with companies from a wide variety of industries including automotive, aerospace, defence, semiconductor / electronics, engineering, health care, medical devices and many other industries.
Only an organization with 700 full time employees and 18 global offices can claim that “Every day, someone somewhere is getting trained by Omnex.” This is quite an apt statement in today’s climate where organizations are focused on human capital development. Omnex has over 240 workshops, that they specialize in, and conduct training in over a dozen languages.
“It’s very unique to find a consulting company that has matured expertise in all parts of the world. For us, this means we can trust Omnex with delivering the very same implementation of methodologies in any of our worldwide locations. This is a huge advantage because we don’t have to find local trainers and consultants who come up with their own version of what we need. Getting the same services worldwide is a huge deal.”, says one of their worldwide clients with numerous factories in Asia.
Omnex has trained over 250,000 people in India and more than 550,000 people worldwide over the last 34 years.
The Next Frontier:
Having made their name in the industry for implementing Best in Class Systems, Supply Chain solutions and Lean Six Sigma, Omnex is betting high on the e-car/autonomous vehicle industry and solutions that are centred on the Industry 4.0 platform. “Having the expertise on how to implement a methodology is one thing, but to be able understand why something has to be implemented, the intent behind it and then adapt strategies to implement these tools and methods at our clients is always a challenge. With a strong Project Management focus, we have been highly successful and saved billions of dollars for our clients,” says Arun Kumar, Director of Global Operations and a 23 year Omnex veteran, who has scripted Omnex’s international growth.
It is a comfort to see companies such as Omnex who have worked with a bootstrap mentality while providing customers with much needed support in their global endeavours in Business and Operational Excellence. These systems and methods are strategically too important for anyone to ignore and the Omnex name has brought confidence to more than 35,000 clients around the world.