Sized to the work the operation is actually doing. Operations-related SG&A simplified, staffing structured, structural cost held against operating reality.
Operations-related SG&A process simplification. Staffing levels streamlined. The capability that takes structural cost out without taking capability out.
Overheads in operations-adjacent SG&A grow against the past, not against the present. Process steps accumulated; approval cycles set against legacy risk profiles; staffing layered against an operating reality that has shifted. The lever is a structural process simplification that lets the operation do its work with less overhead and the same operating discipline.
Where overheads leak.
Overheads in operations-adjacent functions leak in two places. The process steps that the function runs accumulated against past risk and past structure; the work continues out of inertia, not out of operating need. The staffing layered against legacy structure; supervisory layers and middle-management layers held against an operating reality that has changed.
The structural intervention sizes the process to the work the operation actually requires, and structures the staffing to the operating cadence the function carries. The result is overhead cost taken out without operating capability lost.
Two sub-capabilities. One operating discipline.
Operations-related SG&A process simplification
The process the function runs broken down step by step against the operating outcome. Steps removed where the operating need has lapsed; steps consolidated where the function has duplicated effort; approval cycles simplified against the actual risk the operation runs.
Streamline staffing levels
Staffing structured against the simplified process. Supervisory layers right-sized against the span of control the operating cadence requires; middle-management layers eliminated where the structural justification has lapsed; capability concentrated where the work justifies it.
Where overhead discipline runs.
Most visible across:
- Manufacturing: operations-related SG&A across multi-site operations.
- Mining: corporate overhead supporting multi-site mining operations.
- Oil and Gas: operations-adjacent functions in upstream and downstream operating models.
- Energy and Utilities: operations-related SG&A on regulated utility operations.
- Cement and Building Materials: multi-plant operations support.
Cross-functional, with operating leadership at the center.
Reduce Overheads is structurally cross-functional, sized at the boundary between operations and the operations-adjacent SG&A functions that support them.
Production
Production operating overhead simplification.
Asset Management
Maintenance planning and engineering overhead.
Construction
Project management overhead on capital program execution.
The structural intervention sits at the seam between operations and SG&A the operating leadership carries the simplified process and the restructured staffing on the cadence.
The methodology backbone.
The Proudfoot System runs the engagement across 5 phases and 86 steps. The Proudfoot MOS (the 6+4 Element Framework) is the operating discipline that holds the simplified process; the 8 Active Management Behaviours (8AMBs) are the supervisory behaviors that hold the new structure; People Solutions runs the change-readiness instruments across the affected staff; Aerial Mapping structures the executive interview at engagement entry; MOS Critic scores the operating system.
The full methodology lives on the methodology page.
What it looks like when it lands.
Operations-related SG&A process simplified across a multi-site CPG operation.
Approval cycles compressed; supervisory layers right-sized against operating cadence.
Corporate overhead restructured against operating reality.
Non-core costs reduced 35% across multi-site mining operations; $96m in annualised cost reduction across the operating footprint.
Multi-plant operations support simplified across a regional building materials operation.
Operating cadence rebuilt; supervisory cadence restructured.
Talk to our overheads team.
Manufacturing operations-related SG&A.
Heavy industry and mining corporate overhead.
Five days on the overhead question.
Two senior Proudfoot operators on the priority site for five working days. Proudfoot AI reading the operating data, the process maps, and the corpus first, remotely. MOS Critic on the operating cadence, structured executive interviews across operations and SG&A leadership, quantified opportunity hypothesis sized to the overhead lever.