FOR PE OPERATING PARTNERS
Built by an operator who runs the same playbook at a middle-market private equity firm. Standardize manufacturing excellence across every portco without becoming the bottleneck.
THE PROBLEM
Your portfolio has 8 to 12 plants. Each plant is a different size, a different product, a different culture. Each operating partner has to assess them, prioritize them, and drive improvement, often while running their own operating role and supporting two or three deals in process.
Hiring a consulting firm for every plant is unaffordable. Hiring full-time CI talent at the portco level is hard, slow, and inconsistent. Building your own internal CoE takes years.
What you actually need is a standardized operating system that any plant can deploy in 90 days, that gives you a comparable scorecard across the portfolio, and that does not depend on you being in every plant every quarter.
HOW IT WORKS FOR A PE PORTFOLIO
01
EVERY PORTCO RUNS THE DIAGNOSTIC
10-minute conversation per plant. Each portco gets a personalized 12-month roadmap, scored across the same 10 pillars. Same framework, same vocabulary, same maturity stages.
02
YOU GET A PORTFOLIO SCORECARD
Roll up the per-portco scores into one view. See which plants are at Stage 1 on a ceiling pillar (P1, P2, P5, P6) and need attention. See which portcos are tracking and which are stalled.
03
DIRECT ON-SITE VISITS WHERE THEY MOVE THE NEEDLE
Use the scorecard to decide which plants get a certified practitioner site visit ($5K-$15K per engagement). Stop spreading yourself thin; concentrate the in-person time where the ceiling constraints actually live.
04
TRACK STAGE ADVANCEMENT ACROSS THE PORTFOLIO
Each plant tracks its own progress in the platform. You see which portcos are advancing pillars and which are stuck. Reports for ops reviews and LP communications come straight out of the data.
WHY THIS EXISTS
Sharpen was built by manufacturing operators with hands-on experience deploying operating-system frameworks across portfolio companies in middle-market private equity. The framework, the guides, and the templates are the same ones being used in real plants today.
That matters because most operational excellence content on the market was built by consultants for consultants. The gaps it does not address, the ones a PE operating partner actually deals with (portco variability, leadership turnover, compressed hold periods, multi-plant rollups), are the ones that kill returns.
Sharpen exists because the operators behind it needed a tool that did not exist yet.
WHAT A PORTFOLIO ENGAGEMENT LOOKS LIKE
SELF-SERVE ROLLOUT
$299/portco/month
Each portco builds and tracks its own roadmap
Full 84-guide and 71-template library at every plant
Standardized scorecard you can roll up into a portfolio view
Cancel any portco at any time
ON-SITE ASSESSMENTS
$5K to $15K per plant
Certified practitioner spends 1-2 days at the plant
Verified stage rating signed off in person
Pre-loaded roadmap on the platform after the visit
Use as needed (typically the 2-3 plants that need the most)
Volume pricing for portfolios over 5 portcos. Custom rollouts and CoE training engagements available on request.
Send a note with how many portcos and what kinds of plants. We respond within one business day with a proposed rollout plan and an honest read on whether Sharpen is the right fit.