Many business leaders fail to see the opportunities that an economic downturn provides.  To take advantage of opportunities you first need to make a rapid assessment of your vulnerabilities and then move quickly to minimize them.  Advantage can be gained by using process improvement tools to increase profitability and competitiveness:

1. Drive out waste through Lean Sigma operations
   Tools: value stream mapping, line balancing, kaizen to reduce direct and overhead labor
2. Customer Collaboration
   Tools: customer segmentation, goal alignment, cycle time reduction, product line rationalization
3. Supplier Optimization
   Tools: supplier & material consolidation, lead time reduction, product design-to-cost
4. Accelerate cash flow and aggressively manage working capital
   Tools: inventory reduction, excess/slow moving/obsolete inventory analysis, safety stock tuning, cycle time reduction to reduce WIP, receivables and payables management
5. Increase Capacity
   Tools: overall equipment effectiveness, theory of constraints, quick changeover, product family turnover analysis
6. Product Redesign
   Tools: component substitution, design for six sigma, design for manufacturability, value engineering