Operations consulting helps companies run better: buy smarter, make and move products more efficiently, serve customers faster and cut costs that add no value. BCG's operations practice lists procurement, service operations, supply chain, manufacturing and capital projects. Most large firms, from McKinsey and Bain to the Big 4 and Accenture, run operations or supply chain practices. Hiring runs through case and fit interviews, and in our experience the case is often about a process, a plant or a cost. Soreno, an AI voice app for case interview practice, runs a free operations case with no sign-up, and full mock interviews with follow-ups and scored feedback.
Updated
Our grouping of the areas the firms list on their own operations pages, with the case interview each one most resembles and a practice case.
| Project type | The client's question | Firms that list it | Case it resembles | What the work involves |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Procurement Are we paying too much for what we buy?
| Are we paying too much for what we buy? | BCG, Bain, Kearney, Oliver Wyman, PwC, Deloitte | Cost reduction | Spend analysis, supplier strategy and negotiation support. |
| Supply chain Can we deliver on time at lower cost and risk?
| Can we deliver on time at lower cost and risk? | BCG, Bain, Kearney, Accenture, Deloitte, PwC, EY | Operations, late delivery | Planning, network design, inventory and logistics. |
| Manufacturing Can the plant make more, better, for less?
| Can the plant make more, better, for less? | BCG, Bain, McKinsey, Oliver Wyman, Deloitte | Capacity and bottleneck | Lean methods, throughput, quality and automation. |
| Service operations Can we serve customers faster and cheaper?
| Can we serve customers faster and cheaper? | BCG, McKinsey, PwC (field service) | Wait times, process redesign | Call centers, back office and field service. |
| Capital projects Will this big build come in on time and budget?
| Will this big build come in on time and budget? | BCG, Bain, McKinsey | Investment decision | Large capex programs and project management. |
| Cost and support functions Which costs can go without hurting the business?
| Which costs can go without hurting the business? | Bain, BCG, Kearney | Profitability, cost reduction | Zero-based budgeting, shared services and finance, IT and HR redesign. |
Grouping is ours. Each firm listed names the area on the operations or supply chain page linked in the firm list below, read October 28, 2026.
Operations consulting is the part of management consulting that improves how a company runs day to day. Strategy work asks where to compete. Operations work asks how to deliver at lower cost, higher quality and less risk. Here is how the firms describe it.
BCG's operations practiceHow a large strategy firm describes its operations work.
McKinsey's Operations practiceFrom its Operations practice job postings in Seoul, Southeast Asia and the US.
Our summary, using the firms' own words. Our management vs strategy consulting guide goes deeper.
Question
In our reading, strategy work asks which markets to enter or what to buy, and operations work asks how to deliver. BCG's operations page puts it as when, where and how a client will manufacture.
Management vs strategy consultingLasting change
McKinsey's Service Operations posting talks about equipping clients to keep improving after the team leaves. BCG says its process builds capabilities fitted to each client.
McKinsey's Operations postings describe the work in the most detail of the pages we read.
Analyze
Gather and analyze information, form and test hypotheses. The Service Operations posting adds research, interviews and brainstorming to uncover the true challenges behind a client's strategy.
Recommend
Develop recommendations and present them to the client's leaders.
Implement
Implement the recommendations with client team members, and build skills so the improvement lasts.
Where
One Service Operations posting asks for willingness to travel up to 80% and to work in settings such as factories, hospitals and mines.
Some firms, such as BCG, have generalist consultants who focus on operations. Some roles ask for operations experience up front. These are examples from McKinsey's postings, read October 28, 2026.
Program
A two-year program where consultants work on client engagements like any other McKinsey consultant and get advanced training in one of six areas: manufacturing, product development, purchasing, service operations, supply chain management or capital excellence.
Experience
The program posting we read asks for 2+ years in an operations area and practical knowledge of lean manufacturing. An Operations Associate posting asks for experience in an area such as manufacturing, procurement or supply chain.
Generalists
BCG says its operations network includes generalist consultants with a focus on operations, along with dedicated experts.
From BCG: operations, McKinsey: Associate, Operations, McKinsey: Associate, Service Operations and McKinsey: Operations Excellence Program.
The format is the same as any consulting interview: a case plus a fit or behavioral interview. What changes is the content of the case and, for experienced hires, the questions about your background.
Expect a process, plant, warehouse or service that falls short: find the bottleneck, size the fix and say whether it pays. Our operations case page walks through it with a free case.
BCG asks candidates to analyze data and do quick calculations in the case. Oliver Wyman says to show your quantitative skills and be careful with simple calculations.
McKinsey says that, depending on the role, candidates may also have expertise interviews. Our guess: roles that ask for lean or supply chain experience are where they come up.
Kearney's process is typically four to five behavioral and case interviews, so expect fit questions in most rounds. Your why operations answer should come from real work you have done or seen.
McKinsey's operations postings ask for the ability to work with people at all levels of an organization. Stories about winning over a team on the ground help.
From BCG: case interview preparation, Oliver Wyman: interview preparation, McKinsey: interviewing, Kearney: recruiting process and McKinsey: Associate, Operations.
Soreno's own prompts: four full cases, five more to try out loud, and three fit questions.
Each one opens a full case.
A manufacturer's on-time delivery fell from 95% to 80%. Why?
Walks the order from start to finish, checks whether demand or the mix changed, then finds the step that slows everything. Practice it, see a model answer
Should a company make or buy a key component?
Compares full cost, quality, control and supply risk, not just the price per unit. Practice it, see a model answer
When is a second factory worth building?
Checks whether the first plant is really full, sizes the demand gap and compares the build cost with the margin it unlocks. Practice it, see a model answer
Food bank demand is up but donations are flat. What should it do?
Separates supply, distribution and demand, then finds the cheapest way to serve more people. Practice it, see a model answer
Try these out loud with the bottleneck approach.
A warehouse can't keep up with holiday orders. What do you do?
Turns the order target into an hourly rate, finds the slowest step and values a fix before hiring across the board.
A call center's wait times doubled after a new phone system. Why?
Checks call volume, call length and staffing against the date of the change, then fixes the cause, not the symptom.
A hospital system wants to cut purchasing costs by 8 percent. Where do you start?
Splits spend into categories, finds the biggest ones with the most suppliers, and protects anything that touches patient safety.
Should a manufacturer move production closer to its customers?
Weighs labor and transport cost against delivery time, risk and the cost of the move, and gives a clear answer.
A plant's defect rate tripled after a new product launched. What happened?
Looks for what changed in materials, machines, people and process at launch, then tests the most likely cause first.
Usually asked alongside the case.
Why operations consulting?
One reason about the work itself, such as seeing a change on the ground, tied to something you have done. Show you know it goes past advice. Practice it, see a model answer
Tell me about a time you solved a difficult problem.
A process or system you improved, how you found the cause, what you changed and the result in numbers. Practice it, see a model answer
Tell me about a decision you made with incomplete information.
Operations work moves fast on partial data. Show how you set a direction, limited the risk and checked back. Practice it, see a model answer
BCG says its operations teams partner with clients at every level of the organization. One example it gives is a groupwide procurement program that saved an aerospace and defense group €500 million.
Some roles ask for operations experience, but BCG says its network includes generalist consultants with an operations focus.
Service operations, procurement and support functions are operations work too. McKinsey's Service Operations group covers call centers and back offices.
McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Deloitte, Kearney and Oliver Wyman all use case interviews for consulting roles, per their own pages. The case simply tends to be about a process or a cost.
A short plan, in our words.
Learn
Required rate, effective capacity, the constraint and the value of the fix. Work the free case first.
Practice
Mix a late delivery, a make or buy and a cost case, timed, and say each number out loud.
Read
Note the areas it lists and one example it gives. Use them in why this firm.
From BCG: operations, Bain: operations and Kearney: operations and performance.
Stories
A process you improved and a time you got people on the ground to change how they work, each with a number.
Nine firms, each described from its own operations or supply chain page, read October 28, 2026. This is not a ranking. Claims about size or results are each firm's own.
BCG says its operations teams work across procurement, service operations, supply chain, manufacturing, capital project management and operational excellence. It says it has 1,000-plus operations consultants and has completed more than 3,000 operations projects in recent years.
BCG: operationsMcKinsey's postings say its Operations practice blends strategic thinking with hands-on practicality to develop and implement operational strategies. Its Service Operations group covers areas from AI-focused call centers to back-office functions.
McKinsey: Associate, OperationsBain's operations practice covers the back office, research lab, factory floor and supply chain, and links operations to strategy. Its Performance Improvement practice covers cost transformation, zero-based budgeting and support functions. Bain says IDC MarketScape recognized it as a leader in operations improvement consulting.
Bain: operationsKearney says end-to-end supply chain capability is at the core of its operations work, from planning and sourcing to production and distribution. It says clients call it the results consultants and that more than 80 percent of its clients return.
Kearney: operations and performanceOliver Wyman says its operations work runs from new products and innovation to supply chain efficiency, procurement models and manufacturing performance, combining sector knowledge with data-driven tools.
Oliver Wyman: operationsAccenture says it helps clients reimagine, build and operate their supply chain networks, with a focus on resilience and sustainability.
Accenture: supply chainDeloitte's supply chain and network operations services cover strategy and innovation, planning, logistics, sourcing and procurement, product development and smart manufacturing.
Deloitte: supply chainPwC says it reimagines core operations end to end, with capabilities in sourcing and procurement, supply chain and logistics, product development and manufacturing, and field service operations.
PwC: supply chain and operationsEY says its supply chain work addresses an organization's end-to-end supply chain and operations strategy, to grow, optimize and protect its operations.
EY: supply chainSoreno's AI interviewer runs consulting cases, operations included, the way a firm does: it gives you the prompt, hands you data when you ask, pushes back on your numbers and scores the session. Soreno is not affiliated with any firm named on this page.
Consulting that improves how a company runs: procurement, supply chain, manufacturing, service operations, capital projects and cost. The team finds where performance is lost, recommends changes and often helps put them in place.
They gather and analyze data, test hypotheses, present recommendations to client leaders and implement them with client teams, as McKinsey's operations postings describe. Much of the work happens on site.
Most large firms have an operations or supply chain practice, including McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Kearney, Oliver Wyman, Accenture, Deloitte, PwC and EY. Kearney says that after a century of work it has unmatched experience in operations transformation. We don't rank them.
It is one part of it. Management consulting covers strategy, operations, technology and people work. Our management vs strategy consulting guide compares strategy and operations side by side.
Often, because the work is on site. One McKinsey Service Operations posting asks for willingness to travel up to 80% and to work in factories, hospitals and mines.
Firms don't publish a separate operations pay scale, and the BLS counts all management analysts together. Our management consultant salary guide covers pay by firm and level.
A case about a process, plant, warehouse or supply chain that falls short. You find the constraint, fix it and judge whether the fix pays. Our operations case interview page has a full free case.
No. Some specialist roles ask for operations experience, such as McKinsey's Operations Excellence Program, but BCG says its operations network includes generalist consultants too.
