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Xavier Costantini

Senior PartnerMontevideo

Helps companies in highly complex industries achieve successful operational transformation, instilling lean methodologies and boosting productivity

Since joining McKinsey in 1999, Xavier has advised executives looking to make their businesses more efficient, cost-effective, and profitable. Deeply experienced in operational improvement, he specializes in guiding successful transformation initiatives across a number of industries, particularly in high-complexity sectors such as aerospace, mining, and transportation.

Xavier is a proponent of lean-operations approaches and techniques. His projects often include benchmarking performance to find improvement opportunities. Working hand in hand with top executives, he helps reduce materials costs and streamline core processes—leading to stronger sales and more robust cash flow.

Examples of his work include the following:

  • reducing direct procurement costs by more than 10 percent for a pulp and paper company
  • identifying ways to remove bottlenecks in mine extension, extraction, and transport for a mining operation, while establishing a plan to increase mine throughput by 25 percent with only limited investment
  • helping a telecommunications company drive lean concepts through network maintenance, customer service, network provisioning, billing, and collections
  • directing an effort that reduced aircraft-assembly lead times by 50 percent, freeing up significant cash flow
  • leading a lean-transformation program for an airline, which improved operating standards, management practices, and culture, resulting in a step change in operational performance
  • bringing lean concepts into a retail bank’s branch operations, resulting in a 30 percent sales increase

Published work

Are Latin American financial institutions ready for sustainability?,” McKinsey & Company, August 2023

How mining companies reach the operational excellence gold standard,” McKinsey & Company, August 2022

Mining for leadership with lean management,” McKinsey & Company, March 2017

Past experience

Stainless Steel Tanks Manufacturing
Operations manager

Arthur D. Little
Business analyst

Education

INSEAD
MBA

National Higher School of Aeronautics and Space (SUPAERO)
MsC, aerospace engineering, aerospace propulsion

Catholic University of Louvain
MsC, engineering, applied mathematics