Operations Turnaround & Cost Transformation Consultant | Chemical Manufacturing

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Summary

This Operations Turnaround & Cost Transformation Consultant is a Proven Operations Leader in the chemical manufacturing and heavy manufacturing industries within a $40B Fortune 500 global business, with experience managing revenue growth of up to ~$200M, capital expense budgets of up to $1B, and operational spend of up to ~$3.5B. A pragmatic, focused mentor and manager known for attracting, recruiting, and managing teams of up to ~100, repeatedly establishing the infrastructure to accelerate performance in diverse economic environments.

Highlights

• Team Leadership
• Cost Reduction
• Technology Integration
• Sales & Revenue Growth
• Proposition Development & Creation
• Cash Flow Optimization
• Working Capital Strategy
• Vendor Selection & Negotiations
• Turnaround
• Change Management
• Supply Chain & Logistics
• Operational Improvement

Relevant Accomplishments

• Cost Reduction / Vendor Selection & Negotiations: The company faced negative margins in a challenging economic environment. Tasked by the COO to reduce costs by $80M (2x more than prior years). Developed/led a cost-takeout program, mobilized the procurement function, secured stakeholder alignment, and identified cost-saving opportunities across 150 projects. Personally led vendor negotiations to consolidate spend and increase the number of vendors to drive competition. These ongoing efforts reduced costs by $105M within one year and are on track to generate higher cost savings in year two.
• Change Management / Operational Improvement: The ~$200M/yr. remediation function had ineffective controls with ~20-yr.-old legacy contracts. Selected by the Board to resolve gaps after a negative audit, collaborated with remediation leaders, deployed procurement to manage spend, secured new contracts with the top four vendors, implemented site-level strategies, and instituted a claw-back process to retrieve $30M in misappropriated spend. Reduced risk and protected ~$60M within three years.
• Team Leadership / Cost Reduction: Determined to reduce costs by transitioning ($600M) tail spend management to the procurement function. Secured approval from the Chief Procurement Officer, created/led a low-cost (<$200K/yr.) 16-person tail spend team in India, overcame stakeholder resistance, implemented a new process to enable early capture of orders by procurement (before vendors). The tail spend team saved $20M in its first year and is actively negotiating orders.
• Technology Integration / Vendor Selection & Negotiations: Sought to transform a cumbersome ordering process and improve efficiency/UX. Over ~180 days, evaluated technology solutions to replace the manual method, secured approval to implement the SAP Guided Sourcing & Control Tower, and negotiated new vendor contracts. Within ~30 days, this SOP/Best Practice led to an intuitive tool with an Amazon-like UX, reducing order time from ~20-30 minutes to <5 minutes per order.
• Operational Improvement / Cost Reduction: A lack of standardization in the third-party augmented staff ecosystem (~3K contractors) led to excess costs. Charged by the CEO to sustainably reduce costs. Developed a plan, gained Steering Committee approval, built a cross- functional team, implemented new processes and tools (MSP/VMS), and standardized agreements/benefits to align with industry benchmarks. This SOP/Best Practice saved $12M in year one with a projected $150M savings over the following 10 years.
• Proposition Development & Creation / Sales & Revenue Growth: Recognized an opportunity to sell the company’s over-abundance of stranded assets (equipment/scrap metal). Over ~90 days, implemented a dedicated investment recovery team, collaborated with manufacturing/procurement functions, garnered support from site leaders, established an external internet site to facilitate asset sales, and identified individuals at each site to catalog/execute sales. This led to ~$30M in assets sold in 2 yrs., via a 50-site network.
• Working Capital Strategy / Cash Flow Optimization: Entrusted by procurement leaders to improve working capital and cash flow that had diminished due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Over ~180 days, led a dedicated team, institutionalized working capital into vendor negotiations, overcame vendor pushback (~30%), reduced pay run frequency, and implemented tracking tools, new pay terms, and country-level regulation management processes. This improved payment terms across 5K vendors and cash flow by $500M within one year ($1B overall) and was declared SOP/Best Practice.
• Supply Chain & Logistics / Turnaround: Poor supply chain & logistics performance hindered customer service and sales in Africa. Chosen by the President of Dow Africa for relocation to Johannesburg to improve these functions. Over ~180 days, gained stakeholder feedback and analyzed the existing supply chain to identify gaps, then led a ~20-project improvement program, upskilled teams, andimplemented processes, tools, and KPIs. This SOP/Best Practice improved customer satisfaction, reduced rush orders from 40% to <20%, increased on-time delivery service by ~20%, and enhanced sales by ~$200M within two years.
• Supply Chain & Logistics / Operational Improvement: New (~$10B) Saudi Arabian production plants required a global supply chain redesign and overhaul. Called upon by the Business President to lead this transformation. Guided a team to design/deploy the future state supply chain for 4M lbs. of daily production, remapped the supply chain, replanned assets/inventory levels, and collaborated with procurement/logistics partners on implementation. This enabled seamless product flow and generated ~$250M/yr. in sales.
• Operational Improvement / Cost Reduction: The NA supply chain & logistics network was suboptimized, resulting in high costs for 20 production/distribution facilities. In an effort to reduce spend, set out to ensure a fully optimized network. Led a ~20-person team, performed a shipping analysis, and determined optimal delivery locations for each customer. Increased use and tracking of railcars and exited four underutilized storage tanks. This ongoing SOP/Best Practice saved $8M/yr. within two years.

Roles

• Leader
• Manager
• Planner
• Director

Request Expert / Similar Expert

Click “request expert” for a free initial screening call with this expert or a similar expert regarding your expert consulting needs