I am a passionate leader, equally accomplished in the discipline of business and the art of hands-on leadership, who can motivate your team to want to go after and beat your toughest challenge.

When I think back on the many jobs I have had, do I love to tell the stories about the $X million I brought to the company, or the Y% improvement of a certain metric? While those are good scorecards, my heart recalls the people-stories which got us there. It’s the multiple stories of the floundering manager who needed some practical coaching until their team sang their praises. It’s the stories of the written-off employee who got a second chance and became a star. It’s the stories of teammates who thanked me years down the road for the difference I made in their lives. I'm happy to share those stories here.

Executive Summary

In many complex, global operations, I established self-sustaining processes to permanently address long-standing problems. I didn’t strong-arm these lasting achievements simply through my strength of will. Instead, I mentored cross-functional teams through personal coaching to unvarnished metrics. We identified the gaps to our standards, we discovered the underlying issues, and then we put in practical fixes. I love to bring order out of chaos by empowering high-performance teams to tackle complicated problems according to my vision instead of simply following my directives.

I’m not a leader of character due to my extensive training, years of multi-industry experience, or my many positions with “leader” in the job description. Instead, I can simply look around at the team following me and listen to them praise the accomplishments we made together. The results and the people speak for themselves.

• Executive Leadership and Relationship Management
• Transformational Leadership and Change Management
• Lean Operations Process Re-engineering
• Cross Functional Leadership
• Leverage Intelligent Technology to Drive Business
• Multi-site Global Operations Leadership

Executive Leadership and Relationship Management

Articulate executive effectively transforming corporate cultures utilizing core skills in interpersonal communication, budgeting and finance, collaboration, people management, and government contract administration. Drove a 50% revenue increase, a result of fostering relationships that garnered a reputation for honesty and integrity across the organization.

• Influenced 200+ senior executive leaders to rethink their leadership style as keynote speaker at Innovation Enterprise's Global Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) Summit 2014, presenting personal leadership paradigm Intimate Proximity: Hands-on Leadership.
  
  Personal Connection Influences Industry Executive Leaders [more]
  In 2014, I was personally invited as keynote speaker in Las Vegas at Innovation Enterprise's Global Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) Summit. Needed to overcome long history of public speaking anxiety to present to more than 200 senior operations executives. Thoroughly prepared slides and material and commenced several rehearsals, solidly memorizing "The Human Touch" by Spencer Michael Free. Confidently presented experience successfully implementing S&OP process through unique personal leadership paradigm, Intimate Proximity: Hands-on Leadership. Emotional connection with audience evoked lasting impressions. Congratulated by several attendees and asked more about this paradigm. Many confided that this emotional presentation delivery had them near tears. Company president requested copy of slides, which he shared with several of his executive colleagues.
• Secured $623,000 cost savings on $3.5 million strategic sourcing contracts by consolidating and renegotiating with preferred vendors based on input from internal customers.
  
  Contract Leadership Secures Best Service & Cost Savings [more]
  I had the responsibility for negotiating a strategic sourcing contract for $3.5mm in corrugate as we had five redundant suppliers and a driving need to consolidate our spend for cost savings. Complicating my project was a widely varying array of high and low usage parts, common brown box requirements along with intricate die cuts, and no vendor obviously able to immediately meet all of the needs of my engineering, planning, purchasing, and production art internal customers. First, I created a network-crawling program to automatically gather all of my box specifications making it easier to send them to my vendors. Next, I sat down for one-on-one conversations with my internal customers asking them about their vendor preferences on objective and subjective criteria. Finally, I negotiated with each vendor lauding them for the area where they excelled and warning them where their competitors were making them look bad. After weeks of careful negotiations plying one company's strength against another's weakness, I secured a two-year contract with the best two suppliers which were at the top of all of my internal customers' technical (e.g. specifications) and subjective (e.g. customer service) requirements. In addition to pleasing my internal customers, I was able to save $623K (23%) over the entire project. At the contract signing, I asked the top winning supplier to bring along their customer service representative, Jenny, as well as their company president and sales vice president. Upon awarding the contract, I ensured they understood that they won it not just for a great price along with a quality product. A large part of the win was thanks to Jenny's friendly and responsive customer service. Jenny signed the contract along with the executives and we always received exemplary customer service from her.
• Recruited to lecture at University of Wisconsin School of Business based on leadership techniques for evaluating and delivering project goals through team effectiveness.

Fit in, Stand out

While it’s not OK to be "wrong" hanging out with the crowd, it’s just as bad to be "right" all by yourself up ahead. Lead from within the team and bring them to the new standards.
• Reversed $240,000 potential cost increase to $210,000 cost improvement by identifying new source for brewer’s yeast through industry analysis, testing process, and new material introduction process.
• Yielded $800,000 (23%) annual savings through strategic sourcing project, including detailing entire material spend, one-on-one “bid coaching” sessions with suppliers, and online reverse auction to realize additional savings over initial bids.
• Managed logistics team for 600-soldier deployment to Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC), executing plan for all logistics operations in stressful field environment while maintaining budget and all equipment.
• Commanded soldiers during 1992 Los Angeles riots, training, equipping and deploying soldiers for riot control and law enforcement techniques, and working with local law enforcement to provide neighborhood security. Contributed to quelling riots within 10 days of Army’s arrival.

Lean Operations Process Re-engineering

Lean manufacturing evangelist with keen ability to identify and adopt Lean strategies in manufacturing while communicating complex ideas in easily understood format. Utilized Lean leadership experience to establish reporting metrics and procedures whose use subsequently saved $145,000 in raw materials/finished goods inventory within first year.

• Delivered $1.4 million incremental revenue and $300,000 inventory reduction in one quarter by establishing Kanban inventory stocking program for low-usage accessories that streamlined shipment schedules.
  
  Comprehensive Inventory Remodel Delivers Revenue [more]
  At Thermo Fisher Scientific, the company had unwritten rule not to plan for purchased parts or accessories with less than six uses in previous year. This meant when customer ordered infrequently-needed accessory, team placed purchase order only after sales order had been entered. These parts were typically low-demand for suppliers, so lead times were often longer than 30 days. Even if team had every other assembly ready for shipment within published two-week lead time, these low-use parts held up customer's entire order for many more weeks. Researched and conferred with staff and provided return on investment model to director. Established Kanban inventory stocking program for these low-usage accessories that had been associated with system orders at least two times in previous 12 months. Stocked at least one of these relatively lower-valued accessories, which had been holding up significantly larger shipments. These actions ensured that large orders could ship immediately. Within first quarter, this incremental expenditure paid for itself twice with overall inventory reduction of $300,000. Most surprisingly, Operations was responsible for adding $1.4 million (3% of quarter) in incremental revenue as these shipments ordinarily would have shipped following quarter.

Enduring Relationships

I’ve learned that the secret to my leadership success has been in the lasting, trusting relationships that I’ve built with my teams. I’ve found that a strong bond with a teammate, regardless of their position in the authority chain, has been one of the best ways of conquering challenges and, ultimately, improving customer satisfaction.
• Captured $145,000 savings in raw material and finished goods inventory in first year by directing Lean implementation, developing Class A metrics and daily, near-real-time, automatic ERP updates.
  
  Site-Wide Initiative Builds Lean Processes & Savings [more]
  Thermo Fisher Scientific shipped $50 million in scientific instruments each quarter, but operations processes were designed around week-end reviews. Practical Process Improvement (PPI) projects were all focused on individual manufacturing cells or functional departments, Lean had not been adopted site-wide, and there was no method to identify goals, gaps, or corrective actions on repeatable, frequent basis. I was a key leader in factory’s Lean introduction and implementation, assumed lead in developing nearly all Class A metrics along with automated, daily, and near-real-time updates. Leveraged five-year experience in Lean leadership to ensure clear goals, performance metrics, root cause identification, and measurable remedies for gaps. Within first year, company saved $145,000 in raw material and finished goods inventory. In addition, Corporate Director for PPI-Lean used Gemba Walk procedures as example of setting standards at national PPI conference.
• Identified $52,000 revenue increase through strategic leadership conveying Theory of Constraints to manufacturing, planning and shipping teams, sparking improvements in pilot bulk cooler-line throughput projected at two tanks per week.
• Reaped $400,000 annual material savings through project to change packaging of major tablet product and full-spectrum cost accounting analysis of multiple options, navigating changes through all appropriate functional areas.

Leverage Intelligent Technology to Drive Business

Passionate leader leveraging innovations in CRM, ERP, tracking systems, and other technology to meet and exceed customer needs. Saved $300,000 in employee time and software expense after creating and deploying global order-tracking system.

Unvarnished Metrics

The best step towards operational improvement is an honest, empirical assessment of your current state. The uglier, the better. First, it tells your team that you're prepared to know the truth and no one gets hurt for the truth. Next, it helps you create a culture where bringing up problems is valued and rewarded. Once you've established that nothing gets swept under the rug, you can feel encouraged that your process improvements are going after the right things.
• Saved $300,000 in employee time and software expense by programming new company standard for global operations online communications with complete buy-in and astonishment from senior leaders and end users, transforming long history of functional silos.
  
  Global Tracking System Cultivates Company Standard [more]
  BouMatic’s customer service, planning, and sourcing staff each spent minimum of two hours daily reviewing, updating, and reporting dates on sales orders, often with no tangible changes. Company had long history of functional silos, with each creating and sending multiple lists of dates to each other without much process review. Conceptualized and coded global order-tracking system, allowing line items or orders to be flagged for functional review or comments. Dedicated significant time individually coaching each staffer to establish cross-functional team approach to order status reviews. Within five months, this suite of tools was established as new company standard for global operations communication, with complete buy-in and astonishment from senior leadership as well as daily end users. These tools saved company more than $300,000 in employee time and software expense, and are lauded by company president as best information system he's seen.
• Created online order status communication tool with 180+ active global users lauded as “best-in-class” by CEO, allowing customers to access information 10,000+% times faster and automatically updated from SAP four times daily.
  
  System Innovation Reaps Best-in-Class Customer Tool [more]
  Thermo Fisher Scientific, a Fortune 300 company, had no system for updating customers on order shipment status. SAP system had multiple date fields for orders, confusing even experienced users. Customers had to contact as many as six people to identify order status, which could take several days. Spent year creating new order scheduling process and improving factory's on-time shipment rate 300% to Class A 95%. Learned new programming languages to create online, global, single-input order status application with more than 180 active global users. This new application allows customers to access order status with no training in seconds rather than days (10,000+% improvement). It provides manufacturing status, reliable shipping date, actual ship date, and carrier-specific tracking information to see who signed for shipment. CEO hailed this tool as "best-in-class." This also dramatically improved team morale.

Transformational Leadership and Change Management

High-energy catalyst of organizational change; sought-after speaker and coach on change management and implementation of transformational leadership. Coached and mentored underperforming planner, leading to her promotion, selection to distinguished committees, and ability to relate more professionally with peers and upper management.

• Personally mentored talented young professional to transform coarse management and interpersonal skills into trusted professional who earned team and upper management respect.
  
  Personal Mentorship Develops High-Performing Professional [more]
  On my team at Thermo Fisher Scientific, I had a young planner who had been considered too immature by the management team and she didn't have her team's respect. Although many of the management team and her peers talked about her, no one bothered to talk with her about her reputation or improving her communication style. As her new manager, I began frank coaching on her self-presentation and management skills right away. Although the conversations were often uncomfortable for both of us, I knew that she had the talent to thrive. Over the next year and a half of consistent coaching, I developed this planner to become the best in the organization and to earn a trustworthy reputation among her team as well as outside the immediate business unit. She has since been promoted, continues to be selected for the most difficult projects, is now on a managerial track, and continues to consider me a trusted advisor. A leader must lead within intimate proximity of his or her team to have close, and sometimes, uncomfortable conversations if the team member is to understand the results of their current behaviors and potential actions for improvement. As leaders, we must spend more time talking with our team members than we do about them.

Uncompromisable Integrity

I am who I say I am and I do what I say I'll do. Money, position, and power can't change this. If it comes down to my job versus my integrity, I'll walk. If you want to know what's on my agenda, just ask: I'll let you know.
• Drove 300% improvement in on-time shipment rates through unconventional procedural change in scheduling production orders, winning Customer Allegiance Score award for division as well as corporate finalist.
  
  Process Revision Instills Ownership & Dependability [more]
  Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Madison factory’s On-Time Shipment metric floundered in the 50% range as dates automatically assigned to orders by our SAP system didn't reflect our actual expected ship date, and even the expected date wasn’t always attainable. SAP's automatically assigned date did not consider material availability, which fostered a false sense of accountability to customer promises. I consulted with our IT leadership and our Operations teams, peers, and leader. I tasked my planning staff to follow a new process using isolated date field in sales order to specify the date they planned for each order's shipment, instilling ownership and accountability in the process. These manually calculated dates improved our on-time shipment metric 300% and boosted our team to a Class A level of 95% on time. Following this new path versus holding staff accountable for a failing system ensured ownership and results.

  To get a more epic version of this story, please read Tell a Story to Make Your Point Stick.

• Safeguarded 600 soldiers against heat casualties, setting safety record by coordinating soldier tests to evaluate sufficiency of CamelBak hydration systems, researching sourcing channels, and establishing procedures for timely delivery and field distribution.

Cross Functional Leadership

Communicator of shared goals identifying and building multidisciplined teams capable of delivering top- and bottom-line business results and completing complex assignments across all organizational areas. Secured 25% improvement in manufacturing output after collaborating with cross-functional teams involved in plant’s Lean transformation.

• Sparked dramatic 15% improvement in on-time and complete shipments by garnering cross-functional input to craft global Sales & Operations Plan with complete buy-in from all functional players. Lauded by company president for this leadership.
  
  Multifunctional Planning Elevates Performance [more]
  BouMatic lacked a comprehensive forecast Demand or Supply Plan, resulting in customer orders frequently not having necessary parts. For many years company’s sales, customer service, supply chain, and manufacturing groups had functioned in isolation with each team operating under separate finished goods and raw material numbers. Rather than unilaterally dictating global Sales & Operations Plan from previous experience, met with each functional area principal to glean hopes and expectations of S&OP plan. Whenever someone raised suggestions aligned with blueprint, praised and encouraged their contribution. Attributed these contributions at plan unveiling, which ensured ownership, acceptance and compliance. Within six months, largest customers were astonished at company’s dramatic 15% improvement in on-time and complete shipments. Company president attributed this cross-functional leadership as singular impetus for this improvement.

Difficult Conversations

We’ve all been talked about and no one likes it (except when it’s praise). Let’s pay attention to how much time we spend talking with and to each other understanding that they’re different. If I find that others have been talking about your performance, I am not afraid to have an uncomfortable conversation with you. I’ve done this several times before and nobody enjoys the first chat. However, in each case, the team member was able to turn their performance around and improve dramatically all because of frank feedback. We all appreciate it in the long run.
• Spearheaded migration that dramatically improved manufacturing line, saving 1,000 square feet (25% improvement) by leading cross-functional teams through planning process that honored ideas from all functional sectors and levels.
  
  Team Problem Solving Delivers Remarkable Improvement [more]
  At Thermo Fisher Scientific, we needed to move the UV/Vis manufacturing line to a lower floor as part of a Lean transformation project. Initial instructions didn't meet the team needs. Technicians wanted to improve how they did their work but engineers were rigidly following provided guidelines. Everyone was frustrated and the move stalled. After listening carefully to team complaints, I quietly announcing that “We have problems, but we aren’t the problem.” I then refocused the team on our problem: move and improve the manufacturing line. I demonstrated deference to the team’s most experienced workers and opened discussion for ideas regardless of position. Many ideas resulted, and those implemented were based on the solution’s strength and others’ support. Our manufacturing line dramatically improved in its new location (saved 1,000 square feet, 25% improvement) at an unforeseen pace.
• Shipped $2.3 million in sales orders two weeks early by leading planning efforts for global new product introduction across three manufacturing locations on two continents, ensuring production was prepared for launch date.
• Drove 50% increase in annual revenue ($330 million) over four years by spearheading Sales, Inventory, and Operations Planning (SIOP) process and determining best use of existing resources (VMI suppliers, engineering expertise and technical supply chain) to introduce 13 major new scientific instruments.
• Triggered $127,000 cost savings from initial project budget by establishing competitive environment for bids, negotiating significant internal changes to project plan, and coordinating communications between all functional areas and senior management.

Multi-site Global Operations Leadership

Accomplished operations professional employing effective forecasting, knowledge of importing/exporting, and regulatory compliance to seize global opportunities for business development and drive corporate revenue. Averted $20 million possible criminal penalties by supervising and implementing comprehensive compliance program for international shipment of scientific instruments.

• Trimmed 15% of inventory in one quarter across three global manufacturing factories through improvement in Kanban and vendor-managed inventory (VMI) programs.
  
  Global Inventory Management Yields Significant Gains [more]
  At Thermo Fisher Scientific, my business unit had three international factories. While inventory and operations teams in remote facilities were not under my direct supervision, I was still personally responsible to report to director and division vice president for their inventory profile and total dollar reductions. I assumed ownership of disparate inventory and operations leadership teams through monthly conferences on current state, responsible reduction activities through improvement in Kanban and vendor managed inventory (VMI) programs, and daily inventory level visibility down to manufacturing cell level. This emphasis on inventory reduction program visibility and local inventory ownership reduced business unit's collective inventory level by 15% within first quarter.

Personal Counselor

I have been a sought-after coach and counselor at every company at which I’ve worked. I’ve counseled on stress management, getting teammates to follow your instructions when you’re not in charge, and how to begin to let go and lead when you’ve always been the best “doer”, among many other topics. Since I make the entire company my team, people will seek me out regardless of the organization structure.
• Averted $20 million criminal penalties and $250,000 civil penalties per import/export violation by implementing compliance procedures considered “best in class” and establishing multisite regulatory compliance program model.
  
  Compliance Leadership Sets Corporate Standard & Averts Risk [more]
  The shipping function for Thermo Fisher Scientific's $230 million annual scientific instrument business had approximately 40% of all shipments exported internationally. Our site had recently failed an audit by Customs and Border Patrol who revoked export business pending documentation improvements cost company $7 million revenue. I leveraged training in import/export compliance, and recognized that compliance documentation was not the sole responsibility of our shipping team. I collaborated cross-functionally to establish site-wide regulatory compliance program and created a direct leadership position to manage. This compliance program engaged the active support and full participation of all senior management. Our regulatory team and documentation were deemed "best in class" by the corporate compliance leadership team for other sites to emulate. The program averted criminal penalties of $20 million per violation and civil penalties of $250,000 per violation.
• Achieved 96% annual inventory record accuracy, boosting factory 19% by leading long-term organizational inventory improvements.
• Curtailed inventory to 70% under budget for Excess and Obsolete parts in second half of 2012 through inventory management strategies.
• Launched product three weeks ahead of schedule through seamless company integration, coordinating all sourcing-related SAP integration functions, analyzing pricing/vendor information, and training all personnel in new procedures.
• Avoided $200 million loss of business for top four customers by orchestrating efforts of multiple departments to quickly end shipping shortages, collating full bills of material, supervising several departments and agencies, and communicating changes to management.
• Realized 25% savings by leading cross-functional team to select new best-in-class tooling suppliers to meet company specifications and demand, including six facility evaluations in two weeks.

Coach

I cannot be a success unless my team is a success. I’ve been a leadership mentor for dozens of developing managers who cite my coaching in their personal and professional success; many have thanked me years down the road for my impact on their lives. I’ve learned that the secret to my leadership success has been in the lasting, trusting relationships that I’ve built with my teams. I’ve found that a strong bond with a teammate, regardless of their position in the authority chain, has been one of the best ways of conquering challenges and, ultimately, improving customer satisfaction.

Personal Mentorship Develops High-Performing Professional

On my team at Thermo Fisher Scientific, I had a young planner who had been considered too immature by the management team and she didn't have her team's respect. Although many of the management team and her peers talked about her, no one bothered to talk with her about her reputation or improving her communication style. As her new manager, I began frank coaching on her self-presentation and management skills right away. Although the conversations were often uncomfortable for both of us, I knew that she had the talent to thrive. Over the next year and a half of consistent coaching, I developed this planner to become the best in the organization and to earn a trustworthy reputation among her team as well as outside the immediate business unit. She has since been promoted, continues to be selected for the most difficult projects, is now on a managerial track, and continues to consider me a trusted advisor. A leader must lead within intimate proximity of his or her team to have close, and sometimes, uncomfortable conversations if the team member is to understand the results of their current behaviors and potential actions for improvement. As leaders, we must spend more time talking with our team members than we do about them.

Logistics Team Enjoys Working With Manager Again

At Thermo Fisher Scientific, I had a Logistics Manager reporting to me who had been effective at getting the job done but did so at the expense of the team’s morale. Team members came to me within the first month of my start and let me know how tyrannical the manager had been. Immediately, we sat down and I revealed what I had learned and how the management culture was going to change. Over the course of several weeks, I worked with this manager to reflect on previous management styles and steps toward improving them. In the course of a few months, team members reported to me that the tyranny had ended and they enjoyed working with their manager again. Productivity increased several fold throughout the team as a result.

Negotiator

It’s been said that negotiating is an art. I like to think of it more like a contact sport because you can’t win at art. I like to win!

I truly enjoy negotiating so that both parties win (the ever popular win-win scenario) except I prefer having the larger win on my side. I had to learn my negotiation tactics on the job as a purchasing manager. I found that my sense of fair play and drive to win made for very successful and repeatable negotiations. I never wanted to beat up anyone with whom I’d like to continue doing business.

Operations Executive Brings in More Revenue Than Sales Department

At ArcherDX, I negotiated a two-year supply agreement with our largest customer to ensure at least $32mm in revenue. This represented approximately 85% of all company revenues. With this contract, I negotiated $1.3mm in incremental annual revenue. This was more than the entire sales force had accomplished in the first half of the year, combined. I lead the development of personnel and capacity increases for my manufacturing team necessary for this increased business growth.

Contract Leadership Secures Best Service & Cost Savings

I had the responsibility for negotiating a strategic sourcing contract for $3.5mm in corrugate as we had five redundant suppliers and a driving need to consolidate our spend for cost savings. Complicating my project was a widely varying array of high and low usage parts, common brown box requirements along with intricate die cuts, and no vendor obviously able to immediately meet all of the needs of my engineering, planning, purchasing, and production art internal customers. First, I created a network-crawling program to automatically gather all of my box specifications making it easier to send them to my vendors. Next, I sat down for one-on-one conversations with my internal customers asking them about their vendor preferences on objective and subjective criteria. Finally, I negotiated with each vendor lauding them for the area where they excelled and warning them where their competitors were making them look bad. After weeks of careful negotiations plying one company's strength against another's weakness, I secured a two-year contract with the best two suppliers which were at the top of all of my internal customers' technical (e.g. specifications) and subjective (e.g. customer service) requirements. In addition to pleasing my internal customers, I was able to save $623K (23%) over the entire project. At the contract signing, I asked the top winning supplier to bring along their customer service representative, Jenny, as well as their company president and sales vice president. Upon awarding the contract, I ensured they understood that they won it not just for a great price along with a quality product. A large part of the win was thanks to Jenny's friendly and responsive customer service. Jenny signed the contract along with the executives and we always received exemplary customer service from her.

Inventory Optimizer

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler" - attributed to Albert Einstein.

The following categories must be used when determining the appropriate inventory stock level. I’m not claiming any unique insight into this methodology but I have used my simple explanations to great effect when implementing new inventory policies. This works especially well in companies which are used to purchasing materials up to a certain volume discount rate resulting in way too much inventory or companies which re-order the average amount plus a bit more and are constantly out of material.

Stock-outs, with the resulting customer disappointments and purchasing department’s frantic expedites, are much more expensive than the cost of having the right quantity of inventory on the shelf when it’s needed. Buying the right inventory, at the right quantity, at the right time can lower your total inventory costs even though it may appear that you’re buying more. Frequently, the largest inventory expense is in a ten line item order when nine of the on-hand lines are waiting on just a single line. The opportunity cost of that single line cannot be compared to $0 (as it often is) since we didn’t buy it, but should be compared to the total cost of the nine items waiting to be shipping out and removed from inventory.

Right quantity of inventory = Cycle Stock + Buffer Stock + Safety Stock

Multifunctional Planning Elevates Performance

BouMatic lacked a comprehensive forecast Demand or Supply Plan, resulting in customer orders frequently not having necessary parts. For many years company’s sales, customer service, supply chain, and manufacturing groups had functioned in isolation with each team operating under separate finished goods and raw material numbers. Rather than unilaterally dictating global Sales & Operations Plan from previous experience, met with each functional area principal to glean hopes and expectations of S&OP plan. Whenever someone raised suggestions aligned with blueprint, praised and encouraged their contribution. Attributed these contributions at plan unveiling, which ensured ownership, acceptance and compliance. Within six months, largest customers were astonished at company’s dramatic 15% improvement in on-time and complete shipments. Company president attributed this cross-functional leadership as singular impetus for this improvement.

Training Team on Theory of Constraints Leads to Revenue Increase

At BouMatic, my former supervisor and Vice President of Operations, Mike Hsu, wanted to start making improvements in our manufacturing lines through methodologies found in Theory of Constraints. While I was very familiar with this continuous improvement methodology, among others, Mike and I were the only ones who understood it. I counseled him to let me begin a training course for our manufacturing leaders to get them to understand the theory’s tenets before we began implementation. I didn’t want our business to flounder as the leaders weren’t trained to the task yet. More than anything, I didn’t want the frustration that we would inevitably face send us further away from our goals. After training, we were able to realize a $52,000 revenue increase in our pilot production line.

Comprehensive Inventory Remodel Delivers Revenue

At Thermo Fisher Scientific, the company had unwritten rule not to plan for purchased parts or accessories with less than six uses in previous year. This meant when customer ordered infrequently-needed accessory, team placed purchase order only after sales order had been entered. These parts were typically low-demand for suppliers, so lead times were often longer than 30 days. Even if team had every other assembly ready for shipment within published two-week lead time, these low-use parts held up customer's entire order for many more weeks. Researched and conferred with staff and provided return on investment model to director. Established Kanban inventory stocking program for these low-usage accessories that had been associated with system orders at least two times in previous 12 months. Stocked at least one of these relatively lower-valued accessories, which had been holding up significantly larger shipments. These actions ensured that large orders could ship immediately. Within first quarter, this incremental expenditure paid for itself twice with overall inventory reduction of $300,000. Most surprisingly, Operations was responsible for adding $1.4 million (3% of quarter) in incremental revenue as these shipments ordinarily would have shipped following quarter.

Promoted After Demonstrating Effective Inventory Model

At Thermo Fisher Scientific, I was a Manufacturing Manager who discovered that we were regularly short on several common necessary materials. To help the Production Control Manager understand the quantities we actually needed for each material, I created working inventory models to establish the most efficient on hand and re-order quantities based upon our requirements for cycle stock, buffer stock, and safety stock. All of these had to consider the historic and predicted variability from our customers’ ordering patterns, suppliers’ delivery inconsistencies, and our own factory’s first pass yield failures. After instituting a few pilot programs for my materials, I was promoted to the position of Production Control Manager and implemented my models across the factory. Our short parts dropped dramatically.

Lecturer

After years of successful leadership, many teammates approached me asking why I haven't written down the advice that they've seen as most effective. Currently, I’m in the process of publishing a book on my unique leadership paradigm, Intimate Proximity and several of my early chapters are posted. Please find links below.

In addition to writing and coaching on Intimate Proximity, I've been recruited by several organizations to speak to their groups on leadership effectiveness.

Personal Connection Influences Industry Executive Leaders

In 2014, I was personally invited as keynote speaker in Las Vegas at Innovation Enterprise's Global Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) Summit. Needed to overcome long history of public speaking anxiety to present to more than 200 senior operations executives. Thoroughly prepared slides and material and commenced several rehearsals, solidly memorizing "The Human Touch" by Spencer Michael Free. Confidently presented experience successfully implementing S&OP process through unique personal leadership paradigm, Intimate Proximity: Hands-on Leadership. Emotional connection with audience evoked lasting impressions. Congratulated by several attendees and asked more about this paradigm. Many confided that this emotional presentation delivery had them near tears. Company president requested copy of slides, which he shared with several of his executive colleagues.

Intimate Proximity Articles

• Understanding Intimate Proximity
• Matching Your (Dog Sled) Team to the Task
• Don't Let Your Leadership Philosophy be a Mystery
• Leadership Communication Within Intimate Proximity
• Establishing Policies, Procedures, and Culture Within Intimate Proximity
• 3 Ways to Lead Within Intimate Proximity When They’re Not on Your Team
• Negotiate Like an Intimate Proximity Leader
• Tell a Story to Make Your Point Stick
• Incredible Always Beats Gooder
• Rapid Role Switching: an Unlikely Source of Stress
• Straight Lines Should Be Straight
• Commanding Vs. Demanding Respect
• So, You’re a Great Cook. Can You Farm? … or, In Praise of the Subject Matter Expert
• Leonardo DiCaprio Got Idea Inception Right

New Product Development

I have led the New Product Development processes in each of the past four companies I've worked for. I've learned that the keys to success for any NPD program are as follows:

• Plan all activities using the subject matter stakeholders’ ideas while fitting them into the project’s purpose
• Regularly communicate project status and roadblocks with the team, peers, and leaders
• Set date expectations and rigorously hold to them

When establishing a New Product Development process, it’s vitally important to get all cross-functional departments on the same page. Part of that is to establish a common glossary of terms. I’ve included a few below that I’ve put in place to ensure we’re all using the same language. As with many things, these are not original to me but I’ve successfully focused my teams on just these few things to help bring order out of chaos.

Alpha Stage: These are Proof of Concept builds. They’re led by technical specialists (e.g. Engineers or Scientists) who play around with the components just to see if this product can be made.

Beta Stage: The product can be made (as shown in the Alpha Stage) and is built with production-quality components from the expected production suppliers. The product should be built by production staff but the technical specialists can assist. Staff and specialists work together to create the final product and production steps.

Pilot Stage: A small, representative quantity of product is built by the production staff. Technical specialists can observe but cannot touch (i.e. watch with their hands in their pockets). If these products pass the approved test protocols, they are saleable. Beta products can also be sold only if they pass the final approved test protocols.

Launch quantity vs Standard run-rate: If the Sales and Marketing departments are hyping the new product properly, there should be pent-up demand on Launch Date. To ensure your production team isn’t caught off-guard trying to expedite new products to keep from disappointing customers, plan on a larger quantity for launch than what you would expect for your standard run-rate. Having more finished goods on hand ready to sell is a better problem to have than trying to push a new production line to meet expedited demand.

End of life “scarcity spike”: As you are bringing a product to the end of its life and no longer make or sell it, conventional wisdom would tell you to plan on dropping the forecasted quantity right away upon announcement. Especially when you are replacing the old product with a new one, it seems to make sense that your customers would switch right away. However, my experience with many end of life products tells me to plan on what I refer to as a “scarcity spike.” As soon as you tell a customer that they can no longer have something, they want it more than they had. As you plan for your drawdown quantity (it’s important for all parties to agree to a quantity rather than a date), ensure that you account for this “scarcity spike” as it will be easier to sell a higher volume of established products at a discount (if you had to) rather than having to inefficiently manufacture or purchase a very small quantity.

Catalog and Customized Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Assays Get to Market

At ArcherDX, one of the primary challenges that I faced was bridging the gap between scientists in Colorado and an operations team in Massachusetts. The two teams had conflicting cultures and goals. This resulted in new products getting to market only after months of disconnects, distrust, and arguments. After spending one on one time with all of the stakeholders in the process and understanding their particular needs, I crafted a procedure to ensure each internal customer got what they needed, value originators wouldn’t cause re-work, and all participants had a single, clear documentation path to track the product’s progress. The new-found efficiency helped reduce the gap between the two sites and resulted in products launching in a matter of weeks rather than months.

Developer

I’ve been creating business applications for the past twenty years, while the most recent of which have been for global manufacturing companies where I was a senior leader. I determined the need, researched the techniques required, and created them myself. (I created this website, after all...)

I never stop learning. In many cases, I discovered a need for a complex business application and set about teaching myself the applicable languages in order to quickly get my team what we needed. Plus, I learned that when a teammate was able to get a feature exactly like what they were asking for, they never had to be convinced to use it or convince others to use it.

Programming Language Expertise

• 13 years’ experience with VBA, MS Access, ASP.net, VB.net, WinForms, SQL, CSS, HTML, XML programming languages
• 5 years’ experience with MIS, BI, IIS, DTS/SSIS, MVC, MS Visual Studio
• 13 years’ experience with MS SQL Server with understanding of complex stored procedures, queries, joins, triggers, views, functions

Global Tracking System Cultivates Company Standard

BouMatic’s customer service, planning, and sourcing staff each spent minimum of two hours daily reviewing, updating, and reporting dates on sales orders, often with no tangible changes. Company had long history of functional silos, with each creating and sending multiple lists of dates to each other without much process review. Conceptualized and coded global order-tracking system, allowing line items or orders to be flagged for functional review or comments. Dedicated significant time individually coaching each staffer to establish cross-functional team approach to order status reviews. Within five months, this suite of tools was established as new company standard for global operations communication, with complete buy-in and astonishment from senior leadership as well as daily end users. These tools saved company more than $300,000 in employee time and software expense, and are lauded by company president as best information system he's seen.

Application Feature Highlights

Below are just a few highlights of some of the tools I've created at BouMatic and Thermo Fisher Scientific. I would be hard-pressed to include all of the features in this summary. These web applications were created using the following technologies: ASP.net, VB.net, SQL Server, MVC, HTML, CSS, VBA, SSIS, IIS, Stored Procedures, Functions, User Controls, and MS Visual Studio.

Sales Order Management

• All sales orders come from MRP system frequently throughout the day
• All facts (e.g. part numbers, dates, quantities) stay in MRP as the document of record
• My tool allows filtering of all orders by just about any category or combination (e.g. buyer/planner, product family, part number, dates or ranges)
• While all of these filters are possible with just about any MRP system, I have created a dashboard to save and display your favorite filters so you can get your reports with a single click
• The following features are not typically found in MRP systems for easy access by everyone
• You can create a series of comments (ala Facebook) for each order or each line item. This way, anyone can attach a note to an order instead of trying to guess the right audience for an email chain.
• You can attach a document to a specific line item (e.g. engineering drawing for a specific custom assembly, export license for enumerated parts)
• With your filterable lists, you can quickly get revenue summaries for categories and dates (e.g. $1.3mm expected to ship out next week)

Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP)

• Create Product Families which will be used to set forecast (e.g. 10 speed bikes)
• Identify the part numbers which make up the members of the family (e.g. 10sp-male-blue, 10sp-male-red, 10sp-female-green, 10sp-female-pink). These will not include all parts associated with the family (handle bars, pedals) but, if you sold a 10sp-male-red, you would say that you sold a 10 speed bike).
• All family members are considered Independent parts
• For each family member, identify a planning bill of material (PBOM) which will not include parts used to actually build the product (your MRP handles that) but will include historical attach rates (e.g. 80% of the time over the past five years, we sold a pink basket with every 10sp-female-pink)
• The PBOM materials are considered Dependent parts
• Sales, Marketing and other players help establish a Demand Plan for all of your Product Families by month (e.g. we will sell 35 10 speed bikes in August)
• The Demand Plan gets divided into the family members by historical proportions (e.g. 35 total 10 speed bikes usually means 10 male-blue, 12 male-red, 8 female-green, 5 female-pink)
• Operations creates a Supply Plan for each of the family members (Independents) to meet or exceed the Demand Plan as appropriate
• Supply Plans for the Dependent parts will be calculated by the Independent part Supply Plan times the attach rate (e.g. 5 female-pink bikes in August will require 4 pink baskets [5 * 80%])
• The combination of Independent and Dependent parts make up your Supply Plan for the month. These are made available in spreadsheet exports which are uploadable to your MRP system.
• All of these tools are visible to everyone within the Sales and Operations Planning process to keep everyone on the same page with just one set of numbers

Sales Order Shipment Tracking

• All sales orders shipped in the past two months and all current orders are frequently uploaded from the MRP system into a database
• A simple interface with a single box allows the user to type in an order number
• All of the resulting data is displayed: Manufacturing status, expected ship date, actual ship date, carrier tracking number as applicable
• This interface eliminates the need for sales reps to find the right contact, access the MRP system, or be in the dark for their customers' orders. Order status updates go from days to seconds.