Vice President Of Supply Chain, Purchasing And Operations
Camberley, Surrey, Gb
Direct Reports: 9 (Heads of purchasing, operations, engineering, project management, S&OP, logistics, materials management); Total Span of Control: 250 employees; Budget >$100MLead the end to end supply chain activities as a member of the steering committee with responsibilities for S&OP planning, sourcing, manufacturing, engineering, project management (NPD & VAVE) and logistics operations. • Developed a new sourcing strategy and established strategic supplier partnerships to reduce overall direct material spend by 14%, to enhance our quality systems, and to drive innovation to support top line growth. • Created a robust VAVE organization to define and maintain a full funnel of ideas for cost-down, margin expansion, and/or quality enhancements to reduce returns & claims. The team has reduced costs on average by 5% per year of total material spend. • Drove a 13% productivity improvement by initiating “LEAN” within the assembly and distribution operations, while enhancing quality controls and improving the safety of our employees. • Developed a new organizational structure to be more nimble and agile to drive NPD and EPD projects at a faster pace to reduce overall time to market and generate revenue sooner. • Responsible to developing and driving the implementation of our omni-channel presence for both Britax and for our products within our retailers. Within 6 months, we grew sales by over 2% with very high profit margins.• Influenced the organization to create a robust S&OP process that drove sales and marketing planning, financial forecasting, and balanced supply and demand. The new process greatly improved forecast for newly launched items and promotional lifts to reduce inventory by ~25%.• Initiated new organizational programs: early supplier involvement, design for manufacturing, formal DFMEA/PFMEA, structured NPD milestone process, KPI management, and others.