Ian Dale-Lace Email & Phone Number

Anywhere Considered

Skilled and experienced at supporting business bottom line improvement through performance improvement and implementing major strategic change.* Reducing operating costs by at least 5-10%* Managing complex change projects to achieve milestones within budget, including: -- Acquisitions -- Start-ups -- Transfers and consolidations -- Outsourcing -- Site.

London, United Kingdom

Original 'Company Doctors', providing hands-on operational transformational change, turnaround, restructuring and business improvement services to Private Equity, Venture Capital, Banks and Corporate Clients.

Birmingham, United Kingdom

Gap management of all site operations for wire-lined telecoms equipment After Market Services repairs. Identified and initiated backlog reduction and cost improvements.

Plymouth, United Kingdom

Lead on-site review and reduction of working capital and improvement of operational effectiveness. $5.5m improvement achieved. Further projects improved manufacturing capacity bottlenecks by 25% and reduced full contract review orders delivery commit cycle time by 75%.

District Brno-City, Czech Republic

Lead on-site review of Czech operation company-wide business processes to plan and execute transformation to acheive key deliverable of 95% CSL from current 82%.

Beaconsfield

Guidance and Interim services providing bottom line operating cost improvement and major strategic change management.

Coordinated transfer of high performance vacuum pump precision machining and assembly operations from Sussex, UK unionised site, $90m, 250 SKU's, 90 directs, 20 indirects to Czech sister site whilst improving product supply to eliminate backlog and build buffer stocks. Managed 7,000 sqm site clearance.

Coordinated transfer of electronics manufacturing from Flextronics Austrian contract operations, $19m, 287 SKU's, 178 PCBA's, 26 directs, 18 indirects, to Tyco Czech manufacturing operations without supply disruption, despite significant unforecast order intake. Met target exit date.

Drove reduced product returns turn around time from 34 to 10 day target, benchmarked and revised policy, project planned relocation of UK service activities to Czech manufacturing operations.

Lead successful acquisition of Celestica contract electronics manufacturing operation, $38m, 340 employees, 16,000 sqm, coordinating all elements of due diligence within agreed timeframe.

• $80m Group producing steel, ABS, timber, GRP and roller shutter garage doors for the residential market.P&L responsibility for $40m, 180 employees, 13500 sqm Luton and 8000 sqm Brackley manufacturing operations.
• Consolidated manufacturing into Luton site, reducing headcount and saving $715k pa.
• Restructured organisation, reducing staff layers and headcount and saving $2.1m pa.
• Improved on-time delivery from 85% to 99.7%.
• Reduced customer complaints by 71% and warranty returns by 95%.
• Reduced inventory 35%, freeing up $2.65m working capital

• Tyco Safety Products, $2.5bn manufacturing division of Tyco International, US based $40bn, 250,000 employee global conglomerate.Full P & L responsibility for $56m, 246 employees, 4100 sqm London and $18m, 75 employees.
• Generated $4.1m (7.4%) improvement in profit through material, labour and overhead efficiencies while increasing capacity 60% to meet sales demand.
• Maintained morale, avoided adverse action and minimised customer overdues throughout 3 years of transitions. Overall savings $7.5m pa.

• Cost centre responsibility for $51m, 262 employees London and $18m, 75 employees, Munich, electronics manufacturing operations.Promoted to run both factories with goal of improving operating efficiencies and results..
• Increased combined results by $2.3m through benchmarking operating improvements.
• Lead cost reduction team on key volume smoke detector range to save $760k pa. Identified new product version which superseded original product, with further $485k pa savings.
• Improved first pass yield by 15% to 94%, and more than halved customer complaints.
• Renegotiated Polish outsourced supplier contract to release $430k.
• Drove formation of independent GmbH to reduce overhead costs by $360k annually.

• Responsible for world-wide Quality improvement and $26m Munich electronics manufacturing operation. Promoted to drive increased Quality focus required due to further acquisitions. Introduced annual customer surveys to.
• Improved customer satisfaction rating from initial 56% to 78%.
• Generated customer complaints reporting system with improved field input.
• Improved customer technical training availability and uptake.
• Directed Munich manufacturing operations achieving 28% turnover improvement and $1.2m results improvement.

• Responsible for $31m, 96 employees, 2500 sqm Munich electronics manufacturing operations.
• Directed Munich manufacturing operations achieving 28% turnover improvement and $2.6m profit against breakeven budget.
• Reconstructed German $380m acquisition manufacturing operations, consolidating 4 sites into 1. Headcount reduced from 450 to 86 whilst maintaining on-time supply.

• Responsible for all Quality and Product Support aspects world-wide.
• Reduced UK manufacturing final test defect level from average 0.3% to 0.002%.
• Improved yield for key new UK manufactured detector product range from 75% to 92%.

• UK £220m, 3500 employee manufacturer and installer of electronic fire detection and security systems. World-wide installation operations with London manufacturing, Sunbury HQ and R&D. Responsible for driving.
• Established warranty returns analysis to focus FMA improvement teams.
• Coordinated directly with US subsidiary customer, reducing rejects from 15% to 2.6%.
• Improved SMA dpm from average 1500 to 30 and pcb FTY from 68% to 89%.
• Directed and co-ordinated £1.5m development of fully monitored wireless intruder alarm system to point of MPT/EMC approvals, ready for launch.

• UK £45m, 450 employee manufacturer of submersible electric pumps and UV purifiers, hosepipe, injection mouldings, rotary airers. Haddenham HQ, manufacturing in Birmingham and Aylesbury. Responsible for Quality.
• Originated Executive Quality data analysis and commentary to guide strategic planning.
• Established life-cycle testing facilities to increase reliable quantitative performance data.
• Directed formation of initial cellular manufacturing pilot.

• Subsidiary of US based $2.6bn world-wide manufacturer of suspended ceilings systems, ESD products, PVC sheet and tile floor coverings, insulation materials. UK £100m, 1000 employees with London HQ, manufacturing in.
• Initiated Process Improvement and Team Problem Solving training and implementation. Improvement teams increased from 69 in 1990 to 194 in 1992. £5.5m savings over 2 years.
• Originated multi-national Improvement Team competition, resulting in 120% increase in teams.
• Utilised US Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria as self-assessment method for progress towards 'world class'. 1992 independent rating improved 34%.
• Implemented Quality Improvement planning process. Replaced cost reduction. programme.
• Directed and facilitated 8 cross-functional Quality Improvement Steering Groups.

• Armstrong - Corporate HQ, Lancaster, Pa, USAResponsible for providing technical and manufacturing guidance between US facilities (68 Plants, 15 HQs, central R&D, Engineering, Styling) and all International operations.
• Developed first detailed financial analysis for new product under development for European market. Established no cost advantage available and project finally abandoned.
• Generated earnings of $740k annual fee income through direction and negotiation of technical licence agreements with 3 external companies.
• Supervised and co-ordinated International annual $80m capital expenditure budget. Reduced approval cycle time 30%, improved budgeting accuracy and eliminated overspend.

• Armstrong - Tanfield Lea Plant, Stanley, Co. DurhamResponsible for all site operations at a £2.0m, 50,000 sq.ft. self contained remote factory with 38 employees producing mineral wool using a foundry process.
• Absorbtion costs reduced by 19%, despite main raw material price increase of 8%.
• Business developed by £200k annually through direct customer interaction.
• New production output records established on two occasions.

• Armstrong - Team Valley Plant, Gateshead, Tyne & Wear.Responsible for all Health and Safety issues on this multi-operation, £20m, 700 employee, 800,000 sq.ft. manufacturing facility.
• National Safety Award won for first time in 33 year history for each year 1982 and 1983.
• Design and full implementation of a comprehensive Permit-to-Work system.

Armstrong - Team Valley Plant, Gateshead, Tyne & Wear.Controlled Cost Reduction programmes to save £168k in 1980 and £240k in 1981.

Armstrong - Team Valley Plant, Gateshead, Tyne & Wear.Developed 4 year replacement programme for fleet of 34 fork lift trucks, saving £335k.

Training periods in: treatment, machining, assembly, laboratories, project planning, equipment commissioning, pre-production, industrial engineering, production and material control.

Training periods in industrial engineering, production and material control.

Bsc (Hons), Industrial Engineering

Activities and Societies: Dissertation: Reducing inventory control discrepancies

Education record