John Inks Email & Phone Number

Little Rock, Arkansas, Us

St. Louis, Mo, Us

President and CEO of Spartech responsible for ~$500M of business with over 1,100 valued employees and 17 manufacturing sites. We are a leading plastics custom solutions provider of Engineered Materials (acrylic sheet, rods & tubes, specialty extruded material), Packaging (barrier and non-barrier rollstock and formed containers) and Film & Sheet. Our product diversity enables us to service a broad array of markets including Health Care, Aerospace, Food and Consumer Packaging, Transportation, Recreation & Leisure and other markets. We aim to provide our valued customers with the highest levels of customer satisfaction, responsiveness, performance and quality. We distinguish ourselves by providing unique products to meet our customer’s application requirements leveraging our material science expertise across many resins and broad diverse processing capabilities including extrusion, thermoforming, calendering, casting, stretching, slitting & compounding.

St. Louis, Mo, Us

Overall responsibility for Spartech Operations across a $400M business with over 1,000 valued employees and 14 manufacturing sites. We are a leading plastics custom solutions provider of Engineered Materials (acrylic sheet, rods & tubes, specialty extruded material), Packaging (barrier and non-barrier rollstock and formed containers) and Film & Sheet. Our product diversity enables us to service a broad array of markets including Health Care, Aerospace, Food and Consumer Packaging, Transportation, Recreation & Leisure and other markets. We aim to provide our valued customers with the highest levels of customer satisfaction, responsiveness, performance and quality. We distinguish ourselves by providing unique products to meet our customer’s application requirements leveraging our material science expertise across many resins and broad diverse processing capabilities including extrusion, thermoforming, calendering, casting, stretching, slitting & compounding.

St. Louis, Mo, Us

Overall responsibility for all of our manufacturing, engineering, sourcing, and supply chain functions including 14 manufacturing locations across the US.

Operations Director reporting to the President, DSS with the following responsibilities:Leadership (June 2017 - July 2017): Promoted to Operations Director in June 2017 with responsibilities for all 15 manufacturing facilities within our DSS business as well as the Supply Chain, LSS and Customer Service functions. In July 2017, the PolyOne DSS business was divested to Arsenal Capital and became Spartech, LLC. Customer Service was then moved to Commercial and Sourcing was moved under me.Leadership (November 2016 - May 2017): Promoted to Director of Manufacturing in November 2016 with responsibilities for all 16 facilities within our DSS business. Leadership (October 2015 - November 2016): With the closure of the 4 compounding facilities in 2014 and realignment of DSS Manufacturing Director responsibilities along with the closure of the Canadian facility in late 2015, I was responsible for 6 facilities in the US primarily comprising our DSS Specialty division, including product lines such as cell cast acrylic sheet, rods & tubes, acetate sheet, acrylic film and calender and converted films. Leadership (2014 - October 2015): Manufacturing Director with overall manufacturing responsibility for 8 DSS facilities in the US and Canada (2014 - 2015), and 4 compounding facilities in the US and Europe targeted for full closure in 2014.

Senior Director of Operations – Lean Six Sigma Black Belt reporting to the Vice President, Manufacturing with the following responsibilities:Leadership: Overall Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Quality responsibility for 7 manufacturing compounding facilities located in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Europe with direct reports including the Supply Chain Planning Manager, Director of Manufacturing, Divisional Quality and Lean Six Sigma Manager, and Plant Managers.Safety: Focus on safety improvement plans across all site locations to target zero accidents across all sites. Lean Six Sigma: Participated in the PolyOne Lean Six Sigma program leading the CSC manufacturing consolidations. As part of my Black Belt leveraging the DMAIC process, I completed the closure of the 4 CSC facilities through the transfer to production and assets to multiple sites across PolyOne to deliver and sustain $10m of annual savings.

Avon Lake, Oh, Us

Senior Director of Operations reporting to the Senior VP of Color and Specialty Compounds with the following responsibilities:Leadership: Overall Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Quality responsibility for 8 manufacturing compounding facilities located in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Europe with direct reports including the Supply Chain Planning Manager, Project Manager, Director of Manufacturing, Director of Quality, and Plant Managers.Safety: Focus on safety improvement plans across all site locations to target zero accidents across all sites. Led improvement of lost time incident rate from 0.98 in FY11 to 0.31 in FY12.Business Management: Customer interface in working with Business Directors and critical customers such as Exxon Chemicals to maximize customer profitability while delivering superior Quality and Service. Financial: Utilizing lean six sigma tools, executed operational improvements, including OEE improvement, scrap reduction, recycle utilization enhancement, and conversion cost reduction, to exceed the FY12 EBITDA Plan for the Color and Specialty Compounds group.Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP): Developed a Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) process to facilitate the coordination of sales forecast and capacity planning in an effective manner to drive pro-active planning decisions such as plant closures, capital investment, OEE enhancement, and product sourcing.Project Management: Provided leadership in assessing our manufacturing footprint, which ultimately led to the decision in October 2012 to close the Stratford, ON facility and successfully transitioned production to deliver 3m+ of EBITDA improvement.

Vice President, Manufacturing reporting to the Chief Operating Officer (COO) with the following responsibilities of manufacturing operations that produce automotive laminated windshields, tempered back windows, and tempered side windows for the OEM and ARG market:Leadership: Overall responsibility of over 2,800 plant employees, 6 fabrication manufacturing facilities, including 2 Union UAW sites and 1 USW site, and 4 satellite facilities with direct reports including the Site Plant Managers, Operational Excellence Manager, and Value Chain Analysis Manager.Safety: Focus on the development of an EH&S Management system and safety improvement plans across all site locations to target zero accidents.Business Management: Direct interface with VP of OEM to provide collaborative operational support in managing program price quotations through the development of a pro-active costing model based on Operational Excellence improvements over a 5 year horizon. Key account price quotations included Audi, Daimler Mercedes Benz, GM, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda, and Ford.Financial: Full accountability of financial manufacturing variances and operating cash flow at each plant manufacturing facility.Operational Excellence: Through the primary utilization of Lean Six Sigma tools, developed Operational Excellence Management System to continually pursue waste and variation reduction to improve the OEE manufacturing performance to meet customer expectations while improving overall cost of poor quality (COPQ).Quality: Oversight of TS16949 certified manufacturing sites that are responsible for delivering consistent quality improvement to OEM and ARG customers to meet increasing quality requirements and targeted PPM goals through the effective use of tools such as: Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP), PFMEAs, Control Plans, Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), Standard Work, and Six Sigma tools to drive more effective problem solving and root cause analysis.

Avon Lake, Oh, Us

Custom Sheet and Rollstock Director of Operations reporting to the Senior VP of Operations with the following responsibilities:Leadership: Overall responsibility of over 1,200 plant employees and 17 manufacturing Custom Sheet and Rollstock plants located in the US, Canada, and Mexico with direct reports including three Regional Operation Directors, seven Plant Managers, the Planning and Scheduling Manager, Director of Equipment Optimization and indirect reports including the Director of Operational Excellence, Quality, and Process Engineering and Director of Environmental Health and Safety.Safety: Focus on safety improvement plans across all site locations to target zero accidents across all sites.Financial: Responsible for improving overall gross margin throughout the $500 MM Custom Sheet and Rollstock business through plant consolidations, material utilization improvements, conversion cost management, and Quality returns and allowance reductions. Net Working Capital: Overall responsibility for reducing our inventory to maximize our inventory turns while delivering World Class Quality and Service to be our customer’s most valued supplier.Financial: Assisted in driving cost reduction initiatives throughout Spartech to survive the difficult economic climate and improve our overall cash position.

Avon Lake, Oh, Us

Director of Commercial Excellence reporting to the Senior VP of Marketing, Technology, and Commercial Development with the following responsibilities:Leadership: Overall responsibility for leading a corporate margin segmentation process to improve our overall margins from strategic profitability analysis, optimum pricing strategies, and structural process improvements.Collaboration: Responsible for collaborating with the Business Unit Segment VPs and Business Managers along with a functional Operation’s team to execute on profitability improvement initiatives starting in areas where we are losing cash. Financial: Executed an $8 MM profitability improvement plan within our Custom Sheet and Rollstock business segment from (1) identifying margin segmentation targeted improvements, (2) executing on optimum margin improvement pricing strategies to maximize customer profitability, and (3) developing a process to pass through raw material price increases in a timely manner.Analysis: Led the development of a robust profitability model to analyze our market, customer, product, and plants using key financial metrics such as variable margin, gross margin, and EBIT.Business Process Improvement: Developed and executed business process improvement and optimization plans focused in the areas of pricing management, regrind utilization, and product cost standardization in Oracle to clearly define manufacturing cost, procurement, and price variance.

Avon Lake, Oh, Us

Color and Specialty Compounds Director of Operations reporting to the Senior VP of Operations with the following responsibilities:Leadership: Overall responsibility for 12 manufacturing compounding facilities located in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Europe with direct reports including the Operations Director and Plant Managers and indirect reports including over 600 plant employees.Safety: Established an aggressive safety improvement plan across all site locations targeting immediate improvement to target TRR rates less than 1.5.Financial: Led an aggressive $15 MM conversion cost reduction plan across all 12 manufacturing locations with specific tasks targeted at labor cost reduction, controllable expense reduction, manufacturing optimization including plant closures that resulted in significant performance improvements in 2Q09.Financial: Led an aggressive inventory reduction plan of $12 MM to improve our inventory turns and overall leverage ratio to ensure that we did not break bank covenants in the midst of the global recession. Business Process Improvement: Developed and implemented scorecards for each Plant Manager to ensure clear accountability for key operational metrics including Safety, Quality, Controllable Cost, Productivity, Efficiency (OEE), Inventory, and Service.Operational Excellence: Collaborated with the Corporate Director of Operational Excellence to implement a Lean Six Sigma program from developing and training black belts to execute on high impact projects.

Avon Lake, Oh, Us

Director of Business Process Improvement, Business Planning, and Analysis reporting to the Senior VP of the Color and Specialty Compounds, Marketing, and International Development segment with the following responsibilities:Strategic Planning: Provide Senior VP with overall strategic planning and business direction for $500 MM business segment manufacturing polymeric compounds at 13 plants located in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Europe.Financial: Develop key accountability metrics and reporting mechanisms for Business Managers and Directors using the Oracle Financial Analyzer (OFA) and other Oracle reporting tools.Leadership: Responsible for holding Business Managers and Directors accountable for delivering on the key accountability metrics established for their business groups, including sales, operating earnings, material margin, conversion cost, and net working capital as a % of sales.Business Process Improvement: Implement business process improvements with the objective of eliminating physical inventory, reducing monthly financial close process to three days, and ensuring that key business data is accurate and timely each and every day.Business Process Improvement: Responsible for driving the business process improvement initiatives to streamline and standardize our business processes using the new standardized operating platform Oracle 11i that is being implemented at all manufacturing locations.Project Management: Assess, evaluate, recommend, and execute value added projects, including divestiture, plant consolidation and labor reduction plans, to improve our overall cost structure while continuing to grow our business.

Avon Lake, Oh, Us

Served as Business Planning and Analysis Manager reporting to the Vice President of the Spartech Polycom Division with the following responsibilities:Sales and Operations Planning: Responsible for the development and management of the sales and operations planning process as a means of making more pro-active decisions regarding capacity, cost allocation, production sourcing, and inventory management.Budgeting: Responsible for sales budgeting, master planning, and monitoring and improving the product contribution margins through optimized sourcing and pricing.Operations: Collaborates with the divisional Directors of Operations to establish key operational tracking measurements including the development of an operational dashboard and a plant manager forecasting system to effectively mitigate costs at our plants in the US, Canada, Mexico, and France.Sales: Collaborates with the Director of Sales and Specialty Compounds to actively manage the sales forecasting process with over 20 account managers in the US, Europe, Mexico, and Canada.Financial: Analyzes and evaluates current and proposed financial and operational plans, performance of the division and the various operating units, and provides recommendations on changes in strategic direction to increase profitability.

Cleveland, Oh, Us

Held various roles including Production Manager I, Acting Plant Manager, and Lead Production Supervisor at the Valspar, Pittsburgh facility with the following responsibilities: Leadership: Overall manufacturing responsibility of the Pittsburgh site including six direct supervisory reports in Production, Shipping and Receiving, and Maintenance. Safety: Leadership in safety within a manufacturing facility that had achieved one million man-hours and six years without an OSHA recordable accident. Production Planning: Actively collaborated with Scheduling to manage the production schedule to meet customer requirements. Quality: Actively participated in Six Sigma and Lean projects including leadership of the plant’s lean 5S Workplace Organization team as well as the various Six Sigma quality teams established by black belts at the Global Technical Center.

Cleveland, Oh, Us

Held various roles as a Process Engineer and Production Supervisor at the Valspar, Rochester facility.

Master Of Business Administration - Mba, Operations, Finance, Accounting, Quantitative

Bs, Chemical Engineering