Joseph Kovach Email & Phone Number

Charlotte, Nc, Us

Satellite Beach, Florida, Us

Charlotte, Nc, Us

Strategic leader of operations for 13 manufacturing plants, 2 distribution centers, and corporate functions of Procurement, Quality, Safety, Supply Chain, Warehousing, and Logistics. Driving process improvement and cost savings across the organization. Pursuing and supporting new product development and sales growth.• Drove an extensive equipment rebuild program to refurbish significantly neglected production equipment and established PM programs that drove production efficiency improvement of 4% in foam operations.• Established and led a comprehensive safety program where there was a void of safety culture. Made safety a value at all levels of the company. Used root-cause analysis and corrective action as a basis for safety improvements in local plants, with best practice sharing across the organization. Improved Total Incident Rate (TIR) to 3.2, below industry average.• Directed an RFQ for corrugated box buy that resulted in annual savings of $1.5 million.• Successfully closed one manufacturing plant, as part of a strategic plan to right-size foam operations. Project was completed on time and under budget. Annual synergy savings of $1.8 million.• Strategic senior partner in cross-functional capital expansion projects for two new polypropylene container manufacturing plants with over $90 million invested. Operating levels provide new annual sales capacity of $134 million.

Lake Forest, Illinois, Us

Provided vision and leadership for Supply Chain Systems and Integration Processes; Graphics Services Department; Packaging Engineering Department; Plastics Engineering; R&D pilot plant; and assigned strategic projects for $1.6 billion (2011 sales) company focused on manufacture of single-use products to serve food and beverages for consumer/retail, foodservice, and international markets.• Achieved $10 million YOY gross margin improvement by leading cross-functional team of seven developing strategy for special print products that improved pricing, manufacturing efficiency, and customer clarity.• $710,000 in raw materials saved from $71 million base by developing project plan and cross-functional team that improved plant-level MRP processes.• Led raw materials integration team that reviewed, recommended and implemented inks used in manufacturing process, which resulted in $154,000 in annual savings.• $127,000 under budget completion of $5.7 million project achieved leading 755-member organization migrating systems and processes from legacy system to new systems platform supporting 10 locations.• Realized $5.4 million synergy saving in first-year post-acquisition and integration (inside 120-day timeline) of $25 million standalone manufacturing operation with strategic product lines.• $1.2 million of $4.5 million projected expense saved by developing processes and measurements to manage outsourcing of Graphics Services that provided better service and lower cost.• Drove savings of $5.96 million over five years through packaging optimization. Initiated and managed projects using A3 Process enterprise-wide.

Lake Forest, Illinois, Us

Managed Lean manufacturing implementation across multiple facilities, energy action team, manufacturing information systems, customer service, and pricing departments. Served as lead on SAP implementation team, and SME on SAP blueprinting teams for manufacturing and supply chain processes.• $2.5+ million saved in first year after training 138 plant leaders for Lean manufacturing implementation focused on waste reduction and process improvements through Kaizens.• Directed teams for change management, communications, and training on SAP Order to Cash implementation that trained 1,000+ employees in 159 face-to-face sessions and delivered project on time.• Enabled operations management to evaluate, manage, and set plant strategies from single, standardized set of information by developing base information for evaluating performance and setting strategic direction.

Lake Forest, Illinois, Us

Managed 150-employee, multi-shift, $9 million manufacturing operation in Wheeling, IL consisting of four high- capacity thermoforming lines focused on cup manufacturing for branded and private-label retail products. Oversaw closing of facility, relocation of equipment, and decommissioning of plant.• $3.8 million annual saving produced by decommissioning and closing plant in five months (on time) and on budget ($1.2 million); relocating four lines and supporting equipment and all but three of 120 full-time employees.• Realized 25% reduction in changeover times (3.25 hours to 2.5 hours) over one year by working with team to identify opportunities that eliminated wasteful activities.• 47-minute average improvement for full changeover attained by acquiring extra tooling to do mold changes off-line then swapping at the line that improved uptime and tool maintenance.• $583,000 saved (220% of goal) by developing long-term solution to packaging bottlenecks by implementing bulking processes that detached packaging lines from forming lines to maximize output.

Lake Forest, Illinois, Us

Managed Japan operations with focus on growth and business development in Asia-Pacific Region. Facilitated integration of $100 million acquisition with five manufacturing plants in Japan into global operations. P & L responsibility for $100 million business.• 25% saved on $1.2 million annual spend by participating in negotiations and making final decision on change from existing suppliers to company’s global resin supplier.• Led initiatives that benefited global organizational structure including buyout of the 6% of minority shareholders and restructuring of Board of Directors.• Increased sales and operating margins while navigating cultural differences by creating three-year strategic plan, where none existed with actionable items to achieve goals.• Converted Starbucks Asia, a key customer from U.S. export customer to domestic customer by developing six products for manufacture in Japan and distribution throughout Asia-Pacific.

Lake Forest, Illinois, Us

Reorganized 25-member team supporting all supply chain functions including production, inventory, and materials planning, and planning of five additional plants from Clear Shield National acquisition.• 91% to 97.5% customer service improvement and $25 million inventory reduction achieved through analysis of products and product groups that would allow for reduced inventory levels, with revised run strategies.• Changed planning to multi-strategy approach enabling pre-building of inventory for peak seasons, setting variable run strategies for different demand periods, and reducing inventory on products running constantly.• Optimized supply chain information systems to support customer service and inventory investment goals by implementing finite plant-level scheduling, timely production entry, and schedule adherence measurement.

Lake Forest, Illinois, Us

Lake Forest, Illinois, Us

Lake Forest, Illinois, Us

Lake Forest, Illinois, Us

ENTERPRISE BANK- Vice President, Lending BANK ONE, CLEVELAND, NA- Assistant Vice President, Commercial Lending- Lending Officer, Commercial Lending- Branch Manager- Assistant Branch Manager

Bs, Economics

Graduate Work - Mba (Incomplete)

Education record