Ritchie Rice Email & Phone Number

Head of Globally Centralized back-office Sourcing Activities associated with Indirect Purchasing. Lead a global team of 28 sourcing professionals managing an annual indirect sourcing spend of more than €500M. Realized direct cost savings of €66M annually through price negotiations, supplier consolidation and design optimization. Initiated a Global Trading Desk to liquidate obsolete materials and equipment resulting in €12M of capital recovery in under 14 months. Negotiated 1,200 supplier contracts ensuring a smooth transition in the acquisition of Nokia interests by Microsoft. Facilitated a successful transfer of activities and site closure of the Nokia City office in Chennai India, employing 340 People

Chennai Area, India

Lead 5000+ employees consisting of managers, engineers, supervisors, technicians, and 4500+ direct operators in a 24/7/365 operation producing 550K mobile phones daily with a complete product portfolio turnover every 9 months with over 2500 SKUs . Achieved record annual volumes above 200M in 2011 & 2012 while reducing operating costs below $1 USD per phone, delivering the lowest global operating cost of all 8 Nokia global factories. Implemented Lean Manufacturing concept that reduced production cycle time by 25%, improved direct labor productivity by 10%, cut scrap by 28% and virtually eliminated work in process. Launched the factory “Good to Great” strategy that successfully completed 15 six sigma projects and more than 1,500 Kaizen projects executed by direct labor operators.

Reynosa Area, Mexico

Site Manager for 60 professionals, 250 technicians and 2000+ operators producing circuit boards and generic mobile phone chassis for various sites globally. Implemented flexible production concept capable of producing 36 different product families on 10 lines increasing site utilization by more than 20%. Set production output records in 2009 with on-time delivery of more than 98% and lowest scrap rate per unit in 5 years. Facilitated the site closure in July 2010 meeting all remaining production requirements while terminating 1800 employee contracts without union or legal implications. Liquidated or transferred all production assets and had less than $20K of inventory disposal at closure.

Reynosa Area, Mexico

Project manager for new 36Ksq meter site in Reynosa Mexico for final assembly & distribution. Managed a diverse team of 60 facility, test and process engineers. Project Manager to relocate Canadian distribution operations to Mexico and maintained 99% on-time delivery during the process.Established factory capabilities from order entry to manufacturing process that enabled direct retail deliveries within Mexico. Set-up processes enabling final assembly & distribution operations in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.

Reynosa Area, Mexico

Transformed Mexican battery factory into a mobile phone production facility serving North, Central and South American customers. Introduced automated production machinery with a value of more than $100M with a return on investment of less than 12 months. Led team responsible for training over 500 direct labor employees in the production of cell phone. Lead a focused team to establish a production line with a 6 second cycle time achieving the highest productivity per square foot of any Nokia facility. Project Leader for transfer of US production operations to Mexico. Training Coordinator for startup of Brazilian production operations