Tom Richards Email & Phone Number

Lancaster, Pa, Us

United States

• Responsible for Direct Raw Materials, Purchased Finished Goods, Packaging, Kitting, Capital Equipment, MRO, Transportation, and Ethylene Oxide (EO) Sterilization areas totaling $750M spend. • Drove cost reductions across all categories resulting in $36M savings by implementing robust Category Strategies, develop multiple supply sources for leverage and supply resiliency, and executed multiple Make vs Buy opportunities.• Implemented AI-powered risk monitoring tool with multi-tier supplier mapping.

Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States

• Drove Category Strategy for HDPE Blow Molding, PP Injection Molding, and Aluminum Foil spend areas. Engaged key stakeholders, developed should-be cost models, engaged with the market via RFI/RFP, and reduced Total Cost of Ownership by $1.4M. • Lead 2023 Strategic Plan and 2024 Packaging Materials price standards.

Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States

• Responsible for global oversight of $400 million annual spend for multi-national public manufacturing entity. Manage Global team of 15+ professionals in driving commodity strategies and effectively negotiating critical spend areas to facilitate efficient operations in a cost-conscience manner. Routinely partner with CEO and CFO to collaborate on strategic procurement strategies and decisions.• Responsible for managing relationships with suppliers’ key decision makers, ranging from small domestic vendors to multinational Fortune 500 companies.• Led low-cost country sourcing efforts to transition capabilities from China to Vietnam and South Korea in the wake of burdensome tariffs.• Effectively managed raw material supply through multiple global crises including COVID-19, Winter Storm Uri, Hurricane Ida, and the Global Supply Chain crisis resulting in minimal operations downtime• Reduced Indirect Corporate spend (IT, Marketing, HR, Travel) through supplier consolidation and use of GPOs.• Reduced Indirect Operations spend (Energy, MRO, Capital) through negotiation, energy hedging, energy rebate programs participation, and implementing a storeroom integrator program.

Lancaster, Pennsylvania

• Responsible for managing $200 million spend across 14 US plants• Coached team of four professionals in developing effective commodity strategies, guiding negotiations, and managing projects. Efforts delivered over $40 million of favorable purchase price variances over a combined four-year period.• Implemented systems for Supplier Performance Ratings, PPV tracking, and ADP tracking. Improved ADP by more than five days.• Drove working capital inventory & Free Cash Flow improvements by implementing consignment programs, managing inventory levels, and negotiating payment terms.• Diverse set of commodities including mined minerals, petrochemicals, coatings, packaging, and proprietary toll produced materials. Actively monitored commodity chemical markets utilizing EIA, NYMEX, CBOT, ICIS, and PPI focusing on oil, natural gas, diesel fuel, ethylene, propylene, PVC, and toluene to ensure purchasing decisions adapted real time to maximize value and minimize costs.

Alabuga, Russia

• Created Raw Material Supply Chains from scratch for new green-field manufacturing plant built in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone. Materials sourced globally from Russia, China, Europe, and the US. • Negotiated and executed bilingual contracts for all materials, navigated Russian importation customs, and delivered all materials on time and under budget. • Sourced hundreds of MRO parts to meet maintenance department cost & quality goals.• Implemented SAP Procurement module (English & Cyrillic Russian).

US Procurement Manager for Chemicals and Sourced products. Managed a $30M in spend across 5 ceiling tile plants focusing on commodities of Boardmill Chemicals, Paint raw materials (TiO2, paint binders, HEC thickeners, dispersants, defoamers, and pigments), as well as sourced products. Executed $5M of cost out in 15 months.

Macon, Georgia Area

Resolve product defect claims in the field and drive root cause resolution in the plant. Traveled to job sites with problems, negotiated resolution to satisfy the customer, translated the customer's perspective into actionable plant improvement opportunities, and drove those improvements to completion ultimately reducing claims rate to an all time low for the Macon, GA plant.

Macon, Georgia Area

Six Sigma Green Belt. Lead & facilitated multiple Lean events (VSA, VSM, Kaizen, 5S, & SMEDs). Successfully introduced 8 new products to the Macon plant in 8 weeks to enable a divisional $15M period cost reduction (plant closure). Responsible for cost, schedule, & scope, as well as technical expertise, to develop FireGuard product line delivering $3M of new business to the plant.  Created a company Global Best Practice solution for paint defects involving mechanical precision techniques, paint raw material changes, improved paint mixing methods, new quality measurements, paint spray header design changes, and paint spray tip supplier quality improvements.

Macon, Georgia Area

Responsible for safety, cost & quality for 8hr shift with 10 Direct reports.Managed department staffing schedule for 70+ hourly associates.Improved #2 Boardmill manufacturing line's thru-put, scrap rate, and cost to exceed all goals.