Crushing evil

As the Director of Strategic Sourcing & Product Development, I have led the end-to-end development of nutritional products, integrating every facet from ideation to market launch. My responsibilities encompass ingredient specification, formulation, clinical substantiation, procurement, branding, and regulatory compliance.Key Achievements:Product Development: Spearheaded the complete lifecycle of nutritional products, ensuring efficacious consistency and regulatory compliance through rigorous testing and validation protocols.Supplier Relationships: Established and nurtured long-term partnerships with world-class raw ingredient suppliers, ensuring an uninterrupted supply chain that accommodated a forecasted quadruple increase in sales within two business quarters.Packaging Optimization: Reviewed and approved all packaging suppliers and media, consolidating specifications to enhance production flexibility and efficiency.Contract Negotiation: Prepared and negotiated contracts, RFIs, RFQs, and purchase orders, achieving over 6% cost savings on a $5 million annual buy and securing additional discounts for early payment terms while extending standard payment terms by 30 days on average.Operational Excellence: Developed analytical tools for inventory management, BOMs, product margins, MRP, and forecasting in the absence of a centralized ERP/MRP system.Continuous Improvement: Provided monthly updates on product development progress, quality systems, and compliance. Identified gaps in product offerings and devised targeted campaign plans to address specific demographic needs.Cost Reduction: Successfully negotiated cost reductions and favorable payment terms with all vendors, optimizing financial performance and improving cash flow.My leadership in strategic sourcing and product development has consistently delivered high-quality, innovative, and differentiating products while driving significant cost efficiencies and maintaining robust supplier relationships.

Volunteering to fill the vacant Director of Quality position, I ensured the organization was audit-ready and maintained the highest standards of quality.Key Achievements:SOP Management: Reviewed, updated, implemented, and trained staff on 17 SOPs within four months, covering critical areas such as Customer Complaints, Returned Products, and Testing and Release Procedures.Quality Assurance: Established compliant processes for receiving, sampling, and testing incoming items and products, ensuring content, purity, and uniformity through third-party lab testing.Vendor Qualification: Created a vendor qualification and approval process, including criteria for consideration, site visits, audits, and documented assessments.Training Programs: Developed comprehensive training programs covering Day One onboarding, critical training for new hires, regulatory training, and ongoing policy education.Subject Matter Expertise: Served as an expert on products, ingredients, manufacturing processes, technologies, and associated quality and regulatory risks.Customer-Centric Solutions: Led the update of selection mechanisms and content to present appropriate supplement choices for customers, considering factors like drug interactions, medical conditions, family history, and cost tolerances.My tenure as the Director of Quality was marked by the establishment of robust quality systems, enhanced vendor relationships, and the implementation of comprehensive training programs, all contributing to the organization's commitment to excellence.

Strategically sourced and contracted with world class manufacturers on raw materials and packaging on annual volumes and pricing, including incentivized rebates and discounted pricing. Key during the pandemic time was to dynamically integrate secondary/tertiary sources and specifications into the existing BOM's with customer's approval. Key AccomplishmentsStrategic Sourcing: Sourced and contracted with world-class manufacturers for raw materials and packaging, focusing on annual volumes and pricing, including incentivized rebates and discounted pricing.Pandemic Response: Integrated secondary/tertiary sources and specifications into existing BOMs with customer approval to ensure continuity during the pandemic.Supplier & Inventory Management: Maintained full transparency between customers and suppliers to minimize delays and avoid out-of-stock situations. Managed multiple suppliers and monitored in-house and in-transit inventory.Labor Management: Implemented disciplined process improvements, reducing labor costs and headcount by 75% within the department while enhancing informational support across the organization.Customer Relations: Acted as the immediate, front-facing resource for communication and updates with customers at critical junctures.Cost Savings: Negotiated over $400k in annualized contract savings for scarce commodities. Established long-lasting relationships with suppliers in China, South America, Europe, and domestically.Building on contract negotiation, complex pricing mechanisms, and rapidly fluctuating conditions of availability, I was still able to maintain customer throughput and delivery on orders, while building even stronger relationships worldwide.

Master and Production planning responsibility was assumed concurrently with my role in Procurement. This involved ensuring delivery timing of production components, receipts, testing and quarantine release, front facing customer communication and sales guidance on delivery dates. Review and identification of retesting or recertification of components due to short shelf-life situations, customer managed inventory, or even liquidation/destruction.

With extensive experience in contract management and negotiation for MTS agreements, I leverage global markets and relationships to enhance value and market differentiation through innovative applications while still managing risk and opportunity cost analysis.Key Achievements:Exclusive Agreements: Secured exclusive ingredients and pricing terms, implemented financial incentives, and ensured regulatory compliance.Complex Formulation Solutions: I've secured unique and specially processed materials to marry the appropriate delivery system with the intended efficacy. Solution driven project management with world leading manufacturing and processing partners to create differentiation in the marketplace. Cross-Functional Collaboration: Worked with cross-functional teams to drive process improvements, achieving minimum batch efficiency goals and optimizing resource allocation.Efficiency Enhancements: Led the creation of MMRs for 106 products, achieving a minimum batch efficiency of 96% through adjustments to excipient systems and raw material specifications.Labor Reduction: Reduced labor by 17% by organizing the order of addition and blending times.Supply Chain Improvements: Insourced 12 herbal extracts from China to North America, increasing delivery accuracy by 30% and cutting delivery time by 74%.These experiences highlight my ability to enhance efficiency, optimize processes, and manage complex contracts, making significant contributions to organizational success. Mostly, they demonstrate my broad capabilities to create market leading products.

In this role, I directed operations and led teams of up to 12 individuals, leveraging strategic planning to significantly enhance production and operational efficiency.Key Achievements:Production Increase: Boosted production output by 22% within 4 months through strategic planning and team leadership.Preventative Maintenance: Developed and implemented a preventative maintenance program, reducing first article manufacturing errors by 90%.Operational Auditing & Budgeting: Managed operational auditing and budgeting, leading to significant cost savings and improved financial oversight.Supply Chain Management: Created an import supply chain management program, improving efficiency and reducing labor by 26% while managing a 60% increase in manufacturing demand.Cost Savings: Generated $300k in savings on a $4 million buy and reduced overall spend by 9% within the first three months by managing contracts and vendors.Leadership Recognition: Served on the executive leadership team within 9 months of employment, contributing to strategic decision-making and organizational growth.These achievements highlight my ability to drive operational excellence, manage complex projects, and lead teams to achieve outstanding results.

In this subsequent leadership role, I focused on building a strong management team and optimizing operational processes to drive significant improvements. I aligned objectives to accurately achieve goals by creating an internal review structure with standardized operating procedures. Additionally, I created Lean operating schedules with our customers and as well as headed all operational planning, quarterly review conferences and sales.Some of my contributions in this role are as follows:Team Building: Sourced, interviewed, and hired a management team of 5 individuals, fostering a leadership group that effectively tackled challenges and achieved favorable results.Operational Alignment: Created an internal review structure with standardized operating procedures, ensuring alignment and goal achievement.Efficiency Improvements: Introduced Lean operating schedules and headed all operational planning, quarterly review conferences, and sales initiatives.Cost Savings: Realized rebate incentives with raw material suppliers worth $512,000 and reduced primary production line labor demand by 60% in under 60 days.Quality & Training Programs: Launched the first process quality and continuous training program, achieving 0% returned finished products within the first six months.Inventory Management: Implemented a real-time inventory system, reducing purchasing expenses, increasing turns, and lowering average days on hand from 60 to 27.Facility Relocation: Managed the seamless relocation of operations to a larger facility, handling layout, contractors, production scheduling, and customer communication.Vendor Management: Reduced overall spend by 9% within the first three months by effectively managing contracts and vendors.These accomplishments underscore my ability to lead teams, optimize operations, and achieve substantial cost savings, making me a valuable asset in any organizational setting.

Charged with expanding the organization’s nutritional ingredient offerings by researching and developing partnerships with global suppliers. Vendor management, negotiation, site and regulatory auditing, and planning for domestic and international products worldwide. Some of my contributions here were:Global Supplier Management: Established lasting relationships with suppliers from China, Japan, Israel, India, Indonesia, Europe, and the Americas, enhancing the company's supply chain.Operational Oversight: Managed the importation of up to 50 containers of ingredients per month, spanning over 2500 active ingredients through 6 different US ports of entry.Forecasting & Pricing: Developed forecasts, pricing mechanisms, and negotiated long-term contracts for commodities and specialty ingredients for U.S. customers.Auditing & Negotiations: Conducted on-site audits, negotiations, and process development research with both domestic and international supply partners.Improved overall net profit margins of 7% while investing heavily in Quality Control and Employee Development and Education programs.These experiences has equipped me with a strong foundation in materials management, supplier network development, and strategic contract negotiation, contributing significantly to the financial health and customer services levels.

Manufacturing Leadership: Directed all aspects of a manufacturing facility, increasing revenue from $7 million to $68 million with a net profitability of 14% over four years.Machinery Evaluation & Installation: Solely accountable for production machine evaluation, selection, negotiation, acceptance testing, and installation. Expanded solid dose and bulk blending operations, including bulk and sachet powder filling.Team Management: Managed a cross-functional operations team of 8 direct reports and 130 employees. Mentored department heads and evaluated their development for promotional opportunities.Operational Planning: Planned, selected, negotiated, and trained the company on production and component workflow, expanding pre and blending capacity by 64%, solid dosage by 225%, and adding sachet and packaging lines within a 40,000 square foot increase.Contract Negotiation: Negotiated raw material and component contracts, saving 2-5% annually through discounted terms, excluding rebates and performance incentives.Inventory Management: Oversaw inventory management and metrics, supplying multiple facilities at different locations, and designed a customized MRP for manufacturing planning.Process Optimization: Streamlined material picking and reconciliation processes using POP live reconciliation technology, reducing staff and cycle counting by 50%.Compliance Achievement: Led teams to achieve compliance with the National Sanitation Foundation for the Dietary Supplement Certification Program and USP Product Certification Program.My engineering and strategic planning capabilities advanced my leadership and accountability and have consistently resulted in significant operational improvements and cost savings, underscoring my ability to drive efficiency and growth in manufacturing environments.

International Training & Expertise: Trained in both standard and metric equipment design, covering electrical components, wiring, logic controllers, and chemical/fluidized systems.Machinery Proficiency: Experienced with high and low cycle speed equipment, continuous and intermittent motion systems, and various machine shop tools including lathes, presses, surface grinders, wet saws, and welders.Customer Service & Support: Managed machine troubleshooting, training, PM program creation and implementation, formulation reviews, efficiency evaluations, and SOP documentation.Presentation & Training