Multi-Plant Contract Manufacturer

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Situation – the poorly setup material management infrastructure had completely collapsed, essentially shutting down production at both the San Diego and Mexico plants; with almost no shipments at the $40 mil/year, 300 employee company for over 3 weeks.  Experienced managers had resigned.  The lead investor’s $12 million was seriously at risk.

Actions Taken – worked as the new CEO’s “right hand, launching multiple, concurrent initiatives to quickly create a fully functional material management infrastructure, including:

·         Secured a new,  10,000 sq ft warehouse nearby, operational in less than 3 weeks

·         Setup daily two-way truck shipments to/from warehouse & Mexico plant.

·         Drove IT infrastructure with upgraded servers, digital lines, routers to tie all 3 facilities together.

·         Implemented all base ERP modules (except financials); go-live was 6 weeks after project start, with a new package; all modules live in 12 weeks.

·         Re-structured material management organization at both plants, including training of staff in the new methods and software.

·         Implemented Master Production Scheduling and other best practice methods to get control of demand for purchased material, mesh with customer requirements, and better prioritize production schedules.

Results – relatively stable production was restored, highlights:

·         Limited shipments re-started within 2 weeks, stable operations and shipments within 2 months.

·         Organization was stable within 4 months, under the new material management team, daily shipments, ERP system, and best practice pro

·         Lead investor’s $12 million was protected.  Company later was sold for $30 million.