Customer Service Project

STAN KIRKWOOD

**** ********* **. **********, ** 48182 Email: *********@*****.*** Telephone: 734-***-****

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Leadership: Develops a loyal, world-class organization by encouraging teamwork, decision

making, training, and communication. Reputation for integrity, creativity, initiative and preparation.

Operates from principles. Uses a Performance Management approach to maximize staff

contributions.

Strategy: Has substantial experience in strategic planning. Understands the importance of having

the organization working together to achieve agreed upon goals and objectives. Participated in

strategic planning at all levels of the organization. Co-developed a unique process to create

executable strategic plans based upon business design and also familiar with planning processes

used by DuPont and Kepner-Tregoe.

Project Management: Created Corporate Project Management department to implement practices

throughout the corporation. Use PMBOK as basis for creating in-house PM methodology. Had five

project managers receive their PMP certification. Was project manager for: La-Z-Boy’s first

Cellular Manufacturing project; Shop Floor Tracking project; Customer Service Redesign project;

Hammary Conversion project, Production Scheduling project, and Landed Freight project.

Business Process: Has extensive experience redesigning processes throughout the corporation.

Has a deep understanding of the importance of processes and how technology and process

engineering must work closely together. Past experiences include: master production scheduling,

order fulfillment, supply chain management, logistics, manufacturing execution systems, warehouse

management, customer service, and finance.

EXPERIENCE

2004-Present BUSINESS DESIGN CONCEPTS, LLC Temperance, MI

Senior Partner

Business Design Concepts (BDC) is a professional services firm focused on improving the performance

of business entities through design. BDC uses a proprietary system to assess the performance

capabilities of any business entity (corporations, single business units and IT departments) and

redesigns those entities to meet the goals of our clients. From that initiative comes strategic plans that

can be executed.

Significant accomplishments:

• Developed a unique approach (Metrics Based Alignment) to designing businesses to achieve their

desired results. Patent is pending on the MBA system.

• Worked with client to increase incoming order rate by 55% in one year.

• Two different clients achieved fourth year profit goals in first year.

• Led project to control client’s SG&A by redesigning Back Office support processes. Eliminated non-

value added work of key office staff through the redesigning of existing processes.

• Assisted client in growing business 85% in two years without any IT investments.

• Developed and led Webinar on ‘Aligning IT with the Organization’.

• Developed and led Webinar on ‘The Impact of Design on Business Performance’.

2000-2004 LA-Z-BOY INCORPORATED Monroe, MI

Vice President and Corporate Chief Information Officer

Provided centralized and shared services in a rapidly growing $2.2 billion dollar corporation to 14

business units in the United States and Canada. Designed the IT department to be customer focused.

Reduced the cost of technology while increasing the quality of services. Shifted corporate direction

away from autonomous units to one of more integration and designed Corporate IT to support the new

enterprise.

Significant accomplishments:

Designed and created the Corporate Information Technology department to provide centralized

consulting, implementation, management and monitoring services with annual budget of $18 million.

Created strategic plans for the new Corporate IT department and worked with each IT Director to

create a strategic plan for their sub-department.

Selected to be a member of Executive Leadership Team – top 8 executives in corporation. Worked

at strategic level to address corporate-wide challenges.

Implemented full suite of JDEdwards ERP in one division. Implemented Lawson HR system across

five business units. Used strict project management and clear definition of responsibilities with

internal and external resources.

Drove technology standards across the corporation through the use of Enterprise Architecture

Planning (EAP) which lowered support costs and increased capability to conduct corporate-wide

communications, including Supply Chain Management initiatives.

Increased the level of IT service while reducing Corporate Information costs by 8% through the

constant improvement of processes and strict project management practices.

Created shared services for application development and support, centralized EDI, and the

development and hosting of web sites which saves the corporation in excess of $150,000 annually.

Used Project Management to control time and budget of projects taking longer than 2 weeks.

Worked with business units to develop business continuity and disaster recovery plans.

Participated in negotiating large software and outsourcing contracts.

Used Performance Management to establish goals and objectives at each level of the IT department

and to hold each person accountable.

Documented design of each critical IT process to eliminate waste and improve IT service levels.

1985 - 2000 LA-Z-BOY RESIDENTIAL DIVISION

1997 – 2000 Vice President and Chief Information Officer

Worked closely with business unit senior management and customers to understand their needs and to

manage their expectations. Completely redesigned the IT department to support strategic direction of

the division. Managed staff of 130+ to support local office and 9 remote locations. Annual budget of

$15 million.

Significant accomplishments:

Was responsible for all IT services within the La-Z-Boy division. This included: System

Programming, Data Base Management, Application Development and Support, Technical

Communications, and Support Desk.

Co-created an operational lead team consisting of all company department heads to create strategic

plans for La-Z-Boy’s largest division. Met quarterly to update and monitor the plan.

Created Project Management (PM) department to better control resources, time and costs of

projects. Created in-house PM methodology to complete projects on time and within budget.

Created Business Engineering department to reengineer processes within the division. Designed a

new process to integrate strategic management with process design and improve project

prioritization.

Created strategic plans for the IT department as a whole and for each area of the department.

Drove eCommerce initiatives with suppliers and retailers to decrease lead times and reduce costs.

Created Performance Management approach adopted by the HR department for the entire

organization. Clear goals, strategies, key performance indicators and deadlines focus the

department on what is important.

1994 - 1997 Internal Consultant (Strategies and Processes)

Identified and resolved root causes for problems identified by CFO and his staff. Also selected to

participate in strategic planning efforts at the corporate level.

Significant accomplishments:

One of only 16 people selected to develop the first corporate strategic plan. Used the DuPont

methodology.

Designed and led implementation of a Shop Floor Tracking system to improve operations controls

while increasing customer service through availability of more timely information. This system was

deployed throughout all nine LZB manufacturing sites.

Successfully led the design and implementation of a ‘lean manufacturing’ process for upholstered

products to improve quality while reducing lead times and inventory levels. The new process

significantly reduced quality problems.

Successfully managed project to integrate one division into LZB’s systems. Was the fifth project

manager assigned to the task. Overcame reservations of division’s management team by

developing trust and through constant communication.

1989 - 1994 Special Projects Manager

Reported to VP of IT and was essentially the liaison between IT and the operations / manufacturing

function.

Significant accomplishments:

Part of five-person team to create strategic plans for manufacturing function (over 7,000 employees).

This responsibility lasted for all five years and was an ongoing effort, not just an annual activity.

Led the creation and implementation of a shipping and production scheduling application which

allowed LZB to reduce its lead times from 8 weeks to 3 weeks while reducing shipping costs by 15%.

Completed design, coding, testing, training and implementation of this system at nine facilities, in

less than one year. This application remains unchanged and is still a La-Z-Boy competitive

advantage.

Reengineered numerous processes, primarily manufacturing. The greatest opportunities existed on

the shop floor where costs were reduced and throughput was increased. Project management was

vital for successful completion of initiatives.

1985.1988 Senior Systems Analyst

Brought in as a specialist to focus on troubled IT applications.

Rescued a piecework incentive HR/payroll program that had been floundering for nearly two years.

Rewrote entire application and installed it at all nine LZB facilities.

Installed new manufacturing modules (COPICS) and helped to deploy them in the back office as well

as on the shop floor.

Participated as the representative of La-Z-Boy on a project team comprised of outside consultants to

reorganize the Customer Service function. Designed, wrote and implemented a customized system

to automate many manual processes.

Other IT-related experience:

1983 – 1985 SYSTEMS LIVE Consultant Crystal Lake, IL

SPRINT Systems Analyst Burlingame, CA

1980 – 1983

EDUCATION

THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA Chapel Hill, NC

KENAN-FLAGLER BUSINESS SCHOOL

Master of Business Administration

CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA California, PA

Bachelor of Arts

ADDITIONAL

CPIM Certification (Manufacturing-related) APICS

Business Process Reengineering (BPR) Certification Mountain Home Training and Consulting

Project Management University of Toledo

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