Vice President of Operations

Kristen Welch

New Boston, Il 309-***-**** ***********@*****.***

Operational Executive with a demonstrated record of exceeding profitability goals, turning around underperforming units and driving increased revenues and market share.

High energy leader experienced in leading multi-unit regions resulting in top performance in the categories of profit performance, revenue and market share growth and driving operational excellence. Proven successful leading/developing/motivating teams and creating a team culture across multiple departments and business units demonstrated by higher-than-average retention rates.

QUALIFICATIONS

Senior level professional with 25 years of leadership roles in operational management, continuous improvement, lean manufacturing, customer service, supply chain, distribution, and transportation with a passion for driving results

Successfully managed different businesses at varying degrees of complexity with a wide range of initiatives including:

oManaging a budget of 260 million dollars

oDirected a group of direct reports ranging from 54 to 4

oLead a business over 260 million in sales with P&L, Manufacturing and Sales responsibility

oMulti-location responsibility for 8 locations in 8 states

oHigh level change management through high impact implantation of ERP systems and TPS launch

Skilled in relationship building, conflict resolution, employee development and enhancing employee morale.

Strategic professional who deploys participative management style in fast-paced and challenging environments

Proactive Change Agent who spends time in employee environment encouraging learning and promoting increased productivity that results in value-added customer service.

Innovative and Strategic leader for problem solving, production planning, material and information flow improvements, quality improvements and cost reduction.

Versatile manager with proven success in positions through the entire network from product development, manufacturing/industrial/quality engineer, shop floor and distribution center management, continuous improvement leadership, transportation and supply chain management and General Management

Influential communicator with strong interpersonal talent in dealing with customers, leaders, and team members.

High Impact leader for business strategies by implementing positive change through communication, structured accountability, strategic planning and common-sense management.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Old Castle Building Envelope, Dallas TX 2022 – Present

The leading supplier of value-added, glazing focused products and services

Vice President of Operations for Metal Processing

Led 2 facilities (Tennessee and Texas) that supported over $500 Million in Sales, with an intercompany revenue of $261 Million

Implemented the TPS system in both plants resulting in a 16 – 24% improvement productivity in all departments, 20% Reduction in Plant downtime, 31% reduction in rework and 19% reduction in scrap

Implemented a SIOP Process which drove lead times from 14 weeks to 3 weeks and reduced past due orders by 75%. The SIOP Process also allowed us to significantly impact working capital by removing over $8 Million dollars of raw material inventory.

Implemented Stocking Strategies for WIP, Mill Stock and finished goods stock resulting in 60% production inventory and a 50% reduction in set up

Drove a scheduling initiative that resulted in an improvement in on time delivery from 35% to 93%, and facilitated standard costing

Metal Sales Manufacturing, Louisville, KY 2016 - 2022

Privately owned provider of steel panels & trim for agricultural, commercial & industrial construction with approximately 300 million in annual sales.

Regional Vice President of Operations (2018-Present)

Led 8 facilities to excel in an ERP/MRP conversion

Developed region from years of operating losses to positive earnings, delivering significant improvements every year.

Improved branch profit by 54.8% on 7% less sales than the prior year during first year in the region

Created an atmosphere of teamwork and dedication to greatness resulting in partnership between departments and branches that became the model for the organization.

Coached teams to drive to best-in-class business practices and customer engagement generating significant improvements in member engagement, customer confidence and profit.

Implemented leveraged philosophies to drive consistency and reliability while reducing costs across the regions.

Achieved significant improvements in all KPI’s for the region including efficiency, quality, cost reduction and safety.

General Manager, Rock Island, IL (8/2016 – 8/2018)

Lead a staff of 35-50 employees while managing highly seasonally volatile sales.

Fully responsible for all aspects of branch P&L, member engagement, safety, productivity, quality, and sales.

Engage with key customers and stake holders to achieve sales growth and customer confidence.

Lead changes with highly tenured work force to successfully improve team moral and implement a continuous improvement culture.

Worked on projects to affect KPI’s and P&L improvements including,

oReduction in inventory and a 20% improvement in inventory accuracy through implementation of improved ordering practices, Kanban, and cycle counting.

oReduction in scrap to achieve the lowest scrap rate of 22 branches.

oReduction in production labor costs and an improvement in lead time to the customer with the implementation of off shift production

HNI Corporation, Muscatine Iowa 12/2003 – 08/2016

HNI Corporation is the second-largest office furniture manufacturer in the world in with 2 billion revenues resulting from office segment sales.

Supply Chain Manager 2 (09/2013 – 08/2016)

Successfully managed an 80-million-dollar budget, an internal team, a third-party transportation provider, a truck fleet, and a network of carriers.

Saved over 1 million dollars per year through improved truckload optimization.

Lead continuous improvement teams to drive best in class delivery experience for our customers at best total cost, resulting in improvements in On Time Delivery, 10% Improved cost to budget and 23% efficiency improvement in load planning.

Responsible for leveraging transportation strategies across multiple companies and implementing the use of a 3rd party provider resulting in a network savings of 8 million dollars per year.

Created the strategic plan and the daily goals, metrics, and reporting capabilities to manage the transportation network with a both internal and external customers, a 3PL, a truckload fleet.

Rapid Continuous Improvement Manager (06/2009 – 09/2013)

Worked with production, distribution, and transportation to remove waste and improve customer experience resulting in an improvement in on time shipments of 20%, a reduction of unplanned demand by 15% and a 9% reduction in cycle time.

Created a cross functional team to identify and manage exceptions within the network resulting in a reduction from 4 days to 3 days for resolution and a 21% reduction in exceptions.

Coach and develop team members to create a culture of continuous improvement and problem solving.

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Science, Industrial Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA – 1996

Multi-Unit Fiscal Management/ P&L Optimization / Revenue Growth

Team Building, Recruitment, Training and Leadership

Strategic Planning and Tactical Execution

Customer Satisfaction

Change Management

Strong Interpersonal Skills

TPS Implementation

Continuous Improvement

oBusiness Process Development/ Improvement

oCost/Waste Reduction

oProductivity/Efficiency Improvement

Supplier Management

Distribution and Transportation Management

Design, Manufacturing and Quality Engineering

Contact this candidate