STEVE J FORST

773-***-**** Chicago, IL ade9bb@r.postjobfree.com linkedin.com/in/steve-forst

OPERATIONS DIRECTOR

Skilled at leading Building Management Systems, Smart Spaces and Energy Services projects.

An accomplished operations professional with extensive experience and a track record of leading cross-functional teams to implement Mechanical, Smart Space and Performance Infrastructure solutions for major and mid-market USA client sites. Proven operations and sales support leader that works across functions, thinks critically and excels as a trusted business partner to provide attractive ROI.

CORE COMPETENCIES

Project Management Building Automation Building Management Systems Equipment Operations HVAC Controls Customer Service Energy Services Smart Space Systems Order Management Sales & Ops Planning (S&OP) Continuous Improvement (CI) Lean/Kaizen/Six Sigma Sales Support

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

AFFILIATED SERVICE – Elmhurst, IL

Operations Director Jan-2020 - present

Provide sales and operations leadership to maintain business performance related to pricing, trade working capital, technician utilization and employee brand certifications. Leverage social media platforms and a web presence to improve the visibility of company capabilities. Completed initiatives linked to the following goals.

Deployed simPRO Field Service to 100% of the office and field employees.

Improved labor utilization by 14%.

Reduced Service job slippage by 3 points of margin.

Improved Applied Equipment Startup Process Rolled Throughput Yield by 56%.

Completed the Define, Measure and Analyze phases of a multi company ERP upgrade opportunity which is projected to impact key sales and operations metrics by an average of 47% if fully implemented.

JOHNSON CONTROLS – Milwaukee, WI

Commercial Program Manager Mar 2018 – Sep 2019

Acted as a liaison between customer test sites and the product development team, and supported other building management departments as needed. The role also involved sales and operations support for the National Accounts branch and co-managing a pipeline of 5 M USD.

Led the successful completion of 5 Smart Space pilot installations at the Johnson Controls headquarter campus and customer sites for Eaton & Cree.

Served as the Area Installation Manager for our National Accounts branch and successfully completed new application pilot installations for 12 customer sites using Metasys and Verasys products in retail markets.

Demand Planning/Customer Service Director Jan 2015 – Feb 2018

Maintained key Customer Service metrics including time to resolve and clean order processing rate by working with Customer Service Center Managers. Maintained finished good forecasting accuracy with Demand Planning Manager. Key metrics were to improve department Employee Engagement and Leader Effectiveness scores. The teams supported order management activities for 6 North American production facilities.

Led teams responsible for HVAC Controls/Equipment Sales and Operations Planning, Customer Service and Order Management.

Led a team Action Plan that improved Employee Engagement and Leader Effectiveness scores an average of 18%/year over a 3 year period.

Managed forecast error to 12.6 % MAPE.

Improved and maintained the clean order processing rate for more than 31 K orders to 98.9% of service level requirements in 2017.

Led the migration of our Industrial Refrigeration order management process from a semi-automated heavy order processing rep touch point process to a lean/standard work flow that uses the Interactive Business System and Oracle Order Management infrastructure to reduce process time and time to source to the factory by 45% and 30% respectively.

Demand Planning Manager Feb 2011 – Dec 2014

Maintained Finished Good forecast accuracy and worked with Supply Planning Manager to manage downstream component forecast error. Worked with Demand Planner/Commercial Lead on Sales and Ops Planning (S&OP) process. Hosted the monthly S&OP meetings for a 420 M USD annual business.

Led HVAC Controls and Equipment S&OP activities for the Product Business Units serving global channels.

Managed demand to < 25% MAPE during this period with a focus on Forecast Value Added.

Six Sigma Black Belt/Master Black Belt (MBB) Jan 2000 – Feb 2011

Managed Systems North America Installation Continuous Improvement (CI) program. Acted as manager for Black Belts assigned to the global Systems Installation team. Managed a 9 M USD CI backlog while serving as a Six Sigma Champion. Conducted CI training sessions as required.

Completed 66 HVAC Installation Sales/Operations and Transactional Six Sigma improvement/design projects with an average annual CI impact of 1.5 M USD.

Six Sigma Black/MBB and Champion certifications were issued through the Johnson Controls Leadership Institute. Certification projects focused on +70% defect reduction in process metrics linked to Working Capital management and significant improvement to the Rolled Throughput Yield at our Shared Services Center.

Provided valuable market and technical input to the Product Management team for development of the Johnson Controls networked room controllers that, when released to sales, became a significant portion of the HVAC Product Business Unit portfolio.

Prior Role includes:

Project Engineer and Manager

EDUCATION

Lake Forest Graduate School of Management – Chicago, IL – Management MBA

University of Wisconsin (UW)-Stout – Menomonie, WI - BS – Industrial Technology

Graduate of JCI Supply Chain Excellence and Johnson Control Leadership Edge Programs

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