Finance Manager Commercial Sales

***********@*****.*** ***.***.Richard **** Shelby G. Twp, Kline MI 48315 https://www.linkedin.com/ in/richard-kline-4b3026b/

Objective:

Immediate, full time employment in a mid or senior level reporting sales role with opportunities to advance. I am willing to travel or hybrid relocate as necessary. I am seeking a challenging role that will put all my talent, experience and resolve to work. I am seeking the employer that has a clear strategy for growth and a challenging product or service to promote and sell.

I will lead and improve performance and culture. I will excel at building teams, relationships and alliances. I will behave ethically, with urgency, mental agility and expertise.

I will have an opportunity to mentor others and be mentored. I will have the opportunity to lead and grow in the organization.

Career Summary

Adient/Johnson Controls

6/16-9/22: Commercial sales and finance for seats and overhead systems. 8/10-5/16: Commercial sales and finance for seat trim assemblies. 10/04-8/10: Commercial sales and finance for metals and mechanisms assemblies. 2/01-10/04: Commercial sales and finance for seats and interiors. 1/99-2/01: Manager of continuous improvement and value engineering for seats. 2/90-1/99: Manager of product finance for seat trim assemblies. 2/87-1/90: Manufacturing process technician bonded seat assembly. Adient, Automotive Experience - Plymouth, MI

Sales Jeep Cherokee, Ram Truck Seating, Dodge Challenger Overhead System 6/2016 – 9/2022

I managed programs with annual sales of over 500 million dollars. I led the programs to 2% growth in yearly annual sales and converted that to profitable earnings by strategically quoting new business and negotiating favorable outcomes to engineering changes and enriched mix and volume requirements. My responsibility included the commercial sales of the integrated seats and overhead systems and all of the related components pre award through the end of life cycle. I quoted and negotiated development, testing, tooling, capital and the cost of parts, labor and burden, packaging and freight with efficiency and precision. I drove the business by taking responsibility well beyond my role to ensure a successful outcome and I drove results through my knowledge and behaviors. I routinely met with OEM customers, cross functional teams and suppliers to expediently and expertly resolve commercial issues. I used impactful speaking, listening and presentation skills I developed in Toastmasters to communicate effectively.

I was commercial lead on all change management resolution. I took ownership and leadership of the costing and pricing of each of these highly complex commodities. My expertise and leadership was integral and central to developing business cases and negotiating the favorable outcome directly.

• I was the key account manager for the award, development and production of the 2018 Ram seating program. During that launch and the production cycle I was responsible for quoting and negotiating all of the content, changes and commercial issues to resolution. My role as a single salesforce on these programs included representing our JV assembly plant and all directed and controlled suppliers in the integrated system. I built lasting credibility and a network of trust by diligent and resourceful effort, expertise and ingenuity. I improved profit margins repeatedly by using sales, costing and continuous improvement talent to identify opportunities and risks throughout the development and change process.

• I was successful in recovering the cost of millions of dollars in overtime and premium freight expenses annually for the entire supply chain. tracking, audit and recovery across multiple programs and causes.

• I developed and presented burden and rate analysis to justify and recover costs to our assembly operations incurred due to shift, rate and mix changes. This was contentious and was resolved successfully.

• I successfully recovered from the OEM millions of dollars in obsolescence costs related to a program cancellation.

Trim Product Finance Manager - Chrysler, Honda, Nissan, General Motors, and Mercedes 8/2010 – 5/2016

This was a frequent customer facing role and my responsibility included the quoting of new business as well as engineering changes for the soft and hard trim seat cover components that Adient and it’s joint ventures supplied. My role was to analyze the product through drawings and samples and quote the business for optimum material yield, labor time and equipment allocation. In this capacity I was able to improve the cutting efficiency and material cost of our operations. I assisted purchasing in developing targets for supplier awards, advised the design, engineering and sales teams of risks and opportunities to address cost or manufacturing concerns.

I conducted rate studies on cut and sew plants, identifying and allocating each of the key labor and burden cost drivers by work cell. This annual analysis led to improvements in manufacturing, driving efficiency up and cost down. I was successful because I paid attention to details and made sure I understood costs for each material and conversion processes required to fabricate the trim cover components and final assembly. I was able to guide the sales team to quote the business accurately and favorably by sharing my insights and analysis. The costing database I had developed in the 1990’s was still in use and I continued to make improvements to it and use it expertly.

• Chairman’s award earned for my role on a team that won business on the Chrysler Dart program.

• Chairman’s award earned for my role on a team that improved cost on the Honda Pilot program. My involvement in costing identified an opportunity that reduced the design complexity of the trim and resulted in a higher material yield and lowered the cut and sew labor.

• I was key member of a six sigma team that developed and tested cost models for plastic extrusions used to tie down trim and for the lamination processes used to adhere foam to fabric/vinyl/leather.

• I was a key member of a team that developed a model for comparing the cost competitiveness of die cutting to numerical control knife cutting of trim fabric/ foam composites.

Metals and Mechanisms Product Finance Manager - Chrysler, Toyota and Hyundai 10/2004 – 8/2010

This was an infrequent customer facing role. I did meet often with manufacturers and suppliers. My responsibility was to develop ground-up costs for the metal structures and mechanisms from initial design through post launch. The result of this analysis was the standard labor and material cost and for the planning of capital deployment and tooling expense. I researched, built and tested cost models using activity based costing principles to quote more accurately. My role was to analyze the product and set targets by utilizing drawings and sample parts to understand the materials, processing, tooling and capital costs for any of a number of JIT metals operations.

I routinely generated quotes with detailed breakdowns of cost for progressive and transfer stampings, tubes, wires, mechanisms, machined and cold headed fasteners, gas and resistance welded assemblies.

I came into this role knowing it was a weakness in my core knowledge of seats and I had a strong desire to master it. I stayed in this role longer than I expected, in order to gain the foothold knowledge i would need to be successful in complete seat sales or any tangential industry.

• I was lead in quoting a 250 million dollar takeover of metals business from our competitor. I worked with internal teams, suppliers and OEM customer to develop a cost and transfer price that ensured a profitable enterprise.

• I provided sourcing analysis and recommendations to our purchasing team based on our cost to make vs the cost to buy for any metal assembly. I developed and utilized a side by side comparison model to isolate the costs and provide clarity to the sourcing board.

• I was the author and researcher of a rate study for a unique JCI facility which operated as a fully integrated JIT component and seat fabricator for one OEM. The plant produced metal structure, foam, injection molding, and seat/door assembly operations all in one facility. The study was lengthy and complex and yielded a detailed breakdown. The study further enabled us to have a data driven discussion on cost of an operation.. In ABC terms both internally and with the OEM customer.

• Earned chairmans awards for my role with Toyota and Chrysler launches. Additional Relevant Experience

Account Finance Manager for Chrysler and Nissan Vehicle Interior Products

(2001-2004)

• Customer facing for Pathfinder, Frontier, Grand Cherokee seating programs.

• Customer facing for Chrysler RS and Pacifica overhead systems, hard trim and doors.

• Sales and profits increased with negotiation of additional content.

• Recipient of two chairmans awards during this tenure. Value Analysis Finance Manager for Soft Trim Systems (1999-2001)

• Led a team in the development of new patents, best practices, new processes and materials.

• Recipient of 3 chairmans awards during this tenure. Department Finance Manager for Soft Trim Systems (1990 - 1999)

• Led a team of analysts in quoting all of the new and current trim cover business.

• Developed and launched a sophisticated global database to replace an Excel quoting model.

• Recipient of 5 chairmans awards during this tenure. Manufacturing, technician for UNITRIM system development (1987-1990)

• Manufacturing team member of a bonded seat system, where I learned early, first hand about scrap and process improvement.

Professional Development

International Toastmasters. Former President of Tier 1 Talkers Toastmasters Chapter.

Trained in financial and workplace ethics compliance including, internal financial control measures, Sarbanes Oxley and anti-trust and trade law requirements. Six Sigma trained Former member of IPSA/SCEA (International Parametric Society of Analysts and Society of Cost Estimating and Analysis) Education

Bachelor of Arts (BA) – Ferris State University, Big Rapids, MI Personal

I am a husband and father of three boys, my wife Kristy and I have been married 30 years.

Some of my hobbies are hunting, fishing, photography, snowboarding, mountain biking and reading for knowledge and pleasure.

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