Plant Manager Supply Chain

John Ballard

***** * ***** *** ***** Lake, IN *6303

803-***-**** - ********@*****.*** – www.linkedin.com/in/johnfranklinballard

Plant Manager

P&L Accountability - M&A Integration – Transformational Leadership

Startup / Turnaround - Environmental Stewardship - Process Safety Management

Senior manufacturing executive with over fifteen years delivering world-class performance. Maximizes profitable revenue, sales volume, and EBITDA growth through innovation, quality improvement, capital delivery, engineering, supply chain, commercial teams, IT, and cost containment. Equally at home in start-up, turn-around, and mature organizations with scaled growth strategies. Inspires a continuous improvement culture supporting safety, quality, and operational efficiency in a collaborative manner. Encourages identification of hidden opportunities and the development of innovative solutions. Delivers successful outcomes during times of crisis, uncertainty, and unique challenges. Serves as trusted change agent and advisor to executives, management teams, and organizational partners. Develops high-performing dedicated teams focused on achieving aggressive KPI’s, goals, and objectives.

Manufacturing Competencies: Process Chemical, OTC Pharma, Composites, Plastics, Building Materials, Contract Mfg.

Behavior Based Safety Operational Excellence Lean Fundamentals Asset Reliability

Large Scale Manufacturing Project Management Synergetic Teams Capital Delivery

Career Synopsis

IKO Midwest, Kankakee, IL 3/2024 – Current

IKO is a leading manufacturer of residential and commercial roofing systems operating in North America and multiple global markets.

Plant Manager

Implemented the foundation to improve a 5-year decline in plant performance in the areas of safety, quality, and operational performance. Focused on culture development involving employee engagement and empowerment to drive positive change. Repositioned the site’s recovery path and onboarded a new senior leadership team. Reported to the Director of North American Manufacturing.

Led a team of 7 Health, Safety, & Environmental professionals in a process safety management (PSM) compliance audit, identifying 311 deficiencies relating to safety standards, hazard identification, environmental stewardship, and loss prevention with a timely remediation plan resulting in an 18% improvement in safety compliance. Implemented a “Life Critical Program” with essential permitting elements to protect the workforce in the areas of Lock/Tag/Try, Hot Work, Working at Heights, Mechanical Lifting, Confined Space, and First Line Breaks.

Solved an engrained and accepted visually unappealing packaging issue leading to an annual ~$1M in rejected customer complaints and a projected $10M in lost sales annually. Using data to support, identified root cause and implemented an automated delivery system upstream of the previously assumed cause. No capital expenditure required.

Established an Operational Excellence program incorporating a standardized daily management cadence driving KPI’s for safety, quality, efficiency, delivery, inventory, and cost. Executed daily Gemba with action accountability trackers for employee engagement, asset reliability, and SQDIC improvements.

Implemented a strategic 20% workforce expansion plan with accelerated onboarding to support IKO Midwest’s zero lead time demand created from a historic increase in severe weather specific to roof replacements.

Herff Jones, Cap & Gown Division, Champaign, IL 10/2022–3/2024

Herff Jones is the leading provider of graduation and educational products, services and solutions for countless schools, colleges, and universities in North America.

Plant Manager

Demonstrated capability for a successful plant turnaround after a covid induced business collapse due to cancelled graduation ceremonies. Stabilized the business by controlling cost, demonstrating excellent on time delivery, and created a “one team” culture to help gain customer confidence. Repositioned the plant trajectory to support a private equity divesture.

Onboarded a safety professional and implemented a participative safety program with a well-defined roadmap for compliance and employee safety. Redefined the overall plant culture to win through trust and compassion established through safety and first responder improvements. Established safety metrics and expectations that were previously non-existent.

Increased EBITDA in 1st year by $9M offsetting a 10% reduction in volume. Implemented aggressive cost controls, applied effective labor strategy, and flattened the site organizational structure.

Created a flexible direct labor manufacturing workforce to align with demand, which reduced headcount by 12% using a pay for skills training strategy while adding a planning function to create an attainable schedule with no overtime required in peak season.

Championed a $2M annual loss recovery project with capital investment into RFID technology and tokenization to automatically enable chargeback to customers failing to return rental gowns.

ITW Hi-Cone, Specialty Products Division, Charleston, IL 1/2020–10/2022

A leading global supplier of plastic ring carrier multi-packaging systems for the beer and non-alcoholic ready-to-drink beverage markets providing sustainable secondary packaging solutions to major consumer packaged goods companies.

Plant Manager

Led safety, quality, HR, continuous improvement, engineering, warehouse, and maintenance functions with six direct reports. Utilized lean problem-solving methodologies to deliver operational excellence utilizing lean methodologies. Managed $2.5 million capital delivery spend to support a circular economy initiative by transitioning all raw materials to use post-consumable recycled resin. Reported to Global Operations Director.

Supported a $15 million increase in domestic sales and sustained a 7% share within the company’s secondary packaging market segment by coordinating strategy with sales, customer service, and operations to outperform competitor’s response to the demand explosion brought on by the pandemic.

Expanded workforce 30% to meet unprecedented demand and transitioned from 24/5 to a 24/7 operation by adding a fourth shift.

Achieved an 18% annual product capacity increase by streamlining a $2.6 million conversion of two underperforming assets to remedy a capacity constraint on specialty SKUs.

Reduced costs 13%, by redefining standard work allowing for one operator to operate two presses instead of one. This enabled a reduction of eight headcounts with no change in output in extrusion and punch press operations.

Recognized for achieving one full year with zero OSHA recordable or lost time safety incidents.

Owens Corning, Composites Division, Aiken, SC 10/2018–1/2020

The world's largest manufacturer of fiberglass composites; developing and producing insulation, roofing, fiberglass composites, and related materials and products.

Operations Manager

Directed operations, engineering, and maintenance teams of 250 employees with six direct reports. Managed a 400,000 square-foot production facility with $755 million annual revenue producing glass fiber reinforcement for composite materials. Led and prioritized efforts supporting a 24/7 schedule focused on employee safety, product quality, yield increases, and asset reliability. Acted as technical consultant during planning of a $150 million fiberglass mat line brownfield startup. Reported to the Global Composites Operations Leader.

Delivered a $1.4 million annualized margin improvement by solving the largest first-pass yield loss from edge trim. With that improvement was able to capture $825,000 annualized savings by eliminating trim waste on parent rolls within the coating process.

Reduced product return costs $600,000 by installing a robust quality control process and applying inline vision inspection to address difficulties detecting chemical curing defects.

Achieved 4% reduction in recovery times for an annualized savings of $180,000 by leading Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) autonomous maintenance pillar and applying decision trees used during the recovery of mat line upset conditions.

KIK Custom Products CBI Laboratories, Fort Worth, TX 1/2017-10/2018

A leading North American manufacturing partner and formulator for personal care, prestige beauty, over the counter, and household products.

General Manager

Transformational leader with full P&L responsibility for manufacturing FDA-compliant OTC pharmaceuticals including sunscreen, skincare, and depilatories. Fashioned and led a winning leadership team of nine Directors and Managers resulting in a profitable FDA compliant facility of 200 employees. Managed a $150 million budget while completing CBI integration within six months of new divisional acquisition. Reported to the VP, Prestige Beauty division,

Obtained $700,000 annualized savings by repositioning private label business and fulfillment operation by producing top 20% most profitable SKUs. Transitioned inside sales to online purchase only, eliminating commissioned sales and fulfillment overhead.

Improved contribution margin 20% within 18 months while reducing variable costs 22% by eliminating unprofitable SKUs and re-costing 100% of contracted customer labeled products.

Added $6 million in EBITDA growth-to-plan with an annualized $25 million after full onboarding of product line by reverse engineering customer formulas produced in China, with ingredients available in the US with no impact on performance.

Remediated three FDA 483 violations incurred with previous ownership enabling continued production of OTC pharmaceuticals.

Earned the Presidential HESS award for exemplary performance and progress towards health, environmental stewardship, and safety. Implemented a safety program at acquisition that aligned with OSHA requirements and KIK standards of excellence.

KIK Custom Products Marietta, Chicago, IL 5/2015-2/2017

A leading North American manufacturing partner and formulator for personal care, prestige beauty, over the counter, and household products.

Plant Manager

Reporting to the VP of Custom Products, led and directed a team of seven direct reports supporting an operational workforce of 120 employees with English as their second language. Integrated new site acquisition as an added portfolio component of the leading contract manufacturer of home care products in North America. Positioned the site for capacity expansion with a new product line to provide EBITDA growth with existing assets. Employed lean manufacturing concepts with innovative engineering solutions to increase profitability. Turned around a defeated workforce by providing an enthusiastic and achievable vision with a clear path of deliverables.

Achieved $25 million favorable to EBITDA target in year one turnaround. Expanded capacity by 20% with new product line installation while applying in lining by modifying two product line configurations supporting a 30% headcount reduction.

Drove $7 million revenue gain and shared $400,000 cost reduction with an existing customer by improving throughput of two production filling lines 30%, acquiring two cost-free higher speed bottle fillers from an idle sister company, and replacing slower units.

Accomplished a 20% indirect headcount reduction with no loss of customer satisfaction by aligning business functions to new JDE ERP system integration and corporate shared services.

Delivered zero RIR and zero environmental violations in the first year of acquisition by creating an EH&S program to support OSHA-required training, environmental reporting, and an employee-led safety team that encouraged a culture of behavior-based safety.

Johns Manville, Hazleton, PA 10/2013–5/2015 Leading manufacturer and marketer of premium-quality products for building insulation, mechanical insulation, commercial roofing and roof insulation, fibers, and nonwovens for commercial, industrial, and residential applications.

Plant Manager, Commercial Roofing Division

Reported to the Director of Operations. Focused on improving a facility with high turnover, unfavorable fiscal position, and poor safety history. Developed a new leadership team, established cost controls, assigned aggressive process metrics, and instilled safety focus expectations while leading 180 employees. Directed multi-site operations of a 100,000 square-foot Poly / ISO chemical manufacturing facility and 150,000 square-foot distribution warehouse with a specialized private transportation fleet. Led the execution and control of $2.4 million in capital project spending.

Fiberteq, LLC (JV Owens Corning/IKO Industries), Danville, IL 3/2001-10/2013

A world class manufacturer of fiberglass material and products.

Engineering Leader

Led Greenfield project as an integral member of the senior leadership team constructing a $70 million fiberglass manufacturing plant. Established a culture of collaborative employee engagement, a behavior-based safety environment, and a continuous improvement mindset that challenged baseline expectations. Reported to the Plant Manager.

Early engineering career with Cadillac Products Automotive Company, Paris, IL, and Devro-Teepak, Danville, IL

Education, Certification, Awards, Training, & Technical Proficiencies

Education: Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN

Bachelor of Science, Electronic & Computer Engineering

Certification: CMRP- Certified Maintenance & Reliability Professional

Awards: KIK Presidential Health, Environmental Stewardship and Safety Award

Specialized Training: Leadership Development Program; Crucial Conversations, Project Management; Total Productive Manufacturing, Lean Management, OSHA 1910 General Industry Guidelines, OSHA 30, Psychology of Safety, Behavior Based Safety, Heightening Hazard Awareness, Accident Investigations, ISO 14001 EMS, Cause Mapping, Root Cause Analysis, Reliability Excellence for Managers

Technical Proficiency: Zoom, Teams, Google Suite: Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides; MS Office Suite: Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word

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