Senior Project Director

THOMAS J. SMITH SENIOR PROJECT DIRECTOR

*** **** **** ********** *** CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Meyersville, NJ 07933 MATRIX MANAGMENT – MULTI-PROJECTS

Tel: 908-***-**** MANUFACTURING – ENGINEERING

Fax: 908-***-**** DAY TO DAY OPERATIONS

Email: ***@*****.*** TRAINING – TEAM BUILDING – QUALITY

I am known for managing all types of projects from product development and design through sales support and service. Financially astute, I direct the entire budget process and provide complete due diligence by extensive analyses of project parameters. Team performance substantially improves under my guidance and direction. My ability to see the whole picture transcends any one product, process or manufacturing operation. My reputation has been earned by consistently producing results, not excuses.

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An exceptional bottom-line and technically oriented manufacturing manager with a comprehensive knowledge of the P&L and how day-to-day operations affect it. Directs functional activities in manufacturing project environments. A manager who consistently designs and implements revenue enhancing strategies, creates capital, and delivers higher than expected returns on equity and investment.

Areas of Expertise

Project Management including project P&L responsibility, product development, planning and management, responsibility for and hands-on competence in all areas below.

Financial Management including budgeting, financial and risk control, contract negotiations, project reporting and information system requirements to ensure tie-in to corporate goals.

Operations Management including systems and methods, quality, safety and scheduling management.

BUSINESS EXPERIENCE

Project Director ZEB Staples, Hillside, NJ

2004 to Present Specialty and Industrial Staples Manufacturer

Directed all internal corporate projects.

• Responded to 55% increase in wire raw material (the company’s major RM) by improving productivity about 15%, using targeted price increases, and improving wire purchases with smarter buying and larger packages. Result – wire purchases actually reduced as a percentage of sales.

• Another spike in wire costs forced us to consider other options. Ran a successful project to utilize round wire instead of flat wire, reducing wire costs by 35% and wire SKUs by 50%.

• 2005 saw a major domestic competitor cut a link out of the supply chain thus reducing their prices by 35%. Preparing a marketing approach on features and benefits instead of price, we kept defections to only 14%. With the gain of a few new customers, that loss of sales was reduced to 11%.

• To build marketplace awareness, joined two trade associations, designed and acquired a booth exhibit, and exhibited as these two association’s trade shows in late 2005. Result was increased business with existing customers and brought on enough new customers to achieve a 6 month payout.

• To improve service levels and more effectively compete, analyzed sales patterns and increased selected product inventories while reducing others. Result is that on time shipments rose from 60% to 95% while reducing total inventory by over 10%.

• Forced to move (eminent domain), planned and executed a move to Hillside that resulted in improved workflows and therefore efficiencies in all departments. Negotiated with landlord and received the entire move and re-fit cost. Productivity up another 18% in the new operation.

• To understand detailed product costs, developed a cost analysis system and determined costs on 900 products, resulting in granular profit margin analysis by product and some necessary price increases. This method also developed into a strong quote generation tool, which enables detailed analysis in minutes instead of days before this method. This also has greatly improved customer service.

Director, Finance & Ventures Voltaix, Inc., Branchburg, NJ

2000 to 2003 Specialty chemicals manufacturing

Directed all operations incl Finance, Acctg, Purch, IT, HR, QC, Sales, Mfg, Marketing and Bus Dev.

• To improve distribution and overall sales, found, courted, and signed 3 strategic partners, refocused marketing effort from distributor to end-user, creating product pull; strengthened distributor relationships while enhancing end-users’ awareness of products, resulting in 50% sales increase in the first 24 months.

• To reduce late deliveries, reorganized workflows and eliminated data entry duplication by implementing an ERP system, reducing late deliveries by 85%, and improving capacity by 30% w/ no increase in staff.

• To improve financial reporting, worked with Controller on standardizing and integrating monthly close methods, resulting in a 75% reduction in monthly close times.

• To improve the corporate focus on Development ROI, reorganized the company's R&D expenditures to a revenue priority basis by developing weighted analysis methods and project management gates, thus enhancing the company's ability to increase revenue and cash flow thereby paying for additional R&D.

• To expand and integrate quality methods throughout the organization, redesigned ISO-9001 implementation program to the 2000 standard, resulting in certification within 9 months.

• To expand via acquisition, researched, targeted, developed contacts at many companies, evaluated and bid on 4 (one at $72 million), but management decided to conserve capital and did not move forward.

• Specified, procured, and upgraded software, servers, and IT security systems. Created internal buddy training programs to assist less literate users with software use.

Technical Project Director (external) Focused Solutions Group, Inc., Gillette, NJ

1998 to 2000 Manufacturing and technical management consulting

Directed and managed outside professionals, coordinated efforts with clients and suppliers, developed Sales and Marketing strategy, approved contracts and performance warranties, and recommended policies to achieve corporate and consulting network growth.

• To improve profitability, business reviews at two unprofitable companies resulted in recommendations for operating changes that, when implemented, turned both operations around within 6 months.

Operations Project Director (internal and external) CSM Systems, Inc., Mountainside, NJ

1988 to 1998 Capital equipment and parts manufacturing

Directed and managed productivity of all operations, including Facilities, Manufacturing, Quality, Engineering, Service, Project Management, Design and Development.

• To accelerate growth, analyzed and refocused product development and marketing efforts and introduced new technologies, achieving over $40 million in higher margin new product sales and services.

• To increase available working capital, arranged asset-based credit line utilizing receivables and inventory financing, resulting in an additional $2 million of working capital availability.

• To improve productivity, restructured eng’g, prod, & ops into cross functional teams with start-to-finish responsibility. Selected, implemented MRP. Productivity doubled during period of 250% sales growth.

• To slash delivery times, reorganized planning and purchasing processes, with structured project mgmt techniques. Improved on time shipments from 60 to 97% while reducing lead times from 16 to 12 wks.

Project Manager 1981 to1988 BASF (Engelhard), Edison, NJ

Process Engineer 1976 to 1981 Rhodia, Inc. (Colloids), Newark, NJ

EDUCATION 1980 – BS Chemical Engineering – NJ Institute of Technology

AFFILIATIONS NJ Tooling & Mfg Assoc. (Board), NJBIA (Mfg Council), AIChE, ChemPharma

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