Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
Effective, decisive, and dynamic Strategic Leader, Board Level Procurement Expert with an established track record of directing, driving, and delivering ambitious operational success through positive engagement with stakeholders. Create and nurture collaborative supplier relationships to increase profit and working capital. Wide, varied expertise in all aspects of supply chain, warehouse and logistics, manufacturing, and product development. Strong background as a Professional Electrical and Electronics Engineer, committed to encouragement, promotion, and propagation of engineering ‘best practice’ and inclusive partnerships at all levels internally and externally. Able to engage with global suppliers and vendors both commercially and in a technical capacity. • Effective and charismatic leader, with a reputation for ‘getting things done’ on time, to specification, and within budget. Exercises sound judgement and makes informed decisions by the demonstrated ability to analyse information quickly. Highly credible and persuasive across hierarchical and cultural boundaries. • Exceptional communicator at all levels. Able to explain complex or technical information to non-technical people, and has the intellect, patience, listening and interpersonal skills to ensure successful delivery and complete understanding. • Strong team player. Consistently contributes to the success and achievement of well-led teams (and instrumental in their development), is selfless in supporting and mentoring peers and colleagues, and ‘drives from within’ to help focus on the desired collaborative result. • Creative and pragmatic problem-solver. Able to design and implement low-cost/high-value solutions to business challenges; regarded by peers, colleagues, and stakeholders as a ‘safe pair of hands’ in a crisis. Fully conversant with all manufacturing philosophies and disciplines (including - but not limited to - Lean, Agile, and QRM), and competent to adopt, adapt, and apply the most suitable to ‘get the job done’ safely and expediently without incurring additional costs or contractual penalties. • Innovative and enterprising; commercially astute but politically sensitive driver with a cooperative ‘can do’ attitude. Reputation for honesty, integrity, and transparency. Specialties: Manufacturing, Strategic Procurement, Supply Chain, Distribution Operations, Capital equipment purchase.
As a Chartered Engineer with over 25 years of commercial experience in Strategic Procurement, diwyd offers a range of procurement services to SMEs and Start-up organisations on a port-folio or consultancy basis. Working with businesses ranging from family owned manufacturers up to a FTSE 250 listed UK plc, diwyd can help organisations of any scale increase profitability and grow.
Leading an exceptional and innovative team in operations and engineering. Appointed to senior role, joining the existing team under an LDC backed MBO. Planned and implemented re-shoring of manufacturing operations from Asia. Obtained Welsh government support for inward investment thereby increasing the scope and viability of the project. Directly accountable to the Board for: • EBITDA through material, labour, and shipping costs. • Working Capital though inventory levels and supplier payment terms • Manufacturing service through product availability, lead time and delivery performance. • Product quality • Product and Process compliance. • Governance and ESG performance within supplier and in-house operations. • Full engagement with external advisers in the research and refinement of potential acquisition targets for Biozone. • Planned and implemented re-shoring of manufacturing operations from Asia. Including obtaining Welsh government support for inward investment thereby increasing the scope and viability of the project. • Adopted an engineering approach to remove cost wherever possible and to leverage the expertise of the supply chain in product development – seeking to add their experience and process knowledge to the core competencies of Biozone. • While the pandemic has required focus on securing material supply, defending price increases is also a priority. Price pressure has been minimised/avoided by a systematic approach to cost increase proposals, and the use of strong procurement contracts with fixed term and fixed price. • Outsourced electrical assembly operations to release manufacturing space and achieve cost savings. Retained control of key components through tiered purchasing and/or consignment stock ensuring high value and core components remained under the company’s control (source and cost) while transferring the responsibility for low value generic components to the outsource partner.
Created enterprise value through strategic procurement, technical and commercial engagement with suppliers, supply chain optimisation, high service distribution for the Ventilation and Climate division at Genuit Group. Activities: • Assessed and filtered potential acquisition targets. Conducted on-site visits to consider the risk and opportunities of their operations. • Successful integration of Nu-Heat into the Ventilation and Climate Division of Genuit. Including ESG programme, Quality Management System and Strategic Procurement. • Developed from within the existing management team wherever possible. Able to quickly assess individual potential and provide staged growth plans to develop any deficient areas. Provide mentoring and coaching. • Developed and appointed my successor to lead manufacturing operations within my previous role. • Reduced direct suppliers from 340 to 225. • Established Supply Chain Quality team to improve quality supplier goods and services. • Dealt with suppliers of all scales, with bases in the UK, EU, Ukraine, Turkey, Brazil and China. Experienced in sourcing electronics, UV Mercury Lamps, motors (10W–120kW), motor components (castings, bearings etc), motor-impeller assemblies and mechanical components (wire guards, plastic mouldings) and Domestic heat pumps. • Managed electronic component substitution due to obsolescence and supply shortages for over 180 printed circuit board assemblies sourced from China and the UK. • Maintained the supply of components during the COVID-19 pandemic and ensured minimal impact on customer deliveries. Resolving component shortages and shipping disruption to achieve required delivery schedules. • Initiated supplier workshops to encourage knowledge transfer from suppliers to Nuaire development engineers to drive innovation and improve product quality. • Directly controlled the internal and external audit process across Quality, H&S and Environmental areas within single PAS99 quality management system.
I led a great team who were dedicated and able. Together we continuously improved the efficiency of operations and used the reduced cost and increased capacity to grow the business. Led strategic procurement during a private equity backed MBO in 2004, part of the MBO team in a secondary buyout in 2007, before the business was sold to trade for £146m and over 14x EBITDA in 2015. • Led a manufacturing team of over 280, comprising sheet metal machine operators, assembly operatives, warehouse operatives, team leaders, production technicians, manufacturing engineers, buyers, QSHE staff, after-sales service engineers and administrators, procurement specialists and procurement engineers. • Direct responsibility for strategic procurement, purchasing, warehouse and logistics operations, quality, safety and environmental (QSHE) standards across five sites and three continents. • Optimised manufacturing operations in a wide range of economic environments with differing drivers: cost reduction, cost stability, continuity of supply, preparing for and enabling growth, rapid expansion and contraction. • Established, merged and closed manufacturing and warehousing sites following Polypipe acquisition of Nuaire - dealing with individuals and trade unions to ensure continuity of manufacturing operations. • Direct continuous improvement initiatives in warehouse and assembly operations to increase staff engagement and operational efficiency. • Specified and purchased an advanced integrated sheet metal processing plant comprising storage, punching, shearing and folding at a cost of £2.2m. The plant operates unsupervised and was crucial in achieving a step change in manufacturing output during a period of rapid growth. • Led sourcing and commissioning of high variation production line to reduce labour content of commercial heat recovery ventilation units. Reduced overall cost, shortened customer lead time and reduced training time previously needed for bench-build assembly.
Further to qualifying as an Electrical and Electronic Engineer, successfully transitioned to industry and manufacturing. Gained significant experience as a Development Engineer and subsequently moved into production. Ultimately moved up into management and later to the Senior Management Team as a Director. • Expertise in negotiation, HR (people management), project management, electronic product design, supplier relationship development, and latterly, logistics and procurement. • Successfully merged factories and manufacturing plants, e.g., rationalised manufacturing base from 3 sites to 1, and successfully handled all HR and logistics aspects of transferring operations, plant, and stock.