Amphoe Pluak Daeng, Rayong, Thailand
MBA and 25+ Years experienced Asia Regional P&L Owner of Tier 1 automotive company with extensive experience as ‘Regional COO’ in the Tier 1 Automotive Industry with time spent in both the UK (10+ years) and Asia (15+ years). Responsible for leading pan Asia customer and partner relationships; development and execution of Asian growth strategy; business development & acquisition and general management of 24 plant/3 tech center operation of ~7000 team members. Deep background in Multiple Site wholly owned operations management, footprint planning, vertical integration, wholly owned & joint venture management, operations strategic & tactical planning. Experienced in joint venture set up, restructuring joint ventures and transforming business models from joint ventures to wholly owned entities.
Overall lead for Adient Asia (ex-China) business with full P&L responsibility covering Japan, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, India and Indonesia business across 24 manufacturing locations, 3 supporting technical centers and an overall ~7000 headcount business. Responsible for Asia business development, partner and customer relationship, operations (including manufacturing, programs, purchasing and supply chain). Growing in a critical region that contributes to 25% of the overall company profitability. Developing and executing key growth, footprint adjustment and appropriate vertical integration strategies in the Asia region. Continue to act as COO to drive overall Asia Pacific & China operations and purchasing activities to ensure one Asia Pacific & China resources, productivity, process compliance, knowledge, and best practice sharing effectively. With additional responsibility to connect Asia Pacific & China region to the rest of Adient in purchasing and operation excellence. Retaining board member positions on 4 key China entities to support wholly owned entity and joint venture growth in this rapidly changing market.
Following 4 years of simplifying operation and increasing the proportion wholly owned/consolidated businesses of 38 plants and a much reduced 3 unconsolidated joint ventures (with a further 17 plants) my ‘Regional COO’ role was expanded to include purchasing. Following an immediate rebalancing of the commodity purchasing teams and rebuilding of supplier development we have integrated operations CoE, business unit purchasing & commodity purchasing to improve the robustness of sourcing and accelerate annual PO to PO savings. Eliminating internal barriers to ensure internal technical resources were fully engaged in purchasing processes. With a rebalanced regional team with refreshed commodity strategies drive incremental YoY gross savings of 3%+ of sales, governing & chairing all regional sourcing for direct & indirect material, introducing clean sheet analysis to the region, and generating program over program material margin enhancement. Senior escalation & resolution point on the regional vendor council for managing economics, distressed suppliers, and chronic supply issues. Continued to evolve, develop, and implement the regional operations strategy, key tactical direction, make v buy approval and driving year on year improvements on safety, environmental sustainability quality, cost, productivity and process technology strategy deployment. Achieving year on year ~1% of sales savings through structured CI methodologies. Including the China + 1 component footprint strategy, through new and redeployed assets. Vertically integrate businesses in China and Thailand, reshoring metals Operations in Japan and redeploying numerous process technologies including isocyanate PU lines, laser welding and assembly lines to maintain network capacity utilization. Coordinate, govern and risk manage to the successful launch of 95+ programs/year. Whilst achieving best in industry recognition for the region with 22 JD quality awards across 14 vehicle segments.
Integrated China and Asia Pacific from two regional divisions to one regional division, with decentralized Operation Directors covering a 11,000 head count operation serving a ~$3.5BN consolidated sales organization. Additionally governed unconsolidated joint venture operations as an investment partner and joint venture board member with an additional~$3BN sales. ‘Regional COO’ for the conversion to a simplified operation and wholly owned/consolidated business of 38 plants and a much reduced 3 unconsolidated joint ventures. Vertically integrated businesses in China, Japan and Thailand and redeployed numerous process technologies including isocyanate PU lines, laser welding and assembly lines to maintain network capacity utilization. Developed and executed a China + 1 component footprint strategy, through new and redeployed assets. De-risking the business whilst achieving financial hurdle rates. Directing 10 Operating Units by implementing and utilizing a CoE model for the regional HSE&E, Quality, Continuous Improvement, Program Management, Launch, Manufacturing Excellence, Supply Chain Management, Manufacturing Engineering for Metal Structures, Foam, JIT Assembly Operations and Trim Cut/Sew Operations. Highest escalation leader and coordinator for task force including project turnaround, disaster recovery from floods, fires and natural events, supply chain reengineering for geopolitical and COVID impacted supply chains. Coordinate, govern and risk manage to the successful launch of 95+ programs/year. Whilst achieving best in industry recognition for the region with 22 JD quality awards across 14 vehicle segments. Develop and implementing the regional operations strategy, key tactical direction, make v buy approval and driving year on year improvements on safety, environmental sustainability quality, cost, productivity and process technology strategy deployment. Achieving year on year ~8% gross savings through structured CI methodologies.
During the explosive growth period of the China automotive industry managed and support the network on Complete Seat Manufacturing Engineering, Supply Chain Management, Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Continuous Improvement, Master Black Belts and Operational Excellence Business Partners. Supported & led 5 JIT plant technical set ups, combined with organic growth of the existing plants. Between 2011 to 2016, sales increased by $1BN a year from a $3BN baseline. Led the JIT Manufacturing activities from the JV support centre, reporting to the VP Operations. Johnson Controls China operations had 63 locations, of which there were 27 JIT plants & 8 trim plants. Proposed, aligned, and supported the JV’s on operational cost budgets, new product launch & later identifying & driving continuous improvement. Promoting the use of value stream mapping, kaizen, staffing models, vertical integration & footprint planning. Global Manufacturing Operating Council for Johnson Controls and collaborated to develop global manufacturing processes, systems, and standards. Led the deployment of these in the China plant network.
Trained, delivered & executed the Lean & Six Sigma culture in the Johnson Controls China plants. Utilized Plant Manager experience and skill set and to review the P&L with the JV General Managers, Financial Controllers to identify best practices & best practices operations excellence opportunities for each JV. Guided annual cost reductions & productivity improvements of 8-10% with deep dive analysis, site value stream mapping, kaizen & benchmarking against our best in class sites. Facilitated go, look & see activities at these sites with all JV’s and structured visits to our global plants to enable knowledge transfer on best practices & technologies.
Managed the overall operations, P&L & 600+ headcount of 2 JIT/complete seat plants (from March 2009 this responsibility was increased to two plants) to Toyota & Landrover respectively. Burton Plant received a Toyota Superior Performance Award & was recognized in Automotive News for the mixed model project (single line, 40' takt time supplying two different customer production facilities) in 2008. Radically reducing capital investment requirements during a period where ‘cash was king’ in the post 2007 crisis. Through the close relationship with Toyota, collaborated with Toyota European training centre & intensive Toyota supervisor training on standard work, abnormality management, kaizen & operator (team member) training & practical problem solving. Recognized by McKinsey in a survey of European JCI plants, Burton was acknowledged by them as the leanest plant in the UK network at that time. As volumes reduced due to the ‘2007 crisis restructured and reduced site headcount by over 100 people. Established a voluntary separation program to achieve the majority of the reductions. Implemented flexible work agreements (banked hours). The Redditch Plant was sold to Lear Corporation with the TUPE transfer of over 400 employees, plant & equipment.
-Controlling a £70m/annum COGS on approximately 120 inventory turns/annum. -Logistics management of synchronous JIT supply of 230,000 seat sets per annum on a 3 hour lead-time. -Managed the tendering process of the 3PL provider realizing a £40k Annum Hard Saving (4%). -Identified & introduced web based inventory visualization system & electronic kanban. -Launched export Customer Knock Down supply of UK manufactured seating components for Toyota for Japan. -Selected & introduced IOLT Diploma in Logistics for key team members