Kristen Welch
New Boston,Il
Summary
Results-oriented executive with demonstrated record of accomplishment in streamlining operations, increasing profits and maximizing market penetration. Decisive leader promoting operational improvements, market expansion and positive corporate culture as keys to success. Diverse
Overview
21
21
years of professional experience
Work History
Vice President of Operations
OldCastle Building Envelope
01.2022 - 12.2023
- Responsible for all KPIs including environmental, safety, people, quality, customer service and profit performance for 2 aluminum extrusion facilities (Tennessee and Texas) with 850 employees that supported over $500 Million in Sales
- Created an annual operating plan and monthly business review process to identify top opportunities to reduce cost and improve customer satisfaction
- Implemented TPS system, resulting in 16-24% productivity improvement, 20% less downtime, 31% reduction in rework and 19% reduction in scrap
- Built customer confidence by implementing processes to reduce lead times from 14 weeks to 3 weeks, improve on time delivery from 35% to 93% and reduced past due orders by 75%
- Reduced raw material inventory from 42 days to 15 days removing over $8 Million dollars of material on hand through the implementation of a SIOP process
- Reduced WIP by 60%, finished goods stock by 70% and set up times by 50% by implementing data driven stocking strategies.
Regional Vice President of Operations
Metal Sales Manufacturing Corporation
08.2018 - 01.2022
- Responsible for transforming a region with years of operating losses to positive earnings, delivering significant improvements in KPI’s every year
- Guided a highly successful ERP/MRP conversion that set my region before being asked to improve the implementation in other regions
- Improved branch profit by 54.8% on 7% less sales than the prior year during first year in the region
- Created an atmosphere of teamwork and dedication to greatness resulting in partnership between departments and branches that became the model for the organization
- Coached teams to drive to best-in-class business practices and customer engagement generating significant improvements in member engagement, customer confidence and profit
- Implemented leveraged philosophies to drive consistency and reliability while reducing costs across the regions
- Achieved significant improvements in all KPI's for the region including revenue, efficiency, quality, cost reduction and safety.
General Manager
Metal Sales Manufacturing Corporation
06.2016 - 08.2018
- Led a staff of 35-50 employees while managing highly seasonally volatile sales
- Fully responsible for all aspects of branch P&L, member engagement, safety, productivity, quality, and sales
- Engage with key customers and stake holders to achieve improved customer confidence and sales growth of 12%
- Lead changes with highly tenured work force to successfully improve team moral and implement a continuous improvement culture
- Worked on projects to affect KPI's and P&L improvements including, Reduction in inventory and a 20% improvement in inventory accuracy through implementation of improved ordering practices, Kanban, and cycle counting
- Reduction in scrap to achieve the lowest scrap rate of 22 branches
- Reduction in production labor costs and an improvement in lead time to the customer with the implementation of off shift production.
Transporation Manager 2
HNI Corporation
01.2013 - 06.2016
- Successfully managed an 80-million-dollar budget, an internal team, a third-party transportation provider, a truck fleet, and a network of carriers
- Saved over 1 million dollars per year through improved truckload optimization
- Lead continuous improvement teams to drive best in class delivery experience for our customers at best total cost, resulting in improvements in On Time Delivery, 10% Improved cost to budget and 23% efficiency improvement in load planning
- Responsible for leveraging transportation strategies across multiple companies and implementing the use of a 3rd party provider resulting in a network savings of 8 million dollars per year
- Created the strategic plan and the daily goals, metrics, and reporting capabilities to manage the transportation network with a both internal and external customers, a 3PL, a truckload fleet.
Rapid Continuous Improvement Manager
HNI Corporation
06.2009 - 01.2013
- Worked with production, distribution and transportation to remove waste and improve customer experience resulting in an improvement in on time shipments of 20%, a reduction of unplanned demand by 15% and a 9% reduction in cycle time
- Created a cross functional team to identify and manage exceptions within the network resulting in a reduction from 4 days to 3 days for resolution and a 21% reduction in exceptions
- Coached and developed team members to create a culture of continuous improvement and problem solving.
Distribution Center MANAGER
HNI Corporation
04.2006 - 06.2009
- Drove process improvement to meet policy deployment goals, including 33% increase in productivity in one year and reduced member turnover
- Managed a team of 54 direct reports on multiple shifts to meet Safety, Quality, COT and Productivity Goals
- Managed the internal and external receiving, warehousing, picking and loading of product for 3 manufacturing facilities.
Continuous Improvement Engineer/Flex Crew MANAGER
HNI Corporation
01.2005 - 04.2006
- Responsible for strategically balancing manpower across 11 departments to meet COT, Productivity and Lead time goals
- Managed the strategic plan and bridge strategy for 11 departments to ensure daily, monthly and annual goals were achieved in alignment with the long-term strategic vision
- Lead team to implement an expedite process that would reduce expedites by 50% with a projected cost savings of 1.5 million dollars per year
- Lead a 2-month team that reduced customer complaints by 30% in the highest complain department in the facility.
Quality/Manufacturing/Industrial ENGINEERING
HNI Corporation
12.2002 - 01.2005
- Proposed and managed a 1 Million Dollar Capital Machine Purchase on time and on budget
- Responsible for initial implementation and certification in ISO 9000
- Managed all aspects of new product launch from print review to structuring, layout, flow, capacity planning standard work and quality checks
- Acted as factory manager for extended periods of time
- Studied continuous improvement under some of the original lean thinkers from the east
- Developed quality tracking processes and worked with customers, customer service, group leaders and members to determine root cause and corrective actions for quality issues.
Education
Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering -
Iowa State University
01.1996
Skills
- Strategic planning and execution
- Organizational Development
- Cost analysis and savings
- Business Development
- Operations Oversight
- Succession Planning
- Process Improvements
- Relationship Building
- Business Growth Initiatives
- Teamwork and Collaboration
- P&L Management
- Change Management
Timeline
Vice President of Operations
OldCastle Building Envelope
01.2022 - 12.2023
Regional Vice President of Operations
Metal Sales Manufacturing Corporation
08.2018 - 01.2022
General Manager
Metal Sales Manufacturing Corporation
06.2016 - 08.2018
Transporation Manager 2
HNI Corporation
01.2013 - 06.2016
Rapid Continuous Improvement Manager
HNI Corporation
06.2009 - 01.2013
Distribution Center MANAGER
HNI Corporation
04.2006 - 06.2009
Continuous Improvement Engineer/Flex Crew MANAGER
HNI Corporation
01.2005 - 04.2006
Quality/Manufacturing/Industrial ENGINEERING
HNI Corporation
12.2002 - 01.2005
Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering -
Iowa State University
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