Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Additional Information
Timeline
Generic

Sushmita Bawari

Andover,MA

Summary

High performing Supply Chain leader with 23 years of progressive career growth and achievements. Experienced people manager, managing global team of sourcing, product quality, supply planning and procurement professionals. Expertise in nurturing talent, developing and deploying best in class category management practices, procurement led innovation, data analytics, product and supplier quality programs to meet global standards and supplier relationship management.

Track record of building ground up world class Direct Material and Finished Goods Global Sourcing organizations grounds up at iRobot and Thrasio.

Overview

21
21
years of professional experience

Work History

Vice President

THRASIO CORPORATION
04.2021 - Current
  • Hired as Senior Director of Sourcing but promoted within a year to Vice President, reporting to Chief Supply Chain Officer
  • Responsible for Global Category sourcing, Product Quality and Integrity, Supplier Quality, Procurement, Supply Planning, Sustainability and Responsible Sourcing
  • Managing a team of 70 team members across US, China, Pakistan and India
  • Created the vision and roadmap for Global category sourcing tailored for the unicorn aggregator model
  • Led the team that supported 50+ successful brand acquisitions since 2021 through detailed due diligence, leading successful integrations within 6 months of acquisitions
  • Driven 10%-15% cost reduction across 8000 unique SKUs and supplier consolidation from 1200+ unique suppliers to less than 500 in 12 months
  • Successfully championed diversification from China, today driving 20% of spend outside of China from a baseline of 95%
  • Working with data analytics and engineering to implement automation in supply planning, purchasing and institute S&OP with brand management and demand planning, target to reduce headcount by 40% in 2024
  • Successfully organized and held Thrasio’s first Asian Supply Chain Conference in Suzhou China with over 200+ supplier participants in May 2023
  • Championed the development of strategic supplier programs, detailed cost modelling, supplier performance score-carding
  • Strong partnerships instituted with engineering, supporting 200 successful product launches in 2022-2023
  • Successfully completed Harvard Business School Executive education program sponsored by Advent International
  • Recognized by Advent and Thrasio as a high potential Diverse Leader
  • Improvements driven through a strong Product Quality program, improving Amazon NCX score by 20% and reducing pre-shipment inspection failure rate by 50%
  • Stood up a ground up Sustainability and Responsible Sourcing program at Thrasio
  • Over 25 brands have received Amazon Climate Friendly badges, partnership established with Climate Partner to start measuring carbon footprint in 2023 and 60% of all strategic suppliers have passed Amfori BSCI standards for Responsible Sourcing.

Director Global Sourcing

Irobot
07.2017 - 04.2021
  • Headed all Strategic Sourcing efforts at iRobot with a global team of commodity managers, NPI sourcing managers and material managers based in USA, Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou China and Penang, Malaysia
  • Created the vision and roadmap for global category and sourcing management
  • Work with C-level within the organization to deliver business needs and make category management a competitive advantage for the organization
  • Presented to members of the Board of Directors on the short- and long-term procurement plans: addressed to their satisfaction questions on supply chain competitiveness and benchmarking: risk mitigation strategies to ensure supply continuity; and controls in place to protect brand reputation from counterfeits
  • Control of spend increased from 45% in 2015 to 85% in 2017 to 92% in 2018
  • Activities have included development of preferred supplier and global commodity strategies, balanced scorecards, supplier consolidation, total cost of ownership modeling and market trend analysis
  • Sourcing team under my guidance delivered 3-5% cost reduction every year
  • Key current efforts includes the identification and qualification of non-Chinese sources of supply of components to enable iRobot to develop a competitive manufacturing footprint outside of China
  • Championing key projects to select and deploy spend management, enhanced RFQ and contract management tools; improve ability to design to cost in New Product Introduction (NPI) process
  • Stood up an NPI Sourcing organization in 2019 with sourcing managers working closely with engineering and product management to influence new product design, improve earlier supplier involvement, provide early DFM and design to cost
  • Championed the effort for iRobot to join the Responsible Business Alliance
  • Currently developing the supply chain code of conduct and Supplier CSR program; aim to roll out at supplier conference in May
  • Part of engineering steering committee to influence future R&D efforts and increase early supplier and supply chain involvement
  • 2020 Gartner Benchmarking exercise demonstrates Sourcing team is outperforming teams from similar industries and spend profile
  • Hosted Annual Supplier conferences in 2019 and 2020 with 150 key suppliers; 400 global participants.

Senior Manager, Strategic Procurement

Irobot
07.2013 - 07.2017
  • Brought on as first hire to identify Strategic Sourcing opportunities for procurement/supply chain process improvement and implement world class sourcing practices
  • Developed strategic partnerships with large material suppliers, instituted quarterly business reviews and put in place long term supply agreements
  • 80%+ of companywide spend now under contract
  • Identified opportunities through consolidation of spend and volume leverage and negotiated $2.5M in savings for fiscal 2015 and $3M in savings for fiscal 2016
  • Implemented supply risk mitigation practices
  • Critical single sourced components identified on all high-volume robots and count reduced by 50% through qualification of second sources
  • Put in place a VMI consignment program with Tier 1 Distribution to service our factories globally on critical long-time electronic components
  • Project helped reduce direct cost of electronic components for robots by 10% and in addition helped reduce $3M savings in inventory reduction, average lead-time reduction from 50 days to 5 days and elimination of 20+ Tier 2 and non-franchised distributors.

Strategic Sourcing Manager

ROCKWELL AUTOMATION
04.2011 - 06.2013
  • Managed $140M+ global spend of custom designed hi-tech devices
  • Led cross-functional team to develop global supplier selection strategy
  • Improved incumbent supplier performance by increasing on-time deliveries to 94% from a baseline of 70%, lead-time reduction of 15 business days, year over year productivity savings increasing from 1% to 3%
  • Led complex contract negotiations with global suppliers to include commitments for 4% year over year productivity, provide lead-times equal to transit time and secure manufacturing rights
  • Developed total cost of ownership models, life cycle management and increase cost transparency
  • Managed a team of operation buyers and supplier managers.

Operational Purchasing Manager

Rockwell Automation
11.2009 - 04.2011
  • Managed 13 direct reports and 300+ suppliers to ensure performance in areas such as delivery, lead-time, span, obsolescence, stocking programs to drive supply chain flexibility and optimize performance
  • Improved supplier performance to lead-time by 30% within 6 months, reduced customer past due by 23%
  • Improved communication between purchasing and planning through weekly meetings to supplier performance issues, forecast inaccuracies and other system issues impacting the inbound supply chain
  • Focused on identifying the causal and ownership of corrective action.

Commodity Project Manager

Rockwell Automation
10.2005 - 11.2006
  • Led purchasing transition of two product lines from US to Singapore
  • Led strategic movement of supply base of 2000 components and localization efforts
  • Negotiated with 8 suppliers to reduce lead times to optimize transit times and lot-sizes
  • Inventory impact - $691,671 in safety stock and cycle stock reduction
  • Super user and project lead for conversion to SAP ERP
  • System Go-Live successful with zero data issues
  • Developed metrics to measure suppliers’ performance
  • The metrics include on time delivery compliance, span of late deliveries and weighted leadtime
  • Select Top 20 worst suppliers for monthly performance improvement reviews
  • Buyer, Automation Control and Information Group
  • Managed spend of $50M for semiconductor devices including LEDs, Linear, Logic and Optos
  • Responsibilities included selecting appropriate sources, communicating material specifications, negotiating pricing and managing vendor relationships
  • Activities also included coordinating with other functional areas (Industrialization Engineering, Marketing, Quality, Production and Inventory Control, Legal and Finance/Accounting) to achieve maximum customer service.

Buyer

Rockwell Automation
07.2004 - 08.2005
  • Managed spend of $50M for semiconductor devices including LEDs, Linear, Logic and Optos
  • Responsibilities included selecting appropriate sources, communicating material specifications, negotiating pricing and managing vendor relationships.
  • Activities also included coordinating with other functional areas (Industrialization Engineering, Marketing, Quality, Production and Inventory Control, Legal and Finance/Accounting) to achieve maximum customer service.

Business Analyst

Rockwell Automation
05.2002 - 07.2004
  • Strategic Sourcing
  • Key player responsible for the preparation and maintenance of Spend Management databases and information warehousing of all electronic commodities, Spend - $150 Million
  • Sent RFP’s, received quotes and created packages for negotiations with over 100 suppliers
  • Led 2003 and 2004 global Hotel sourcing reviews with annual spend of $7 Million
  • Negotiated with incumbent and new hotel properties to achieve $200,000+ in savings inspite of industry room rate increases
  • Designed auction tool used to successfully conduct live bidding sessions for hotels in Midwest region.

Education

Master of Business Administration - Operations and Information Systems

Case Western Reserve University, Weatherhead School of Management
2002

Bachelor of Engineering - Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering

University of Pune, Maharashtra Institute of Technology
1998

Skills

  • Closing Tactics and Contract Negotiations
  • Functional and Business Requirements
  • Global Sourcing
  • International Business
  • Business Process Re-Engineering
  • Team Development
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration
  • Processes and Procedures
  • Process Transformation

Additional Information

Board Member Andover Historical Society

Advisory Board Council Member for Case Western’s Masters in Supply Chain Program

Timeline

Vice President

THRASIO CORPORATION
04.2021 - Current

Director Global Sourcing

Irobot
07.2017 - 04.2021

Senior Manager, Strategic Procurement

Irobot
07.2013 - 07.2017

Strategic Sourcing Manager

ROCKWELL AUTOMATION
04.2011 - 06.2013

Operational Purchasing Manager

Rockwell Automation
11.2009 - 04.2011

Commodity Project Manager

Rockwell Automation
10.2005 - 11.2006

Buyer

Rockwell Automation
07.2004 - 08.2005

Business Analyst

Rockwell Automation
05.2002 - 07.2004

Master of Business Administration - Operations and Information Systems

Case Western Reserve University, Weatherhead School of Management

Bachelor of Engineering - Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering

University of Pune, Maharashtra Institute of Technology

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