Services

Put Mike’s operational and financial expertise to work to successfully navigate your business transition.

Building Out an Operations Organization

As your company shifts from development to manufacturing and sales the demand for a new set of functional experts and tools can be a choke point due to the challenge of finding candidates with appropriate breadth of experience and transitioning them in the timeframe needed. My prior experiences in commercialization, financial management and operations made me a fit for Memjet as it made that transition, and I can serve in that capacity for you. This can be either as an interim operations lead or as a mentor to your designated lead, working with them on priorities and planning for the operations function.

Areas of Expertise:

  • Demand and Supply Planning

  • Sales and Operations Planning

  • Product Lifecycle Management system setup

  • Order Management (entry and fulfillment)

  • Customer Support and Service

  • Spare Parts planning

  • Current Engineering and Quality

  • Purchasing, Manufacturing leadership

Operationalizing Supplier and OEM Relationships

Constructive business relationships with suppliers and OEM customers are critical to the ongoing success of the company and require cultivation at all levels of the parallel organizations. Good management requires a clear contract, robust and transparent engineering change process, visibility to quality processes, understanding of cost drivers, and frequent communication. I have successfully worked with large multinational and smaller startup OEM partners, setting up contract terms and communication channels and managing the same. Likewise with suppliers, I have negotiated contracts and pricing, managed product commercialization and certification, and established the regular communication pace and agenda. I can work with you on vetting and establishing successful relationships with new suppliers or OEM candidates.

 Areas of Expertise:

  • Contract Terms and Conditions

  • Price Negotiation

  • Establishing Operational Processes: supply, planning, product change management, issue escalation and resolution

  • Supplier Assessment

Product Transitions to Manufacturing

Successful transition of a product between development and manufacturing starts with early manufacturing involvement and requires a process that insists on collaboration between the groups through development and manufacturing acceptance. If you need to introduce process and checkpoint steps to ensure a stronger transfer or need a review of your commercialization activity to confirm appropriate rigor, I can help increase your likelihood of success.

 Areas of Focus:

  • Commercialization Process- phases and checkpoints with a focus on manufacturing readiness

  • DFX- Work plan for early design for manufacturing, assembly, service input

  • Manufacturing Transition and Acceptance

Production Outsourcing and Transfers

Transferring an established product from internal manufacturing to an external company, outsourcing manufacturing, or shifting between two suppliers not only add to the load on your staff but are also areas of risk as your team tackles the new (and for some, threatening) challenge. I will work with your team to evaluate outsourcing partners, establish a timeline and project plan for the outsourcing or supplier transition and, establish the criteria for success of each phase of the transition process, while ensuring that the team focuses constructively on the goal.

 Areas of Focus:

  • Partner Evaluation- cost, quality, capability (staff, systems, physical capacity), risk

  • Internal Transfer Readiness- documentation, product maturity, supply bridge planning

  • Partner Readiness- supply chain, training, certification, infrastructure

  • Schedule- pace of transfer, phases and checkpoints for the transition

  • Organizational Alignment for Success- incentives and risks

New Program, New Product Business Cases

Without a focus on rigor in the assumptions, inputs and scope, a program business case can turn into an exercise in checking the boxes or selling a plan in which the team is too invested to be objective. Drawing on my skills in strategic planning and financial modeling I can provide either an independent review of a program plan or support your team in building a robust business case. This planning and modeling expertise is complemented by experience in managing programs from inception through implementation.

Areas of Expertise:

  • Financial modeling- product or program level, risk sensitivity

  • Strategic Planning- Product Portfolio Planning, Competitor Analysis, Value Proposition Assessment, Product Lifecycle Planning

  • Market Requirements, Product Requirements- gap assessment

 

Business Assessment/Due Diligence

Whether the need is to do a health check on your own business, asses a business partner or perform due diligence on a potential target, you will benefit from my broad functional knowledge and experience in evaluating performance, capability, and threats. My experience has included vetting suppliers, acquisition due diligence, reviewing OEM partner capabilities and putting in place plans for improvement. I’ll bring an operational, financial, and strategic perspective to the task and provide both an assessment and action plan for addressing areas of weakness and risk.

Areas of Expertise:

  • Cost Structure Analysis- product line profitability, fixed vs variable cost

  • Improvement Planning- Action plans to improve profitability

  • Contingency Planning

  • Resource and Cashflow Planning for Growth

  • Gap Assessment vs Competition

Business Integration Program Management

Successful acquisitions depend on effective pre- acquisition and post-acquisition planning and execution to realize the targeted synergies and combined organizations that will produce the growth and benefits envisioned in the deal. I have experience in leading integration planning and execution for acquisitions and spinouts of hard good development, manufacturing, and sales entities. I would work with your functional and line management to drive an effective integration plan pre- and post-acquisition using proven tools and approaches that drive for achieving results on schedule.

 Areas of Focus:

  • Internal pre-acquisition planning by functional teams

  • Kick off integration meetings

  • Tracking of synergies identified and progress toward achievement

  • Planning for and documenting transition services

  • Integrated scheduling of team tasks and dependencies
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