If This Sounds Familiar...
Managing a global supply chain often feels like solving a puzzle where the pieces keep changing shape. You might be experiencing one or more of these common operational roadblocks.
If you're dealing with any of these, we should talk:
Excess Inventory: Capital is tied up in slow-moving stock that refuses to budge despite your best efforts.
Firefighting Operations: Your team spends more time reacting to daily crises than executing long-term strategy.
Chronic Stockouts: High-demand items are consistently unavailable, leading to missed revenue and frustrated customers.
Misaligned Network Design: Rising distribution costs with no clear driver.
Unreliable Product Flow: Production that’s always reacting instead of following a plan.
Visibility Gaps: You know there is a problem, but your data doesn't tell you exactly where the breakdown is happening.
I’ve seen these patterns before—and fixed them.
Real Fixes
When “Profitable” Still Misses the Plan
THE PROBLEM
A newly acquired $250M business consistently missed its profit targets—despite maintaining acceptable margins on every sale.
WHAT WAS REALLY HAPPENING
The team continued a legacy practice of reworking slow-moving inventory and selling it at lower—but still acceptable—margins. While each transaction met minimum thresholds, the business was missing the higher-margin assumptions built into the plan.
WHAT I DID
I aligned the team around the difference between acceptable margin and planned margin, and implemented controls requiring approval before any rework activity.
Result
- Restored alignment between operations and financial targets
- Reduced unnecessary margin erosion
- Improved predictability against budget and forecast
The Monthly Forecast “Yo-Yo” Problem
THE PROBLEM
The business constantly swung between excess inventory and shortages—despite having a stable forecast.
WHAT WAS REALLY HAPPENING
System logic reset demand each month, creating artificial volatility between forecasting and production planning.
WHAT I DID
I implemented a monthly forecast roll and corrected system settings to stabilize demand signals between cycles.
Result
- Eliminated planning volatility
- Aligned forecasting and production teams
- Restored confidence in the planning process
When “Right-Sized” Capacity Breaks the Business
THE PROBLEM
After reducing excess capacity, customer service levels collapsed and orders went unfilled.
WHAT WAS REALLY HAPPENING
The business had been relying on excess capacity to mask the absence of a real production plan.
WHAT I DID
I implemented a structured, capacity-driven production plan and created visibility into recovery timelines.
Result
- Stabilized operations within ~90 days
- Improved customer fill rates
- Replaced reactive firefighting with structured execution
Manufacturing Rework Hidden in Plain Sight
THE PROBLEM
A major product launch was stalling as inventory piled up across multiple stages of the manufacturing process.
WHAT WAS REALLY HAPPENING
Each team was independently rebuilding product assortments—essentially solving the same problem over and over again.
WHAT I DID
I introduced a bundled flow approach—locking components together earlier in the process so completed assortments moved forward as a unit.
Result
- Eliminated redundant work across teams
- Improved flow through the supply chain
- Exposed and resolved root-cause production issues
When a $0.05 Decision Delays a $20M Program
THE PROBLEM
New product launches were consistently delayed because items weren’t being set up in the system in time to support production and material ordering.
WHAT WAS REALLY HAPPENING
A small number of late-stage inputs—like packaging components with minimal cost—were holding up full item setup, preventing earlier steps like raw material purchasing and production planning from starting.
WHAT I DID
I removed the bottleneck by allowing placeholder inputs for low-cost components, enabling item setup to move forward while final details were completed later.
Result
- Eliminated unnecessary delays in product setup
- Enabled earlier procurement of long-lead materials
- Kept high-value programs on schedule without added complexity
Obsolete Inventory That Wouldn’t Move
THE PROBLEM
Large volumes of slow-moving inventory were sitting in warehouses despite vigorous closeout efforts.
WHAT WAS REALLY HAPPENING
Due to inadequate reporting, internal teams were cherry-picking easy-to-sell SKUs, leaving fragmented inventory that couldn’t move.
WHAT I DID
Reframed inventory into marketable “programs” (e.g., product groupings like dinnerware, apparel categories) instead of individual SKUs.
Result
- Increased sell-through of previously stagnant inventory
- Improved average selling price
- Reduced need for external warehouse space
Rising Distribution Costs with No Clear Cause
THE PROBLEM
Distribution costs in a 1M+ sf building were increasing despite stable volumes.
WHAT WAS REALLY HAPPENING
SKU proliferation led to inefficient palletization, increased handling, and poor storage utilization.
WHAT I DID
I aligned manufacturing and distribution practices to prioritize full-pallet builds and reduce unnecessary handling.
Result
- Improved warehouse efficiency
- Reduced handling and storage costs
- Increased throughput without adding capacity
How I Work
I don’t apply generic frameworks or theory.
I focus on identifying what’s actually breaking down—and fixing it at the source.
Every situation is different, but the patterns are often the same.
My approach is straightforward:
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Diagnose the real issue quickly
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Focus on root cause—not symptoms
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Implement practical solutions that can actually be executed
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Stay involved until the problem is resolved
Most of these problems don’t show up on a report—they show up in missed targets, frustrated teams, and constant firefighting.
If you’re dealing with something similar, we can quickly determine what’s really going on and what it will take to fix it.