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CEO, Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders (SMMT) Industry Forum Ltd. Birmingham, UK. 2011 to 2020

SMMT Industry Forum is a Management Consultancy business specialising in automotive, aerospace, industrial and other manufacturing sectors.  Responsible for setting and executing the company strategy and leading the business to deliver the annual business plan and delivering the most complex strategic assignments with clients.

  • Developing and executing the company strategy

  • Full P&L responsibility

  • Providing leadership and coaching for the executive team

  • Delivery of the annual business plan on financial and non-financial performance indicators

  • Developing client relationships at CEO/MD and Board level

  • Developing the talent, technical expertise and capabilities of the company in line with the strategy

  • Delivering complex consultancy assignments with clients, particularly strategic business planning and strategy implementation

  • Providing thought leadership and shaping manufacturing industrial strategy and policy for HM Government for the Automotive, Aerospace and Rail sectors in the UK

Responsible for quality for the Industrial Power Systems Division of Caterpillar, from concept design through to “in-service” support. The scope of the division encompasses design, development, manufacture, distribution and sales of industrial diesel engines from seven global manufacturing locations with annual revenues of $3.7bn and over 2,800 employees. Responsible for setting the quality vision, developing, deploying and executing the quality strategy globally. Responsible for improving “internal quality”, “as delivered quality” and “in service” quality through the deployment of both proactive and reactive tools, ultimately improving product competitiveness, eliminating waste and reducing the total cost of quality. Key achievements. 

  • Comprehensive Voice of the Customer (VOC) and competitor assessment benchmarking across multiple market sectors and geographies to determine market leading levels of quality.

  • Working with Vice Presidents and the Executive team to define and implement a quality vision and strategy to competitively position the business. This included performance metrics and target definition, performance measurement and management across all levels of the organisation, implementation of improvement initiatives and organisational and cultural change across multiple functions globally from senior executives to shop floor.

  • Execution of the “first generation” of the quality strategy by driving strategic initiatives, projects and activities throughout the business. Execution of the strategy dramatically reduced internal defects in product design and development, the supply base, and manufacturing processes and significantly improved the “As delivered 0km” ppm to customers.

Global Quality Director, Industrial Power Systems Division, Caterpillar Inc, Peterborough, UK. 2009 to 2011

Director Of Manufacturing (EAME), Caterpillar Inc, Multiple EAME locations. 2006 to 2009

Managing Director, Caterpillar Rantigny, France. 2004 to 2006

Responsible for the overall development, leadership and implementation of Caterpillar’s Operational Excellence strategy to transform the financial and operational performance of 38 manufacturing locations across all Divisions located in Europe, Africa & Middle East (EAME), impacting in excess of 20,000 people. Responsible for ensuring all Divisions achieved their people, quality, delivery and cost targets through the use of Caterpillar’s operational excellence manufacturing philosophies.

  • Working with Group Presidents, Vice Presidents, Business Unit Heads and Managing Directors to drive business transformation across EAME.

  • Delivering people, quality, delivery & cost targets to deliver Executive Scorecard results and meet facility business plan targets

  • Working with the executive leadership teams of thirty eight manufacturing facilities across EAME to execute cultural change management and ensure the successful introduction of lean manufacturing and Operational Excellence philosophies to deliver operational and financial results.

  • Excellent understanding of lean philosophies, operational excellence and business improvement tools and techniques. Particularly the implementation and delivery for sustained business results.

  • Adept at operating in the Board room, “hands-on” on the shop floor, and with all levels of leadership to drive change management in large, medium and small manufacturing businesses.

  • Creation and development of a multi-lingual business transformation team across EAME

Gained a broad knowledge of Operational Excellence implementation styles and philosophies through working with McKinsey & Co, Booz & Co, KPMG, Shingijutsu and multiple other international consultancy practices.

Full responsibility for the design, development and manufacture of three Caterpillar prime product lines. Responsible for leading and developing the executive leadership team across all functions, developing and implementing the long-term strategy balancing corporate and local needs. Setting and achieving the financial and non-financial annual business plan. Delivered transformational improvements in revenue growth, profitability, people, quality, delivery and cost.

  • $150M annual turnover

  • 450 employees – Significant improvements in engagement & safety year-on-year

  • Full P&L responsibility delivering a financial turnaround from loss making, to profit making in 2 years ($9M profit turnaround)

  • Leadership and development of the Executive team including manufacturing engineering, production, supply chain, finance, HR, quality, IT & systems, product design and development, new product introduction, sales and product support

  • Significant supply chain planning and execution improvements implemented

  • Production capacity increase from 2600 to 4000 Caterpillar prime product machines per annum

  • 30% Quality improvements year-on-year

Early Career

Technical Engineering Manager, Product Engineering, Perkins Engines (Peterborough) Ltd. Peterborough, UK 2002 to 2004

Reporting to the Director & General Manager of Engineering, managing a department of 43 product development engineers and team leaders. Responsible for product development, validation, production launch and product technical support, both internally and externally. A key part of the role was validating and selecting new technologies, determining product technical strategies and creating and implementing new product development techniques to improve product development efficiency and deliver new products to meet product and technical objectives.

Product Engineering Manager, Product Engineering, Perkins Engines (Peterborough) Ltd. Peterborough, UK, 2000 to 2002

Reporting to Chief Engineer and managing a department of 31 professional engineers and designers to cover all technical aspects relating to current and new product. Primarily responsible for new product design, development, validation & production launch, quality issue resolution, product improvement initiatives and design change authority over the product. Full technical responsibility for all current products manufactured at the Peterborough facility. Leading, developing and appraising the team to ensure technical & business objectives are met.

Quality Engineering Manager, Manufacturing Operations,  Perkins Engines (Peterborough) Ltd. Peterborough, UK 1998 to 2000

Responsible for the quality and technical integrity of all engines manufactured and shipped from the Peterborough facility. The role required leadership of key technical investigations, decisions and judgements on both performance & mechanical aspects relating to high volume production of engines. The position was responsible for 120 personnel including 31 professional engineers, engine test technicians and engine fitters. Fully responsible for the validation and final approval of new products as fit for volume manufacture.

Education

2006 to 2008 

MSt, Manufacturing Business, University of Cambridge, UK

Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, Royal Naval Engineering College, Plymouth

1989 to 1992

BS.c. First Class Honours Degree in Marine Engineering

1992 to 1998

Key Areas of Research & Interest

Vision and strategy

Competitiveness & productivity

More than 10 years as a Board advisor working internationally with a wide range of small and mid-sized manufacturing businesses to develop and execute distinctive competitive strategies. 

University of Cambridge, Masters Degree in Manufacturing Business with specialist research in the use of business performance metrics in driving cultural change for strategy execution in manufacturing businesses.

Business operating models

Performance metrics and change management

Academic and Practical experience and understanding of developing the connection between vision, strategy, operating models and performance improvement methodologies.

Over ten years working extensively in the areas of business competitiveness and productivity. Shaping and executing HM Government’s Industrial Strategy and providing thought leadership on competitive strategy to HM Government’s Economists and Analysts to underpin the development of multi-million pound, cross sector programmes to boost the productivity and competitiveness of the UK’s manufacturing sectors.