JOHN WARREN
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07736 811684
john.warren@DirectingChange.co.uk
http://www.directingchange.co.uk/Pages/default.aspx
https://uk.linkedin.com/pub/john-warren/20/429/590
8 Benford Road
Hoddesdon, Herts
EN11 8LW
An International, Transformational Change Director, with substantial experience as a Programme Director; a Board Level
Operations Director; VP of Operations, and SAP Implementation Programme Director, in both shrinking and growing business
environments for 9 major, global, Blue Chip Companies.
Delivering and recovering programmes to tight schedules. Motivating and harnessing both people and teams to generate
significant improvements in productivity and business performance. Worked successfully as an Interim Manager / Consultant /
Contractor / Coach for 5 companies (8 contracts) since July 2010.
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A certified Lean, Six Sigma Black Belt
A Corporate and Executive Coach
An Aeronautical Engineering Graduate BSc(Hons) and a British Aerospace Apprentice, with a postgraduate Diploma in
Operational & Industrial Management and General Management courses at Ashridge, Cranfield and with the RAF.
Safety Courses (including CDM, Risk Management and Fire)
Life Cycle Management (Certified Phase Review Assessor and Chairman)
SC Security Cleared till 15th October 2017 (subject to aftercare and sponsorship) - recently renewed 15th Oct 2012.
Practised at Business Assessment, Baselining, Operations Analysis, Policy Deployment Matrix, Goal Directed Programme
Management, Kaizen, PQ Analysis, Root Cause Analysis, Reality Trees, Critical Chain and other Goldratt tools, Facilitation,
SPC, DOE, Interrelationship, Coaching & Mentoring, Line Design & Visual Management Techniques, 6 cycle analysis, 5S and
numerous others.
KEY SKILLS AND RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS
A Board Level Director / Change Manager / Programme Manager of major programmes:-
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Managed full life cycle, SAP Implementation programmes for Meggitt (£16.1M), BAESystems (£21.4M) & e2v (13 global sites).
Sponsored three separate implementations of MRP systems in Raytheon and Siemens.
Managed the execution of major, multi-site, production programmes for various products including Aircraft, Armoured Fighting
Vehicles, Radars and a range of Electronics for the European Fighter Aircraft, Helicopters, Ships and Space Vehicles.
Managed the construction & equipping of a new, £51m facility to accommodate 1100 people for BAESystems.
Managed the preparation and re-location of 1100 people from their spacious, three ex GEC Marconi sites with considerable
storage, to the single, world class, modern, lean environment in just 4 weekends.
Involved with sales and bids to win major £multi-million contracts.
Managed tenders/selections for IT contracts (saved BAESystems £1M); facilities management & manufacturing contracts.
An experienced negotiator of multi million pound contracts (recently saving Lockheed Martin £10.2M).
A proven Operations / General Business / Change Manager:-
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Experienced manager of multi-site, multi-national programmes.
Restructured and simplified UK wide supply chains.
Redesigned and rearranged numerous factory layouts, increasing throughput and revenue, simplifying production flow, reducing
lead-times, costs and inventory.
Transitioned new designs and accelerated them into volume manufacture.
Line managed departments associated with Operations, Procurement, Manufacturing, Test and Facilities, from the Bid stage to
After Sales Support.
Manufacturing experience across a range of disciplines including Press Shop, Foundry, Fitting Shop, Paint Shop, Major
Assembly, Hybrid & Wafer Manufacture, Printed Circuit Board Assembly, Electronics Assembly, Test and Environmental Stress
Screening.
Managed as UK Business Continuity Director, the rapid business recovery from various incidents such as fire, flood, air
conditioning failure and computer failure, whilst recovering £multi-million claims through the insurance companies.
A recognized leader respected and trusted by the company, unions and people alike, fulfilling roles as part of the senior cross-site
management team such as VP of Operations; Operations Director; Manufacturing Executive; ERP and Shared Services Director; UK
Business Continuity Director; Y2K Manager; Desk Top Re-life Manager; Ethics Officer; Union Negotiator and the Head of Workplace &
Environmental Safety.
EXPERIENCE AS AN INTERIM EXECUTIVE
July 14 – Jul 15
Interim Executive Role :> Vice President of Operations, Space Imaging
e2v - High Performance Imaging Solutions for Space Vehicles & Ground Based Observatories
Requested to return to implement the radical changes that I had suggested:-
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Managed and enabled the revenue increase from £23M to £29M and set them on the way to achieve £45M.
Programme managed the implementation of two new modules (ME and Mii) into e2v’s existing landscape and a wider
deployment of SAP throughout the manufacturing areas on a growing number of projects (from 40 to 70).
Performed the interim role of VP, increasing the manufacture rate; managing a redundancy; pay rises; implementing lean, six
sigma and delivered presentations in readiness to implement “Critical Chain” programme management.
Nov 13 – June 14
Interim Executive Role :> Senior Programme Manager
e2v - High Performance Imaging Solutions for Space Vehicles &Ground Based Observatories
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A 6 month contract to fill a shortfall of Senior Programme Managers, managing two International programmes at this high tech,
800 strong, HQ site in Chelmsford: one was to bid for a game changing contract that would require a ten-fold increase in volume
throughput, whereas the other had just been won and needed to be kick started.
Indeed, it soon became apparent that the start-up programme was likely to deliver 1½ years late to the customer requirement.
In addition to kick starting and driving the programme through design and manufacture, I applied concurrent engineering
methods and other innovative ways to accelerate the programme: within 6 months, I had reduced the lateness to less than six
months and had fabricated wafers ready to be tested.
Sep 13 – Nov 13
Interim Executive Role :> Manufacturing Consultant, Corporate & Executive Coach
Curtiss Wright – Airborne Surveillance Equipment
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Coached newly appointed Manufacturing & Planning Manager.
Implemented 5S, implemented cycle counting.
Introduced concept of Product Families & planned a revised factory layout to create a visual flow in those families
Identified shortfalls in the planning processes, management systems and proper use of the SAP system;
Identified shortfalls in the Kanban control system and the opportunity to introduce Vendor Managed Inventory
Identified ways of removing redundant stock
Apr 12 – Sep 13
Interim Executive Role: > Virtual, (part time) Operations Director / Consultant
RIGCOM GROUP – Rope and UAV Access to high structures and mines.
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Performed due diligence on a potential company acquisition
Discussed and developed forward strategy
Assisted in the preparation of a prospectus for the investment market to secure a $1.6M investment to accelerate their
acquisitions and fund their organic growth.
Sep 12 – Apr 13
2 Interim Executive Roles at 2 sites: > Sub-Contract Programme Manager (Trouble-shooter)
Lockheed Martin UK - Armoured Fighting Vehicles (Tanks) & Naval Information Systems
Tasked on various cross-functional issues, guiding, coaching and helping people at various levels in both the rapidly expanding LMUK
organisation and their major blue chip subcontractors in Switzerland, Germany, USA & the UK, resolving issues such as:-
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Negotiating a sub contract valued at over £36M, resulting in a saving of 28% or £10.2M on the proposal price (£2M on the
budgeted price)
Creating Microsoft Project Programmes for the subcontract programmes, clarifying the route to get the major subcontractors
under contract and the programmes into production
Rewriting and negotiating “Statement of Works” and complex Defence “Terms and Conditions”, combining two major
programmes into one by emphasising commonality between the two vehicles and saving £M’s for the whole supply chain
through to the Customer
Initialising the loading of MRP to force the pace of transitioning the development programme into production
Facilitating meetings on Product Reliability Growth Testing between 4 major subcontractors and the in house team of UK
Experts, gaining contractual agreement to meet the most demanding reliability requirements seen for Armoured Vehicles for
the MoD
Resolving a relationship management issue with a major subcontractor
As a result of this success, at the end of the six month contract, I was requested to assist another LMUK site to prepare the tenders to
win two major contracts.
Jan 11 – Apr 12
Interim Executive Role: SAP Programme Director
Meggitt (MSS Division) - Global Aerospace Industry
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Recovered a SAP Implementation programme that was running 4 months late (to a recently revised programme) and over
£16.1M budget to implement SAP into 7 sites in the UK, France, Switzerland and California, saving £750k in consultant fees
and implementing France 6 months earlier than planned
Recommended and implemented further cost savings for the 2 Californian sites, creating and transitioning the programme to
an American team, increasing on site productivity by 30%.
The programme included the alignment and configuration of the solution; data mapping, cleansing and migration; creating the
training material (now adopted as the Global material); SIM testing (now part of the global solution); cut over management into
a live Global system and a yearly regression test cycle to upgrade the solution.
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE IN PERMANENT EMPLOYMENT
Apr 06 – Aug 10
UK SAP Programme Director (previously ERP and Shared Services Director)
SELEX Sensors & Airborne Systems now SELEXGALILEO (Finmeccanica). Global Defence Industry; Electronics
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Created and managed a SAP team of 120 staff
Scoped, configured and implemented (below £21.4M budget) the replacement of diverse existing systems by a single, modern,
integrated SAP business system, (full life cycle from Blueprinting to steady state) covering all 5 disparate UK sites.
Effectively 7 projects: a “design and build” followed by 5 implementations with 5 local management teams (each deploying from
a different starting point) and finally an upgrade programme
Negotiated contracts with SAP and saved £1M on a £10M proposal from Implementation Partner
Managed the people, organisational change issues and training associated with changing nearly every business process and
the impact on 4000 people.
Implemented the latest upgrades (Service Stacks & Enhancement Packs) using SAP Solution Manager
Jul 02 – Apr 06
Operations Director
BAESystems (changed to SELEX Sensors and Airborne Systems) Global Defence Industry; Electronics
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Built a new £52M facility at Luton.
Relocated 1100 people in just 4 weekends from 3 legacy sites
Transitioned 3 new designs into Manufacture in 4 UK target factories; managing and changing target factories through
leadership, rather than direct control which was more difficult as they were sister companies;
Restructured and simplified the UK target factory supply chain for the EFA EW programme, reducing lead-times and simplifying
the production flow. This included developing a £1.5m world class, Assembly, Integration and Test facility close to the Engineers
May 00 – Jul 02
Raytheon Lean Six Sigma Expert (Black Belt)
Raytheon Systems Limited, UK
Group wide role; Air Traffic & Defence Industry; Electronics
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Selected for a two year secondment, as one of a small team of dedicated Six Sigma Expert, change agents in a Global change
initiative applying knowledge based processes, transforming the culture to maximize customer value and grow the business.
Completed 2 major baselines, 5 business assessments, 6 Kaizen events and 19 projects over 27 months
Trained 100 Specialists and 45 Hatfield University Students
Oct 93 – May 00
Manufacturing Executive with 250 staff
Raytheon Systems Limited, Harlow
Site Role; Air Traffic & Defence Industry; Electronics
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Reduced site floor space by 66%, selling two buildings and leasing a third.
Lowered overhead costs / rates from 175% to 140% and downsized labour force by 25%, for which I was a prime negotiator.
Developed and implemented cellular manufacturing and IPT organisational changes within manufacturing, which subsequently
developed into Six Sigma value streams.
Re-designed value streams increasing production from 50 per year to 75 per month and on another capital goods project, from
12 per year to 50 per year.
Sep 90 – Oct 93
Manufacturing Executive with 450 staff
Siemens, Cowes, Isle of Wight
Site Role; Global Electronics Industry
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52 Acre site; reduced lead-times by 35%, storage space by 30% and inventory by £2M whilst improving delivery performance
Previously
British Aerospace, Hatfield, Herts.
Several roles from Apprentice through to Product Centre 4 (the largest - 250 staff) Manager
Site Role; Civil Aircraft BA146 Manufacturer
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Progressed rapidly through a 4½-year undergraduate apprenticeship and the Quality Control Organisation to become the first
graduate in Production with responsibility for the largest Product Centre comprising of a 250 strong multi-disciplined workforce
across 5 production shops.
Selected to lead the first Pilot Cell and Manufacturing Centre to develop the necessary cultural changes and new ways of
working. Once developed, these delivered a site-wide inventory reduction of £100m (in £300M) and reduced the aircraft final
assembly lead time from 48 weeks to 10.
Personally delivered a lot of the presentations that explained the new way of working to the 4500 strong workforce and externally
to (paying) seminars attracting a lot of positive media coverage for British Aerospace.