mdt global supply chain manager - recommendation
TRANSCRIPT
MAN Diesel & Turbo
Copenhagen, Wednesday, June 6, 2013
Subject: Mr. Brian Lund
To whom it may concern,
In the period 2009-2013 Mr. Brian Lund reported indirectly to me, as the local supply chain manager
for the MAN B&W Diesel 2-stroke product range. With more than 17,000 engines in the field and an
installed and operating capacity of more than 300 GW and growing on average by 9% per year, the
MAN B&W Diesel 2-stroke engine is the de facto main propulsion engine of choice for the global
fleet of cargo and container ships sailing around the world. Having the responsibility of ensuring the
availability of spare parts for both the after sales as well as to ensure parts for our network of
licensees, engineering and R&D department for new developments is a massive responsibility, which
Brian not only undertook with pride, but also fulfilled and excelled by far, setting new standards for
the capabilities of a supply chain manager.
When Brian was invited to join the SCM in the after sales division of MAN (PrimeServ) back in 2009,
it was in the midst of a severe financial crisis, where there was an increasing pressure from the MAN
Executive Board to reduce inventories. Due to a decline in sales, the inventories for the entire MAN
Diesel group had grown by €23 million in a few months and in the same period by €6 million for the
2-stroke division alone.
Brian started working and implementing a series of Working Capital Optimisation (WCO) initiatives
which had been laid out from a global directive and the results of Brian and his team were
remarkable; since the inventories for the 2-stroke division peaked in August 2009 on €103 million,
the year 2009 ended on €96 million net. Ever since Brian and his team has continued to deliver
results and has slashed down the 2-stroke inventories down to €80 million by the end of May 2013.
It is very much to be noted that despite the freeing of inventory, the capital reductions has all
happened without compromising the level of service to the customer, which has remained on an
average of 91% with a target minimum of 85% throughout the entire period (and is currently as high
as 94% in May 2013!).
With a stock turn of now 1.791 growing from 1.29 by the end of 2009, Brian has also shown that he is
able to promote an intelligent linkage between planned sales and supply chain activities. As a strong
advocate for sales and operations planning (S&OP) one of Brian’s first activities was the anchoring of
a series of monthly S&OP meetings during which key action activities were decided and carried out.
Much more could most probably have been achieved during these meetings, in case more adequate
senior management support was available, however, in the midst of radical organisational changes,
Brian often saw himself practically alone in the official line organisation of Copenhagen.
Nevertheless, Brian achieved the building-up of an official supply chain organisation in Copenhagen,
starting off as literally a one-man army to now having ten 10 direct reports under him, who share
1 Stock turn measures the costs of goods sold (COGS) in a 12-month period with the average cost of the inventory at cost price. The official
MAN Diesel & Turbo stock turn figure measures inventory according to the entire turnover in sales prices, which tends to inflate the figure. By using this definition the stock turn calculated would be 4.8 (corresponding to 75 “days of inventory”)
MAN Diesel & Turbo
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HEAD OFFICE (& postal address) MAN Diesel & Turbo Teglholmsgade 41 2450 Copenhagen SV Denmark Phone: +45 33 85 11 00 Fax: +45 33 85 10 30 [email protected] www.mandieselturbo.com
PrimeServ Teglholmsgade 41 2450 Copenhagen SV Denmark Phone: +45 33 85 11 00 Fax: +45 33 85 10 49 [email protected]
PRODUCTION Teglholmsgade 35 2450 Copenhagen SV Denmark Phone: +45 33 85 11 00 Fax: +45 33 85 10 17 [email protected]
FORWARDING & RECEIVING Teglholmsgade 35 2450 Copenhagen SV
Denmark Phone: +45 33 85 11 00
Fax: +45 33 85 10 16 [email protected]
MAN Diesel & Turbo Branch of MAN Diesel & Turbo SE, Germany CVR No.: 31611792 Head office: Teglholmsgade 41 2450 Copenhagen SV, Denmark German Reg.No.: HRB 22056 Amtsgericht Augsburg
MAN Diesel & Turbo – a member of the MAN Group
the responsibilities for planning and accountability of global inventories as well as the continuous
replenishment, material management and master data functions.
Within his demand planning group he currently also employs an industrial PhD student, who is
researching forecasting methods that not only MAN will benefit of, but eventually also all other large
power equipment manufacturers who are competing on the after sales market.
With his material management group Brian set new standards for productivity and efficiency within
the MAN Diesel & Turbo group. Key to this has been Brian’s promotion and installation of rigour and
discipline in the replenishment procedures, where focus has been to obtain optimal lot sizes,
ensuring correct master data and following up on exceptions in a timely manner. The installation of
an innovative online interface named “Supplier Network Collaboration”, which allows for external
suppliers to access MAN’s purchase orders and receive a rolling 12-month forecast, has also been
among Brian’s many initiatives, which has resulted in a significant increase in response time and
reduction of duplicate work throughout the supply chain. Most lately, Brian has been a strong
advocate for letting selected suppliers manage inventories themselves and has provided a business
case that makes a sound argument for a further improvement of €5 million of working capital.
Under Brian’s command the portion of dormant and slow-moving stock also dropped to a historically
low minimum, and a newly opened warehouse in Singapore benefited from the healthier portfolio of
chosen stock items.
Due to the fact that Brian had few, at times no, project managers employed in his team – as well as the
fact that few, if any, other colleagues from other places in the organisation volunteered to fix
necessary issues – he was often required to dive deep into the details and take charge of complex
projects and tasks himself. At times, this has led to the grave misconception among peers and
colleagues that Brian was more interested working as a specialist than in pursuing a leadership career.
At the contrary, my personal observation has been that Brian is a great leader for his team who
manages to find a good balance between setting stretch targets for his people and allowing them
the freedom to fulfil their task. I have also noted, that Brian puts great care in his people’s well-being
as well as he devotes time and thought in their personal development. Brian underwent the internal
6-month Leadership I programme, which is aimed and designed for the future leaders of the MAN. A
natural next step for Brian would have been an MBA or other senior leadership programme. From a
managerial point-of-view, Brian has also proven the ability of being on the constant search of cost
reduction activities. He has therefore been a profound promoter of reducing organisational
overhead and complexity by finding organisational synergies – most lately, his ideas of centralising
all supply chain activities and operations into a single organisation (including warehousing, shipping
and other separate local material management functions) are very much likely to be accepted and
implemented by the local top management in Copenhagen.
Needless to say, Brian’s impressive performance in leadership, stock turn, service level, devotion to
work, idea generation, inventory management and industriousness has been second to none,
MAN Diesel & Turbo
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HEAD OFFICE (& postal address) MAN Diesel & Turbo Teglholmsgade 41 2450 Copenhagen SV Denmark Phone: +45 33 85 11 00 Fax: +45 33 85 10 30 [email protected] www.mandieselturbo.com
PrimeServ Teglholmsgade 41 2450 Copenhagen SV Denmark Phone: +45 33 85 11 00 Fax: +45 33 85 10 49 [email protected]
PRODUCTION Teglholmsgade 35 2450 Copenhagen SV Denmark Phone: +45 33 85 11 00 Fax: +45 33 85 10 17 [email protected]
FORWARDING & RECEIVING Teglholmsgade 35 2450 Copenhagen SV
Denmark Phone: +45 33 85 11 00
Fax: +45 33 85 10 16 [email protected]
MAN Diesel & Turbo Branch of MAN Diesel & Turbo SE, Germany CVR No.: 31611792 Head office: Teglholmsgade 41 2450 Copenhagen SV, Denmark German Reg.No.: HRB 22056 Amtsgericht Augsburg
MAN Diesel & Turbo – a member of the MAN Group
benchmarked across his other SCM colleagues for other product ranges within the MAN Diesel
PrimeServ group.
On his own free will Brian pursued certification as both APICS CPIM as well as an ASQ Six Sigma
Green Belt which has made him a heavyweight in his dedication to inventory management and
production control, quality, focus on quantitative data, logical thinking and open-mindedness
towards the concept of continuous improvement. I have seen him assemble his team to transform
his knowledge into great value for our company in praxis, over and over again. As a matter of fact,
Brian also organised APICS training for seventeen of his colleagues from all levels and areas of the
organisation to have financial controllers, purchasers, sales people, warehouse managers,
production planners and more, tear down silo walls and sit together and learn about cross-
organisational collaboration and other supply chain basics.
It has been with a saddened heart that I have undertaken the writing of a reference letter for Mr.
Brian Lund as he has signalled that will now plan to venture for challenges outside of our company
due to recent organisational changes.
However, hoping that I will be able to live a continued co-operation with Mr. Brian Lund for a long
time in the future, within or outside our company I leave him with the best wishes for the future and
would congratulate any employer or partner that would enter in a business collaboration with him.
With Brian’s true dedication to a chosen company strategy, loyalty to his superior officers, diligence
and hard work in making himself and his own people prevail; I would never hesitate to recommend
Brian to any future employer for a leadership position within supply chain management or operations.
Yours Sincerely,
Gösta Schwarck Global Supply Chain Manager Master Black Belt M.Sc. - B.Sc. - ASQ CMBB - APICS CSCP MAN Diesel & Turbo SE A-DL - After Sales SCM PrimeServ Teglholmsgade 41 DK - 2450 Copenhagen SV Denmark Direct : +45 33 85 29 59 Mobile : +45 28 71 75 79 Phone : +45 33 85 11 00 Fax : +45 33 85 10 49 [email protected]