James R. Eilers

James R. Eilers, CPIM

740 South Ardmore

Villa Park, IL 60181

Email James.Eilers@jreilers.org

Mobile 630/390-9342

http://jreilers.org

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jameseilers

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

“Can do” team player makes new ways and improved methods pay off. APICS certified professional with extensive manufacturing experience supports operations, manufacturing planning, materials management, and sales and operations planning. Proficient with computer systems to support manufacturing planning and supply chain activities including ERP systems, MRP, master scheduling, perpetual inventory, and forecasting. Proficient 'influencer' with extensive experience guiding those over whom I have little direct authority. Food Industry background also includes quality assurance, sanitation, regulatory affairs, and technical writing.

EMPLOYMENT

Sara Lee, Downers Grove, IL July 2005 – February 2009

Fortune 500 company manufacturing and marketing food brands including Ball Park, Douwe Egberts, Hillshire Farm, Jimmy Dean, Superior and many more

Demand Planner

Led cross-functional team to turn around struggling operations within the sauces and dressings business for Sara Lee Food Service. During this 2 ½ year effort, saw unit fill rate performance rise from approx 95% (vs a 98.65% target) until rate exceeded 99% for over 52 weeks running. Managed and controlled inventories to support fill rates while minimizing inventory excess. Facilitated weekly Operations (Pre-S&OP) review coordinating Manufacturing activity with Sales, Marketing, Customer Service and Quality Assurance.

Responsible for Advanced Planning and Scheduling activities within Sara Lee's Food Service division. Develop forecasts used to create production plans carried out at Sara Lee plants. Participate in monthly S&OP Category Reviews. Worked with coffee and tea plants, spices and sauces & dressings facilities.

Implemented planning system that calculates replenishment orders for stocked SKUs and provides 4-week projections for capacity and ingredient requirements. Executed ongoing planning within the live system.

Performed periodic system queries to provide reports needed for Demand Planning and ad hoc queries to provide guidance to Manufacturing, Distribution, and Customer Service.

Performed special projects as required such as supporting SKU Rationalization efforts and managing Sara Lee’s exit from Hills Brothers coffees. Acted as the APS lead to redistribute New Orleans coffee production to alternate facilities following Hurricane Katrina. Coordinated Operations activities during 6-month transition to new owners when Dressings business was sold.

ConAgra Foods, Naperville, IL August 2003 - May 2005

Fortune 500 food company manufacturing and marketing brands including Healthy Choice, Eckrich, Butterball and many more

Category Inventory Manager

Accountable for Distribution Requirements Planning for the weekly national distribution of 1.6 million pounds of perishable foods.

Managed inventories to support fulfillment of customer orders at the rate of 98.5% or greater.

Maintained stock rotation to achieve less than 1% product distress

Provided data and participated in monthly Sales and Operations Planning process

Supported roll out of SAP R/3 ERP system, provided coaching and mentoring of peers

Implemented "Logility MP" (manufacturing planning) software for scheduling at four plants

Alliance in Cyberspace, Villa Park, IL July 2002 - July 2003

Proprietorship providing PC and software services to small businesses

Proprietor

Developed and maintained company web pages

Provided system maintenance and technical support

Provided “Help Desk” services via telephone

Specified and installed small office network solutions

IFS North America, Schaumburg, IL January 2000 – July 2002

U.S. startup of a $350MM European mid-market ERP provider

Business Analyst

Provided implementation services to companies installing IFS Applications

Managed and resolved implementation issues, with appropriate attention to issue priority and project budget

Served on multiple implementation teams for numerous customer companies

Specialized in Forecasting, Material Requirements Planning, Master Production Scheduling, Capacity

Requirements Planning, Purchased-Parts Planning, Inventory, and Quality Assurance

Developed solutions to acquire material at the right cost, the right quantity, the right time

Established basic data: bills of materials, routings, work centers, inventory parts, etc.

Coached customers on improved business processes to support implementation goals

Provided training and implementation support to core implementation teams and end users

Supported companies using make-to-stock, make-to-order, and configure-to-order strategies

World's Finest Chocolate, Chicago, IL 1993 -1999

Manufacturer of chocolate and distributor of chocolate and gift items ($100MM)

Inventory Control Specialist (1995-1999)

Replaced manual materials management procedures with best practice methods using SAP/R3

Served as SAP “super user” for Materials Management, Inventory, and Production Planning

Implemented master production scheduling and material requirements planning (MRP)

Introduced and supported formal production planning disciplines

Trained and coached SAP end-users

Established and managed perpetual inventory system

Translated sales/budget into annual production forecasts; managed forecasts throughout year

Ordered production or acquisition of materials to support customer requirements

Served as acting Department Head for Materials Management Group; 4 direct reports

Recruited and managed staff for Materials Management Group, both salaried and hourly

Performed materials planning using make-to-forecast and make-to-order strategies

Served operations team overseeing cost reduction/cost avoidance

Production Supervisor (1994)

Supervised all aspects of quality and production for $20MM "Advance Order Program"

Managed year-round workforce of 20 plus seasonal crew up to 200

Implemented BPCS (AS-400) to support Advance Order Program

Applied principles of Total Quality Management to Advance Order Program

Utilized statistical process control to deliver program with over 99% pick accuracy

Lead company-wide team to develop manufacturing process documentation

Served on the Advance Order Operations team, planning and implementing program policies

Supervisor of Quality Assurance (1993)

Established and managed Quality Assurance system for Advance Order Program

Developed corporate Product Recall Policy

Developed PC-based methods for tracking product lots to support recall plan

Served on the Advance Order Operations team, planning and implementing program policies

Consultant/Technical Writer , Lombard, IL 1993

Food Processing Magazine, Chicago, IL 1990-1992

Indian Summer, Des Plaines, IL 1989

American Dairy Products Institute, Chicago, IL 1986-1989

Swiss Valley Farms Company, Bangor, WI 1979-1986

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

American Production and Inventory Control Society -- Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM)

Institute of Food Technologists – Professional Member

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Science, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 1976

Work I love to do

There’s nothing more fun than bringing together a group of individuals and getting them to pull all in the same direction. Individuals nearly always make the right choices needed for themselves alone, but often do not account for how those decisions could impact others outside their own department. My idea of success is when there’s a mature team coming up with decisions that make the most sense for the venture as a whole, not serving only the specific tasks of individual specialties.

I love to make systems and software work for me, not the other way around. How many people do you know who are slaves to the systems with which they must work? Sure, all systems have limitations and constraints, but I have succeeded when I’m sure that I’m getting the most from system tools and I’m working around limitations no more than absolutely necessary.

It’s extremely satisfying to mine and interpret information that will help make appropriate business decisions. We’re surrounded by data every day. The trick (and the fun) is separating the useful data from that which is not. Some data are misleading, some flat out wrong. When properly filtered and interpreted, there’s gold in them there hills.

A Virtual Interview

A virtual interview with James R. Eilers, CPIM

The “behavioral interview” has become a popular tool in the kit of recruiting managers. Following is my virtual interview using a half dozen sample behavioral interview questions selected by my wife from Quintessential Careers, http://www.quintcareers.com/

Tell me about a time you had to use your presentation skills to influence someone’s opinion.

In my last position, my duties included providing corporate planning and scheduling support for a struggling production plant. The staff there worked very hard, but did not have a broad knowledge of planning and they were suspicious of any methods that deviated from the single method that had been used at their plant since before any of them worked there…. it was the only method they knew….”that’s the way it’s always been done.”

To help broaden their perspective and to sell them on using alternate methods that better fit much of their business, we brought the group together at an outside facility where I presented them with a sort of short-course on some statistical analyses that made sense for them to consider. I presented them with concepts and examples using a combination of prepared materials in Power Point and whiteboard exercises.

Tell me about a time when you had to go above and beyond the call of duty to get a job done.

Recently at Sara Lee I was involved in supporting the sale of a large business unit. Among the sale were a couple production facilities. In the ‘future state’ after the sale, we would still need these facilities to produce for us, but the plants would then be outside suppliers that sold material to us. This meant that all those materials would need to be converted into “purchased products” to be acquired through the Procurement Division. The workload on the Procurement staff was staggering. I saw where I had the tools and knowledge to help by providing needed data analyses and I was able to give them some work relief even though it technically wasn’t my job to do so. This contributed to the success of the business transition.

Give me an example of a time you tried to accomplish something and failed.

A couple years ago when setting annual goals and objectives, my boss and I came to agreement on a series of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to be applied. One of these was a corporately mandated standard called Order Fill Rate (if the customer’s order is for 20 cases and we deliver 20 cases, that is satisfactory, if we deliver 19 it is not). The standard was to have more than 94% of orders fill without a shortage. Without belaboring the details, one of my business units had physical constraints they could not overcome. In order to reach the target in this case, we would have needed to modify our customers ordering methods. Since I was not in a position to influence customers in my role, we did not attain goal for Order Fill Rate.

Give me a specific example of a time you had to conform to a policy with which you did not agree.

I’ve had to do this every year at annual performance review time. I’ve always disliked the formal review process, but have had to comply because reviews have been required and because I frankly don’t have a better idea about what should be done instead. It’s my belief that a worker and supervisor should be communicating daily in such a manner that the annual review is not necessary; each knows perfectly well where the other stands. Until I can figure out how to formalize and administer a non-review process however, I’ll have to tolerate reviews.

What is your typical way of dealing with conflict. Give an example.

I have often been called on to facilitate cross-functional teams, and conflicts will invariably occur, especially when the team is new and just learning to work together. When conflict does arise, it’s first necessary to allow all parties the chance to have their story heard. Once that has occurred, I bring the focus of discussion to common goals, the big-picture view of the group’s mission. When commonality is understood then work toward a solution becomes easier. In my last position it was common for last-minute customer orders to cause hardships for getting products produced in time and then for getting them to and through the distribution center on time. I often needed to help everyone stay focused on the big picture.

Tell me about a time you were successfully able to deal with another person even when that individual may not have personally liked you (or vice versa.)

I once was handed an employee to manage, and she was very hard to like. She had gotten the job because her mother worked for the same company, and frankly Mom had made herself so obnoxious about it that my own boss caved in and gave the daughter a job and then handed her off to me. This young woman was loud, opinionated, and ill tempered. I made it my goal to never, ever show her anything other than completely appropriate professional behavior while at the same time demanding that she do the same. It was a tough road but I came to recognize a keen mind inside that rough exterior and I did all I could to encourage her to further her education and professionalism. That was a long time ago; I hope she’s turned out all right.

Describe a time when you anticipated potential problems and developed preventive measures.

I mentioned the sale of a business unit in an earlier response. Here is another case. We had sold a division, but in this case we were to manage the business for the new owners for a six-month period while they established their own systems and infrastructure. Part of our role in the transition was to help minimize any business disruption during that six-month period. I recognized that our customers tended to “stock up” on products when they anticipated rough seas ahead and that they could cause us to stock-out and leave orders short. I approached our Marketing Department, which would have to fund my idea if they agreed, and we worked out a plan to temporarily build a percentage of surplus inventory as safety stock for the early transition, which was followed by a plan to bring inventory back to normal levels after things had quieted down.