Eric Frantz

Eric’s career includes Supply Chain and Operations experience in Fortune 500 industrial companies, as well as management and thought-leader positions in consulting/software companies.  He has enabled companies to achieve competitive advantage through the implementation of best practices, optimized processes, and systems in concurrent engineering, manufacturing and operations, supply chain, and demand chain, resulting in up to 100% inventory turns improvement, 90% lead-time reduction, and 50% margin improvement.  Eric’s career includes management and consulting positions with Cincinnati Milacron, Ernst & Young, Goulds Pumps ITT, Xelus, Inc., eLogic Group, On-Point Group, Salient Corporation, QAD Inc, and as an independent consultant. 

Eric specializes in metrics and analysis of financial and value impact resulting from technology, business process change, organizational rationalization, systems implementation, capital appropriations, Activity Based Management, Demand Management, and Value Management.  He has developed unique analytical and communication skills which enable him to present the Value proposition to Executives for any business and process change, while communicating the impact to all levels of the respective organization.  Eric has utilized simulation and optimization tools to address the dynamics of highly volatile and random demand, as well as complex supply networks.  Additionally, he has authored a collection of white papers on Value DynamiXSM ( http://www.ericfrantz.com/value/index.htm) and developed a Value Assessment model for analyzing the impact of proposed business and process changes. 

Eric’s Supply Chain, Operations, and Performance Management experience includes:

§  Supply Chain Manager for Goulds Pumps ITT, including S&OP, Inventory and Capacity Planning, Live Order Scheduling, Demand Management, Procurement, Distribution, Traffic, and Quick Response Manufacturing

§  Supply Chain strategy and design consulting, including simulation, optimization, and value analysis – from assessment, through design and implementation

§  Supply Chain consulting for implementation of inventory planning software – from assessment and value analysis, through design/configuration and implementation

§  ERP, Manufacturing Systems, assessment, requirements capture, design and implementation – including development of the business case for each

§  Demand Management, utilizing capacity, supply (manufacturing, inventory, suppliers), promotion, business trends, and margin analysis for optimizing Demand and Supply by business segments

§  Product, Operations/Capacity, and Sourcing Rationalization and Merger, including the operations analysis for merging capacities and products from disparate divisions during the ITT acquisition of Goulds Pumps

§  Supply Chain performance management consulting, including metric identification, and design/implementation of performance management systems and practices

§  Supply Chain Marketing, Consulting, and Pre-Sales for Salient Corporation – a multi-dimensional performance management software solution

§  Training, Organizational Development, for application of respective business improvement programs, ensuring the institutionalizing of policies and procedures and connecting the business objectives with individual performance

Eric’s consulting experience includes:

Major discrete manufacturing industries (aerospace & defense, general industrial, automotive, electronics/semiconductor/hi tech, telecommunications), and exposure to energy, steel, and food industries.  Size of projects range from $15K to $3 million.  Clients with revenues of $5 million to $100 billion.  Examples include:

§  Value assessment of technical investments and process changes

§  Supply Chain performance management projects, utilizing performance management technologies for requirements capture, design, and implementation of performance management/dashboard systems

§  Business analyst role, as an internal consultant including identification of business improvement opportunities and system/solution selection and implementation

§  Supply Chain design utilizing simulation and optimization tools

§  Data analyses, including data cleansing, validation, aggregation, analysis, and presentation

§  System selection, including evaluation, vendor selection, design/specification, implementation, and training - utilizing techniques including Kepner-Tregoe

§  Vice President of Salient Consulting Services, including Pre-Sales consulting, design, and training of Performance Management with Salient Performance Management

§  Managed 15 implementation consultants with Xelus, Inc.

§  Managed Xelus University, including curriculum development for User training

§  Lead the specification, selection, design and implementation of Decision Support Tools for Finished Goods and Service as the User Sponsor (XELUS DRP Planning, and Red Pepper (PeopleSoft)  Finite Scheduling)

§  Sponsor of new Central Distribution Center for ITT Goulds including site selection, system selection/implementation, and staffing

§  Facilitated User Requirements Definition during design and implementation of Pansophic PRMS ERP system

§  Lead analysis/design of Activity Based Management systems for clients

§  Lead or participated in various management and operations strategy projects

§  Lead the joint “UAW-General Motors/Ernst & Young” Cost subgroup during CPC Strategy Development (1989)

§  Participated in the Xelus structured implementation process design (Rapid Value Process)

Eric’s business Value analysis experience (incremental and absolute impact of business process, technological, and organizational changes) includes:

§  Value DynamiX’s Value MetriX – Developed and utilized Value assessment model for benefits and ROI evaluation of multiple business change alternatives

§  Value DynamiX white papers on establishing the business case, and tracking performance of process, technological, and organizational changes

§  Business assessments with alignment of business goals to strategic and tactical initiatives.  Value of opportunities (strategic, tangible, etc.) of multiple altrenatives for competitive advantage

§  Project Approval Requests, including identification of business issue, alternative solutions, business impact, justification, and presentation

§  Activity Based Management, including prototype analysis and development (additionally, Salient’s solutions provide a backbone for enabling activity based costing, and for continuous improvement)

 

 

EXPERIENCE

2008-Current                               QAD, Inc.                                          Canandaigua/Santa Barbara, CA

Value Solution Consultant

    Develop the business case and Return On Investment for business process, technology, and organizational changes. Establish alignment of business objectives, strategies, and tactics with new prospects and existing clients.

2006-2008 Salient Corp.                         Canandaigua/Horseheads, NY               Vice President, Salient Consulting

    Development and presentation of the business case for Salient’s Performance Management solutions. Creation and presentation of marketing collaterals and system modeling/demonstration. Salient provides business intelligence solutions focused on performance management, including metrics and investigative techniques.

    Manage consulting organization, including personal growth, product management, Pre-Sales, solution design, and role-based training on Salient solutions.

2005-2006                               Independent Consultant                          Canandaigua, NY

Supply Chain Consultant

    Value Analysis of process, network design, and asset changes throughout the supply chain

Supply Chain Consultant, contracted with On-Point Group

    Strategic design and Tactical implementation of Supply Chain solutions utilizing performance management, and integrated simulation & optimization tools.  Enables realistic solutions to companies with random, highly variable demand and complex supply networks.  Focused on automotive and consumer goods product manufacturers and distributors.

2003-2005                                 eLogic Group, LLC                               Pittsford, NY

Senior Management Consultant, Pre-Sales

    Developed the eLogic Value Analysis model, as well as other analytical tools for mapping process improvement and business changes to executive metrics and dashboards.  These tools focus on optimization, providing trade-off alternatives based on business objectives, enterprise constraints, and current competitiveness.  These tools are invaluable for analyzing and communicating solution alternatives to all levels of the enterprise.

   Designed and implemented Performance Metrics Systems to enable tracking, controlling, and optimizing business process changes.  The metric systems encompasses congruent metrics that cascade from executive level balanced scorecards to individual and process specific indicators, and ensures synchronization of tactics and strategies to meet business objectives.  The metric systems include data extraction, aggregation/calculation, reporting, analytics, and executive dashboard.

2002-2003                                 Independent                                         Canandaigua, NY

Consultant

   Value Management Consulting, specializing in developing business cases for technological/process optimization.

   Developed an initial Value Analysis prototype model & user manual for evaluating capital projects.

   Technical Writing and Continued education on technical writing, web design, programming, HTML.  Authored a series of white papers titled Value DynamiXSM, with a focus of business impact of process and technology changes.

1998–2002                                Xelus, Inc.                                             Fairport, NY

Senior Business Consultant, Pre-Sales

   Conducted Value Impact Analyses to prospective Service Management software clients – Mapping value to process changes.  Successful sales campaigns of $10 million revenue, with the projected Value to the client:

-Major Airline                                                $200 million+

-Semiconductor Equipment Mfg.                    $ 35 million+

-Aviation Distributor                                      $ 35 million+

-Telecommunications                                     $100 million+

-Electronics                                                   $ 50 million+

   15 additional Value analyses averaging $1 million in revenue, $50 million Value projection.   Documented and presented business process and Value mapping to prospective Service/Distribution Management software clients

   Developed prototype Value Analysis model

   Managed Xelus University, including curriculum development for User training

   Trained clients on business value of technological investments

   Co-authored white papers, including The Value Impact of Service Optimization

   Developed Value Analysis training course

   Designated by CEO as Spokesman to Investors (pre IPO), Senior Management, Sales – presenting the Xelus’s Value Creation story – how Xelus sells value, and Value results from current clients

   Managed 15 application consultants for implementation of Enterprise Service Management software/processes utilizing structured implementation methodology (Rapid Value Process)

   Lead XelusMark benchmarking project

1998                                         Advantage Professionals                        Rochester, NY

Technical Recruiter

   Matched clients and candidates in technically oriented positions.  Clients ranged from Fortune 100 to small independent companies.

1992–1997                                ITT, Goulds Pumps                              Seneca Falls, NY

Supply Chain Manager, Planning Manager - Planning, Procurement, and Logistics

   Managed the Supply Chain of more than 100 professionals for a highly vertically integrated industrial products company, including procurement, planning, distribution, traffic, and a supporting job shop for rapid response.  Lead the implementation of strategies to segment the operations by order type (Standard, Assemble-To-Order, Engineer –To-Order) in order to optimize performance.  The successful development of sourcing strategies, focus factories, rationalized distribution network, and collaborative planning resulted in lead-time reductions of more than 50% for standard products, lead-time reductions of more than 80% for quick response items, and cost savings of up to 20% on raw materials.  The refocused distribution network achieved a 30% reduction in network inventory while exceeding customer expectations for availability, responsiveness, and guaranteed stocking.

   Lead the Demand Management Process and monthly review with an industrial products company's senior management resulting in Inventory Turns improvement of 60%, and reduction of backlog by 80%.  This vertically integrated company had the challenge of planning up to 9 levels of Bill Of Materials for thousands of permutations of their product, while faced with competitive pressures to reduce lead-times and product costs, and dramatically improve on-time performance.  The Demand Management process enabled all functions to collaborate in order to maximize profitability and gain competitive advantage.

   Facilitated User Requirements Definition during design and implementation of Pansophic PRMS ERP system, including documentation and training

   Lead the specification, selection, design and implementation of Decision Support Tools (XELUS DRP Planning, and Red Pepper (PeopleSoft) Finite Scheduling) for Finished Goods and Service as the User Sponsor..

   Lead the strategy/implementation of the service parts network including a new Central Distribution Center (Memphis) and Warehouse Management System

   Lead the Manufacturing Strategy Analysis during ITT's acquisition of Goulds Pumps - including the operations analysis for merging capacities and products from disparate divisions

1986-88, 1989-92                       Independent Consultant                        Cincinnati, OH

   Designed and implemented Enterprise Resource Planning systems and Flexible Manufacturing processes with Fortune 500 companies including documentation, presentation, and training

   Designed and implemented Activity-Based Management projects with Fortune 500 companies – Focused on restructuring Cost Accounting and identifying Continuous Improvement Opportunities

   Lead vendor selection process for software/manufacturing systems utilizing Kepner-Tregoe approach

1988–1989                                Arthur Young/Ernst & Young              Cincinnati, OH

Manager

   Lead Cost sub-group in Management/Union Strategy implementation with General Motors

   Analyzed and designed Activity-Based Management systems for Fortune 500 companies

1979–1986                                Cincinnati Milacron                               Cincinnati, OH

Manager

   Developed, presented, and administered Customer Training - CNC machine tools and Robotics Programming & Operations

   Managed Technical Center - Training/demonstrations of robotics annd CNC

   Designed Flexible Manufacturing Systems

1975–1979                                Morse Chain, Borg-Warner                    Ithaca, NY

Sales Engineer

   Trained Distributors and Customers on Power Transmission products

   Technical Sales assignments

 

PERSONAL

Eric holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a Masters of Business Administration in Operations Management from the University Of Cincinnati.  He is a long-distance runner including marathons, and enjoys technical and pleasure writing, having published his first time-travel romance novel.