Fix Supplier Delivery. Cut Supplier Costs.
Expand Industrial EBITDA.
I align operations and commercial — connecting the silos between sales pipelines, procurement spend, and factory capacity — with Fortune 100-grade discipline, 100% remotely, and zero permanent overhead.
PE Operating Partners
PortCo Leadership
Owner-CEOs
Manufacturing & Industrials
Where Profit Gets Trapped
Silos inside mid-market industrials and PE portfolios bleed margins before leadership teams even realize there is a leak.
Supplier Costs Climb While Delivery Slips
Tariffs, freight, and "annual adjustments" have compounded for years — while late shipments and missed commitments quietly disrupt production. Lean purchasing teams end up expediting and firefighting instead of managing supplier cost and performance.
Departments That Don’t Talk
Purchasing teams often buy in bulk to get paper discounts, without checking with the factory floor. This accidental disconnect creates supply bottlenecks, stalls sales velocity, and freezes up vital cash in unsold inventory.
Teams Buried by M&A Friction
Right after a deal closes, local management teams get completely overwhelmed fighting daily fires. They simply don't have the time or bandwidth to clean up, combine, and organize the messy operational data from a newly acquired bolt-on company.
Unifying Sales, Sourcing, and Production
Most businesses do not need more top-line revenue to grow profit. They need to stop the cash leaks already inside their systems.
I bridge the gaps between your commercial pipeline, your purchasing calendar, and your shop-floor capacity. The result is a unified, bi-weekly data rhythm that permanently eliminates departmental silos.
Sales CRM Pipeline DataReal-Time Demand Forecasts
Operations & Capacity Planning (SIOP)Optimal Factory Load Balance
Strategic Sourcing ExecutionAggregated and Risk-Insulated Buying
What's the Opportunity in Your Business?
Supplier savings flow 100% to the bottom line — then get multiplied at exit. Adjust the inputs to size the prize for one company or one portfolio holding.
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%
×
Conservative 3%10%Aggressive 20%
$2.0M
Annual Savings — Direct to EBITDA
$25.0M
New Revenue Needed for the Same Profit
$12.0M
Enterprise Value Created at Exit
Revenue-equivalent assumes savings drop straight to profit while new revenue earns your net margin. Enterprise value = run-rate savings × valuation multiple — savings must be contracted and documented to survive diligence.
Ryan S. Howard
Fractional Operating Partner · Six Sigma Black Belt
I step into mid-market companies and PE portfolios to protect margins, eliminate structural silos, and de-risk supplier networks. Backed by 20+ years of Fortune 100 operating experience — including 17 years at John Deere in global supply management, cost management, and operations leadership — I deliver enterprise-grade operational playbooks entirely on a 100% remote basis.
$55M
Direct Spend Category Portfolio Managed
$1.2B
Divisional Material Cost Forecast Directed
Fortune 100
Authored John Deere's Global Risk Readiness Audit System
22 Countries
200+ Global Sourcing Pipelines Optimized
High-Leverage Remote Sprints
Strategic, non-invasive engagements for Private Equity sponsors, portfolio company leaders, and owner-CEOs of manufacturing and industrial businesses. Deployed within 72 hours to deliver high-impact clarity.
No binders of advice. Every sprint ends with an installed system your team actually runs.
The Institutional Operational Readiness Audit
A non-invasive remote health check built to stress-test your existing supply base, internal workflows, and departmental handoffs against world-class manufacturing standards.
Key Focus Area:
Using a proprietary modification of the John Deere Global Readiness framework, I don't look at departments in isolation. I audit the critical handoffs where profit gets trapped: specifically testing if your active sales pipeline data smoothly updates your manufacturing scheduling, and whether your procurement lead times can support that volume without forcing expensive shop-floor chaos, stockouts, or administrative friction.
Pre-M&A Spend & Operational Capacity Diagnostic
A rapid, 14-day remote data-room assessment to validate the operational baseline and capacity of a target acquisition before capital is deployed.
Key Focus Area:
I ingest the target's raw ERP spend files and Bill of Materials (BOM). Beyond identifying immediate unit-cost reduction opportunities, I cross-reference their supplier contracts against real-world capacity constraints to ensure their supply base won't bottleneck fulfillment the moment you attempt to scale the top-line post-close.
Selling instead of buying? The same diagnostic works in reverse — know what a buyer's diligence will find before they do, and fix it while it still adds to your multiple.
Post-M&A Operations & Sourcing Integration Playbook
An intensive 30-day remote sprint built to merge operating systems and capture rapid post-close synergies without overloading lean internal teams.
Key Focus Area:
I normalize purchasing categories across the combined entities to drop material costs. Crucially, I build and install a rolling cross-functional SIOP (Sales, Inventory, Operations Planning) framework. This system forces your sales pipeline, procurement calendars, and production schedules into a unified data rhythm—permanently eliminating departmental silos and freeing up trapped working capital.
Custom Operational Sprints & Retainers
Need a highly targeted intervention? I deploy rapid, remote expertise to solve specific supply chain and operational bottlenecks without requiring a full structural audit.
Common Custom Engagements:
- Rapid Supplier Remote Assessments: Deep-dive vetting of critical vendors to prevent fulfillment failures.
- Spend Cube Analysis: Aggregating and organizing messy purchasing data to find immediate cost synergies.
- RFQ & Supplier Benchmarking: Running structured sourcing events to test the market and lower unit costs.
- Contract Negotiation: Expert backing to negotiate and lock in high-stakes vendor agreements.
- Second Set of Eyes — Plan Reviews: Independent review of a new leader's 90-day plan, a value-creation roadmap, or a stalled turnaround — pressure-tested against two decades of Fortune 100 execution before you commit people and capital.
- Strategic Account Growth: Buyer-side coaching to win and expand key OEM and enterprise accounts — insight from 17 years sitting on the customer's side of the table.
- Team Up-Skilling: Coaching lean internal purchasing teams to execute like enterprise-grade sourcing professionals.
Value Built on Lasting Foundations
Work is more than profit—it is a calling. Through my doctoral research in biblical studies (Ph.D.), I came to understand daily work as a ministry designed to develop leaders, build sustainable trust, and serve community health. This perspective guides how I lead, solve industrial problems, and construct corporate systems designed to create long-term value.
Host of Cutting Edge Faith, a globally ranked top-10% podcast on work, faith, and culture.
Stop the Leaks. Scale with Confidence.
Book a 30-minute operational strategy call. Bring your biggest constraint — leave with a clear read on where the money is and what it would take to capture it.
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