Headline

Associate Director – Operational Excellence and Continuous Improvement | Supply Chain | TPM | Driving Cost Reduction & Business Profitability | Six Sigma Black Belt

About

Associate Director with 13+ years leading end-to-end manufacturing operations and enterprise-wide transformation. Currently head a cross-functional team spanning Production Planning & Control, Production, RM Planning, Procurement, SCM, and Process Excellence. Track record of driving meaningful cost savings across raw materials, plant operations, and supply chain, and turning around plant profitability through TPM, Lean Manufacturing, vendor development, backward integration, and engineering optimization. Selected areas of impact: - Significantly improved First Time Right (FTR) through Poka-Yoke implementation and structured Kaizens - Reduced inline wastage through BOM adherence protocols and SOP standardization - Substantially improved OEE and MTBF while reducing MTTR through TPM methodology - Delivered a major reduction in overall plant inventory through structured data management and MIS implementation - Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, and lead auditor for IATF 16949, ISO 9001/14001/45001, and OHSAS 18001. Key areas of expertise: Lean Manufacturing & TPM | Value Stream Mapping | RCA/FMEA | Supply Chain & Inventory Management | Cost Reduction | KPI Dashboards & Governance | Change Management

Location

Bengaluru

Work experience

Associate Director at Wakefit, Aug 2025 - Present · 1 yr 3 mos, Bengaluru, Led cross-functional manufacturing and supply chain operations, collaborating with functional heads across Production, Quality, NPD, SCM, Procurement, and HR to drive business outcomes. Delivered raw material cost reduction through strategic sourcing, alternate vendor development, open costing, specification optimization, engineering changes, and backward integration initiatives. Achieved plant cost reduction by deploying TPM pillars: Focused Improvement (Kobetsu Kaizen) – loss elimination, Autonomous Maintenance (Jishu Hozen) – operator-led equipment care, Planned Maintenance – improved MTBF and reduced breakdowns, Improved First Time Right (FTR) through Poka-Yoke implementation, structured Kaizens, and One Point Lessons (OPLs). Optimized supply chain costs by reducing middle-mile logistics costs and optimizing warehouse manpower planning. Reduced reprocessing cost by minimizing inventory damage, improving handling systems, and reducing customer escalations, returns, and replacements. Reduced retail selling cost by improving revenue per sq. ft. Through layout optimization, assortment planning, and productivity enhancement. Improved overall profitability.

Senior Manager Process Excellence at Wakefit, Sep 2022 - Aug 2025 · 3 yrs, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Senior Management Consultant at Faber Infinite Consulting, Apr 2021 - Sep 2022 · 1 yr 6 mos, Pune Division, Led operational and strategic excellence engagements across automotive, FMCG, pharmaceutical, heavy machinery, textile, and laminates clients spanning India and Africa. - Analyzed a ₹245 Cr inventory base for an automotive client (₹2,100 Cr turnover) and reduced overall plant inventory by 47% through categorization, dilution of unwanted stock, and inventory modeling - Led Lean Facility Design for a 70,000 sq. m FMCG spice manufacturing site, driving a 108% improvement in tonnage/square foot through capacity planning, process flow design, and layout mapping across 300+ machines - Mapped end-to-end business processes (VSM) for a pharmaceutical client (₹290 Cr turnover), increasing OEE from 49% to 81%, improving MTBF by 39%, reducing MTTR by 33%, and boosting productivity by 121% through line balancing and time study - Identified 50+ Kaizens during structured workshops; reduced a ₹21 Cr inventory base by 63% and cut machine setup time by 46% via SMED - Developed in-depth financial models (Activity Based Costing) for a heavy machinery client (₹960 Cr turnover), reducing overall plant inventory by 38% through Kanban and inventory management models - Designed a lean facility layout for a 21,000 sq. ft textile site, improving the transportation index by 48% Reduced quality rejections from 12% to 2.9% and improved OEE by 22% for a laminates client (₹421 Cr turnover); set up an OTIF monitoring dashboard, lifting OTIF by 44% and cutting lead time from 7 days to 2 through a finished-goods supermarket model - Improved OEE by 19% and machine utilization by 21% for a food industry client in Nairobi, Kenya, alongside a 32% reduction in changeover time via SMED

TPM and Improvement Projects Co-ordinator at JSW Steel, Jul 2013 - Mar 2021 · 7 yrs 9 mos, Mumbai Area, India

Business Excellence Manager at JSW Steel, Jul 2013 - Mar 2021 · 7 yrs 9 mos, Driving Improvement projects to improve KPIs like production, quality, and cost. OEE improvement was the key focus. RCA countermeasure effectiveness was also tracked to study the effectiveness of RCA. Was responsible for implementing Quality management, TPM pillars. Skill mapping was done to identify the skill gaps and TNI. Prepare SOP so that variations could be reduced. Coordinator in the pursuit of Deming Prize. Certified lead auditor for IATF 16949 and ISO 9001, 45001, and OHSAS 18001.

Education

Master of Business Administration - MBA, Operations Management and Supervision, SVKM's Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS)

Bachelor of Engineering - BE, Mechanical Engineering, shivaji university