Christian Basedow is an senior associate in Booz Company’s Frankfurt office. He specializes in manufacturing and supply-chain management for the pharmaceutical, chemicals, oil, and capital goods industries.

Before joining Booz & Company, Basedow gained industrial experience at a German engineering and construction company, including an assignment at the company’s South African subsidiary. He received masters degrees in industrial engineering at the University of Karlsruhe in Germany and the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States. He is fluent in English and German.

His most recent assignments include—

• A brownfield transformation of a pharmaceutical company based in Europe and the United States: The project included in-plant optimization of chemical, pharmaceutical, and packaging plants with short- and medium-term savings opportunities, lead-time improvements, and the introduction of a global production system.
• A brownfield transformation of an oil-exploration joint venture in Central Africa: This was a major transformation program with realized cost savings and productivity improvements in the areas of exploration, production, logistics, procurement, and non-technical services.
• Sourcing for a Tier 1 automotive supplier based in Europe and the United States: The project included direct materials sourcing with a focus on supplier consolidation and supply-network optimization.

Hans Bohnen is a principal in Booz & Company’s Dusseldorf office. He has significant experience in leading business excellence programs, focusing on operational and commercial improvement transformations for the pharmaceutical, chemicals, and manufacturing industries.

Before joining Booz & Company, Bohnen spent 10 years in the chemical and manufacturing industries in Europe and North America. He holds an MSc (with distinction) from Gerhard-Mercotor-University-Duisburg, and a PhD (summa cum laude) in chemistry from Eberhard-Karls-University-Tübingen, an MBA from Aston Business School (UK), and an MBB degree for Lean Six Sigma.

His recent assignments include—

• Optimizing a manufacturing network for a leading European steel producer to increase the overall throughput, with a focus on supply-chain processes and bottleneck units. The client achieved substantial performance increases in throughput time as well as gaining a new planning system.

Amit Gautam is an associate in Booz & Company's Chicago office. His background includes experience in manufacturing and product design across several industries.

Before joining Booz & Company, Gautam was a design engineer at General Electric Aircraft Engines (GE-AE), and is GE Six-Sigma Green Belt certified.

Gautam holds an MBA from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, where he founded the Organizational Leadership Club. He received a bachelors degree in technology from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay.

His most recent assignments include—

Georgina Grenon is a senior associate in Booz& Company’s Paris office. She is the director of business development and intellectual capital efforts involving manufacturing and cross-industry supply-chain issues.

Before joining Booz & Company, Grenon worked in new-business development at YPF, an Argentina-based international and integrated oil and petrochemicals company (now Repsol-YPF). She received an MBA with honors from INSEAD (Dean’s List) and an MSC with honors in chemical engineering at the Instituto Tecnologico de Buenos Aires. She is fluent in Spanish, English, and French, has working knowledge of Portuguese, and has comprehension of Italian.

Some examples of her recent assignment include—

• Managed the Eastern European asset-portfolio assessment for a leading energy company
• Managed identification and planned implementation of cost-reduction opportunities within the integration and business re-organization of a major energy company
• Managed a full process review and diagnostic of improvement opportunities across eight European countries for the logistics division of a major retail business
• Managed the identification and assessment of new business opportunities for the European strategic-marketing division of a consumer electronics company;
• Managed a pre- and post-merger integration process for the supply and trading division of two leading energy companies
  Managed a portfolio assessment of a packaging machinery group, in light of an imminent takeover
• Managed the turnaround of a private bank, leading the CEO’s agenda from strategy definition to full implementation and change management.

Kaj Grichnik is a partner in Booz & Company’s Munich office. As a research and practice leader in manufacturing transformations, he has visited more than 350 factories in the past 10 years. His manufacturing expertise has focused on the pharmaceutical, food, automotive and aerospace industries.

Before joining Booz & Company, Grichnik worked in the biotech industry. He received masters degrees in geology and microeconomics and holds an MSc from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is fluent in Dutch, English, French, and German.

His recent assignments include—

• A transformation of the global network of factories for a European pharmaceutical and biotech company, obtaining line-management signatures for roughly 15 percent savings on plant budgets
• A repeat implementation of shop-floor teams and detailed activity-based comparison-plant support functions for a global confectionary and beverages company in France, Germany, Poland, and Turkey
• An implementation of lean manufacturing in all factories of an aerospace company, establishing a lean assessment tool, a plant-performance management system, and a DFM diagnostic.

Ronald Haddock is a partner in Booz & Company’s Shanghai office. He joined Booz & Company in 1994 in New York, and has been serving the Asian markets since 1997 from Booz & Company’s offices in China, Korea, and India. His recent work has focused on helping foreign and domestic companies in China build world-class capabilities in operations across their business systems to become more competitive as the capital markets increasingly demand a greater balance between growth, a traditionally strong driver of value creation, and operations and organizational excellence.

Prior to joining Booz & Company, Haddock was an officer in the U.S. Army with assignments on the General Staff and in various leadership positions in field operating units in Germany and in the United States. He received his undergraduate degree in economics and engineering from the U.S. Military Academy, West Point,  and a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

Haddock has a long track record of managing complex, multidimensional transformation programs that encompass corporate and business strategy, organization and change, and operations strategies. Many of his Asian-based clients have succeeded in deploying their newfound capabilities developed in their home markets across the Asia Pacific markets and into the United States and Europe.

Peter von Hochberg is a partner in Booz & Company's Düsseldorf office. He has broad experience in supply chain and manufacturing work in many industries, from discrete manufacturing to process industries. His client base ranges from automotive to machinery to process to services.

von Hochberg holds a masters in public administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a masters in economics from University of Bonn in Germany. Before joining Booz & Company in 2003, he was executive vice president of software start-up Questrix Inc., based in California and Europe, and spent 14 years with McKinsey & Co. as a partner of the firm´s operations practice.

Selected examples of his client work include—

• A restructuring program for a plant that produces air-plant components: This included site layout, lean process design and shop floor organization, and a redesign of the whole supply chain, including sourcing in low-cost countries.
• A plant-management assignment for a leading provider of on-road electronic appliances: The team assumed crucial day-to-day management responsibilities to ramp up a greenfield plant in a time-critical situation and to ensure maximum output to meet a tight shipment deadline and required volumes.
• A manufacturing-site optimization for a large industry client in Germany to create a lean production system, including designing new material and information flows, layout changes, and a new management concept to drive continuous improvement.
• A core-process redesign program for an automotive client in Europe in order generation (R+D, engineering, sales and marketing) and order fulfilment. This included aggressive performance targets for each business process, benchmark based process redesign, implementation management, system adjustments and creation of balanced score cards. The client achieved substantial performance increases in throughput time and quality across all processes and significant cost reductions in all enterprise areas.
• A restructuring program for a process industry customer in Germany, which included redesigning the plant footprint, streamlining the supply chain, and restructuring the individual production site.

Steve Lague is an associate in Booz& Company's London office. He is a fully qualified Master Black Belt in Six Sigma and specializes in Lean Six Sigma and supply chain management.

Before joining Booz & Company, Lague worked for 10 years in the automotive industry, holding various positions in manufacturing management. He holds a BSc (Hons) degree in physics and a PhD in the field of liquid semiconductors, both from the University of Bristol, UK.

His recent assignments include—

• Performing a Lean assessment of a retail goods manufacturer and constructing a roadmap to move the factory toward world-class status.

Arvind Kaushal is a principal in Booz & Company's Chicago office. He has more than 7 years of management consulting experience in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Mexico, and India. Kaushal helps clients in developing manufacturing and product strategy, assessing growth opportunities, and driving large organizational changes. He focuses on automotive companies, including Tier 1 suppliers and OEMs, industrials, and building products. He has also worked in financial services, logistics, energy, telecommunications, and media.

Kaushal received his MBA with gold medal from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Calcutta, India, and his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering with honors from IIT Roorkee in India. He worked for IBM Global Services India Limited prior to business school.

Select projects Kaushal has worked on—

• Manufacturing-complexity assessment and operations strategy for a U.S. kitchen-cabinet manufacturer
• Competitive cost assessment and analysis of product design and performance for a manufacturer of HVAC mechanical equipment and controls
• Global manufacturing-network strategy for a supplier of automotive heat exchangers
• Manufacturing-network strategy for a major supplier of automotive interiors
• Manufacturing strategy and network optimization for a manufacturer of automotive batteries in North America and Europe
• Due diligence on a turnaround plan for a Japanese auto maker and assessment of the company’s strategic alternatives in North America
• Design and implementation of smart customization strategies for Treasury service delivery operations of a large bank in the United States
• Channel and product strategy for a Chilean wood molding and doors manufacturer to help double North American revenues
• Organization restructuring and low value-add activities elimination for operational divisions of a $20 billion+ logistics provider
• Strategic-sourcing studies and sales-forecasting processes for an integrated steel manufacturer in India.

Hans-Jörg Kutschera is a senior associate in Booz & Company's Munich office. He focuses on manufacturing strategy, cost reduction, make-or-buy decisions, and factory footprint optimization.

Before joining Booz & Company, Kutschera founded a nanotechnology start-up, where he is still a member of the advisory board. He holds a PhD in physics from Ludwig Maxililians University, Munich, Germany.

His recent projects include—

• Developing a production performance-management system for an aerostructure manufacturer
• Facilitating low-cost country supplier selection by assessing more than 10 Eastern European plants.

Curt Mueller is a principal in Booz & Company’s Chicago office. He has worked across industries and functional groups to launch new products, deliver cost reductions, create value, increase operating and manufacturing efficiency, and improve supply-chain performance.

Mueller received an MBA with High Distinction from the University of Michigan Business School and was appointed to the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society. His areas of concentration were strategy and operations management. He also received a BS in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan.

His recent projects include—

• Leading a global media company in the operations integration of their autonomously run businesses: He facilitated the integration with senior executives, identifying operational leverage programs generating more than $400 million in savings across labor productivity, outsourcing/offshoring, operational excellence, IT consolidation, product rationalization, global sourcing, new-product development, mergers and acquisitions, labor pay and benefits, and pricing opportunities.
• Leading the global network design transformation for a leading office equipment manufacturer: He worked across the organization to design an integrated manufacturing and distribution network to significantly reduce costs, reduce customer lead times, optimize truckload and transportation utilization, and build flexibility for increasing the mix of imported products and components.
• Leading the transformation of the marketing/media and legal functions for a global consumer packaged goods company. He worked with marketing to improve the buying efficiency while enhancing the effectiveness of marketing messages across the entire value chain of marketing materials (point of purchase, catalogs, and guides) and marketing services (media buying, media production, testing, and post-buy analyses).

Jérôme Pellan is an senior associate in & Company’s Paris office. He specializes in manufacturing and engineering management for the automotive and industrials sectors.

Before joining Booz & Company, Pellan gained experience at large industrial organizations through six years at Renault S.A. for 6 years and five years Renault Trucks. During that time, he held several senior positions in manufacturing, performance improvement, and product planning. His responsibilities included a greenfield automotive plant project in Brazil and the leadership of the manufacturing engineering department at a truck assembly plant.

Pellan graduated from Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées and received a masters degree in industrial engineering and engineering management from Stanford University. He is fluent in French, English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

His most recent assignments include—

• Post-merger integration of two market leaders in the refrigeration business. The project integrated analysis of the companies’ business models for their service activities in France and levers of performance improvement. It led to the design of an optimized business model.
• The deployment of a common Lean production system across 21 plants of a leading aerospace company, based on detailed assessment of the company’s capabilities and potential for improvement.

Michael Pfitzmann is a principal in Booz & Company’s Chicago office. His areas of specific focus and expertise include manufacturing strategy, competitive cost analysis, sourcing, and operations management.

Before joining Booz & Company, Pfitzmann worked as a vice president for WOPF Befestigungselemente GmbH, a German manufacturing firm. He received an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and a masters in engineering management from the McCormick School of Engineering, both of which are affiliated with Northwestern University. He holds an undergraduate degree in industrial engineering from the Nordakademie in Germany.

Examples of his recent assignments include—

• Assessing make-buy alternatives for the large manufacturing operation of a leading industrial-equipment manufacturer, analyzing the economic benefits and potential risks of alternative sources of supply
• Performing a competitive cost assessment for a major product line of a global appliance manufacturer
• Evaluating scenarios for an improved manufacturing footprint for a Tier 1 automotive supplier
• Performing a network analysis and financial evaluation of a new production technology for a major automotive supplier
• Helping a large vehicle manufacturer in a turnaround situation achieve cost reductions in manufacturing and facility management.

John Potter is a partner in Booz & Company's London office. He focuses on strategic operations issues for consumer goods, automotive, and other industrial goods companies.

Before joining Booz & Company, Potter spent 9 years on active duty with the U.S. Navy. As a carrier jet pilot, he flew operational sorties and instructed student aviators on advanced jet piloting. Concurrent with performing his flying duties, he carried out ground responsibilities that included managing an airframe-maintenance operation and developing weapons-delivery tactics.

Potter received his MBA from Northwestern University’s Masters of Management in Manufacturing (MMM) program, a joint program between the Kellogg Graduate School of Management and the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He also holds a BS in mechanical engineering from Yale University.

Highlights of Potter's assignments during 10 years with Booz Allen include—

• Leading a pan-European operations-improvement effort for a Tier 1 automotive supplier, including in-plant productivity improvement and manufacturing-network restructuring for a 65-plant network.
• Creating a new global manufacturing strategy for an automotive drive-train manufacturer.
• Developing sourcing and supply-chain management strategies for a global farm and industrial-equipment manufacturer.
• Rolling out improved total-acquisition-cost sourcing strategies for steel parts for a global automotive parts supplier.
• Redesigning the supply-chain structure, service offering, and control processes for a specialty paper producer to improve service and lower costs.
• Executing the growth strategy of a multinational branded food producer by restructuring five national businesses into a pan-regional organization. In the process, Booz Allen implemented a new manufacturing footprint, distribution model, and supply-chain processes.
• Developing a new operations strategy, including sourcing, manufacturing, and distribution, for a European grain-based starch and sweetener producer, to eliminate competitive cost gaps with leading competitors.
• Designing a new distribution network and supply-chain strategy for a leading cosmetics company.
• Supporting the creation of the world's largest spirits producer by developing a new manufacturing and distribution strategy, rationalizing the existing footprint and creating a new global customer service center organization.

Ashish Ranjan is an associate in Booz & Company’s London office. He has 5 years' experience in Lean implementation, value stream restructuring, total productive maintenance (TPM), and a range of performance improvement techniques, with an industry focus on automotive manufacturing.

Before joining Booz & Company, Ranjan worked as a performance improvement consultant for 4 years. He is a Shingijutsu-trained Lean consultant and a certified TPM instructor. He is a "gold medalist" in BEng (Mechanical Engineering) from India’s National Institute of Technology and holds an MSc in manufacturing management from Cranfield University in the UK.

His recent assignments include—

• Implementing Lean manufacturing for a large Asian automobile manufacturer, which resulted in significant productivity improvement and headcount reduction, using kaizen methodology.
• Designing a manufacturing system for the smallest four-wheel truck in the world using production preparation process (3P) methodology.
• Delivering a post-acquisition manufacturing site assessment to a European petrochemical manufacturer, identifying new areas of manufacturing synergy.

Edouard Samakh is a principal in Booz & Company’s London office. In his decade of consulting experience, he has developed deep expertise in developing and implementing supply-chain improvement programs, particularly in the optimization of manufacturing and distribution networks, the establishment of service and supply policies, and the optimization of tactical planning processes, such as S&OP and forecasting.

Samakh received a BS in engineering from Ecole des Mines de Nancy in France and an MS in industrial engineering and operations research from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.

His recent assignments include—

• An operations turnaround at a large toy manufacturer: The work included a global footprint restructuring and productivity improvements, including shop floor and overhead issues; fixing the existing planning and control processes and putting in place new capabilities, including capacity plans, cycle scheduling, S&OP, and basic planning fixes; and using tailored business streams and supply policies to reduce and manage complexity.
• A manufacturing strategy for a major automotive Tier 1 supplier: The work involved developing a manufacturing-network strategy for several European business units, including plant rationalization and technology assessments for 65 plants, and working closely with senior management to develop and implement transition plans.
• A global distribution strategy for a leading e-tailer: The work assessed key distribution levers and trade-offs in the client’s high-growth environment, and evaluated potential market-entry strategies, based on identified characteristics of countries and products.

Dermot Shorten is a partner in Booz & Company’s New York office. His area of focus is value-stream restructuring, with specific expertise in supply-chain management, supply-base configuration, and manufacturing strategy.

Before joining Booz & Company, Shorten worked as an assistant plant manager for Allied Colloids, a specialty chemical manufacturer in the United Kingdom, and for Deloitte & Touche in London. He holds a BA, first class, in natural sciences from Cambridge University, England; an MS with distinction in computer science from Cambridge University, England; an MS with distinction in operations research from Lancaster University, England; and a masters in private and public management from Yale University.

He has participated and led a broad range of assignments with Booz & Company, including—

• Development of advanced procurement and supply-chain capabilities within a high-technology aerospace company: Over the past years, the program has developed significantly enhanced capabilities, reducing time to market and cost position while enhancing supplier quality.
• Redesign of the supply chain for the PBX/IP telephony business of a major voice and data telecommunications-equipment manufacturer: The supply chain was reconfigured to be a demand-pull model with capability to dynamically make-to-order or stock. The work defined a new value proposition for core indirect channel partners, and achieved a 40 percent reduction in the cost-to-serve.
• Benchmark assessment and implementation plan for Europe's long-range commercial-airframe manufacturer: The team’s mandate was to identify performance and capability gaps in engineering, supply-chain, and supply-base management; program management; and overhead functions.
• Improving product-development effectiveness for one of the Big 3 U.S. automotive manufacturers: The scope of the project covered more than 30,000 engineers worldwide with a target of improving productivity by 30 percent while simultaneously reducing cycle time and improving quality. Shorten worked with the analysis and development, manufacturing engineering, quality, vehicle launch, and testing teams.
• Program management of a comprehensive set of materials-management and supply-base initiatives to reduce material and supply-chain costs for a technology company focused on glass (fiber optic and photonics) and ceramic technologies: The initiatives covered sourcing-strategy development together with organizational design, transaction-process redesign, and specification of supporting management-information systems.
• Development of a logistics strategy for a producer of own and private-label consumer durables: The study targeted reducing inventory, warehousing, and logistics costs by 20 percent. The work involved setting supply policies by customer segment, balancing inventory with manufacturing capacity and flexibility, and defining the optimal warehouse network.
• Optimization of the product-line offering for a consumer durable producer to balance supply-chain complexity costs with customer preferences: The cross-functional work segmented the client and competitor product offerings, identified critical feature trade-offs, and determined sources of product-line growth. This was balanced with a comprehensive understanding of drivers of complexity in the supply chain.
• Restructuring the manufacturing footprint and manufacturing-overhead functions of a leading cigarette producer: The assignment involved an assessment of the relative competitive-cost position and the underlying drivers of cost and redefined the footprint, taking into account unit-production cost, freight, inventory, excise duty, and corporation tax. The study also examined ways of cost-effectively managing complexity. Ultimately, costs were reduced by 22 percent.
• Overhead restructuring for a multinational snack-food producer with a premium-quality brand that held leading market share: The study covered all overhead functions and new-product development. It took account of best practices in the food industry and relative performance against other companies in the group. Reductions of 18 percent were identified and achieved within 2 years.
• Restructuring the worldwide manufacturing and supply-chain operations of a medical device and medical equipment manufacturer: The outcome involved moving to a pull-based supply-chain model, aggressive rationalization of the manufacturing footprint from 12 plants to 3, and outsourcing of non-core processes.

Caroline Thiedig is an associate in Booz & Company’s Berlin office. She specializes in manufacturing and supply-chain management for the pharmaceutical, chemicals, and other process industries.

Before joining Booz & Company, she received a Master of Science in management and a Bachelor of Science in philosophy and economics from the London School of Economics. She is fluent in English and German.

Her recent assignments include—

• Conducting a benchmarking assessment for specialty chemicals including production, maintenance, on-site logistics, quality, and all other site infrastructure, with the development of concrete long- and short-term initiatives
• Rationalizing the production site network of a specialty chemicals company in an international merger
• Optimizing the European production network for a major German glass supplier to the pharmaceutical industry

Sven-Uwe Vallerien is a partner in Booz & Company’s Düsseldorf office. He has more than 9 years of consulting experience and 9 years of industry experience in pharmaceuticals and chemicals. His operational focus is on manufacturing, strategic sourcing, and supply chain, while his key strategic focus is on research and development, growth, due diligence, and carve out/divestiture.

Before joining Booz & Company, Vallerien was a vice president at A.T. Kearney in Düsseldorf, Germany, and head of the “new systems” business unit at Th. Goldschmidt AG (now Degussa) in Essen, Germany.

He holds an MSc and a PhD in chemistry from the Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany.

Recent Assignments comprise strategic sourcing with complex make-or-buy concepts in the global life science industry, support of a value enhanced divestment of an international chemical player and wargaming for a large integrated global chemical company.

Conrad Winkler is a partner in Booz & Company’s Chicago office. He has assisted companies with product strategies, manufacturing strategies, supply-chain management, in-plant improvement, and strategic sourcing. He has specific expertise in manufacturing strategy and building performance-management and best-practices capabilities. He is also an expert in lean manufacturing based on years of experience in the aerospace and automotive sector. He works across industries and focuses on automotive and industrial companies, including building products.

Before joining Booz & Company, Winkler was a nuclear-trained office on a fast-attack submarine in the U.S. Navy. He also held management positions in a brass mill. He received his MBA from Northwestern University’s Masters of Management in Manufacturing (MMM) program, a joint program between the Kellogg Graduate School of Management and the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and holds a BS in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).