Jim Todaro is a results driven business leader with nearly 27 years of Continuous Improvement and Operations experience. He has an extremely diverse history of responsibilities and focus, with a common theme of leading high performing, highly engaged teams to deliver exceptional results. Jim has traveled extensively throughout North America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia consulting, implementing and establishing process improvement programs with over $80 million in savings. His success as a CI and Operations leader is a direct result of his ability to effectively build high-level relationships which has improved business processes around safety, quality, delivery and cost (SQDC) with a focus on growth.
Prior to consulting with Cogent, his career includes time spent with Xylem, Danfoss, Weber Stephen Products, Schneider Electric, George Group, MRC Bearings and Phoenix Metal Fabricating.
Highlights of Jim’s experience include:
- Led an 8 month, $1.1million transformation of an entire factory, setting up a central warehouse and creating flow through the process. As the Sr CI manager and Value Stream Manager of a factory that had 95 direct reports and sale of $110 million per year.
- Drove productivity improvements that led to $1M in savings within 6 months as an Interim Director of Operations for a domestic grill manufacturer. Led the plant closure and move to a new facility in Huntley, IL., designed the line layouts, flow and start-up. As CI Manager drove an additional $3.5M in savings over a 2-year timeframe.
- Developed a strategy to optimize the operations across the CTO sites with Schneider Electric, assisted in the develop and plan for a new factory in Mexico as well as education and development of the hourly workforce.
- Managed monthly productivity reporting for 7 plants across North America and providing yearly assessments on the progress of the factories, reporting results to executive leadership teams.
- Led the acquisition integration of Eaton Hydraulics into Danfoss, developed and managed manufacturing operations to achieve “Manufacturing Excellence.” Responsible for diagnostic of the Denmark business and systems to implement the Danfoss Business Structure.
- As Senior Consultant with Accenture, led Lean Six Sigma training and project coaching for the US Navy Supply department. Mentored projects that resulted in over $30M savings at a 14:1 ROI ration. Reduced the Navy’s yearly budget by 15%.
Along with his expansive career experience, Jim has earned a Bachelor of Science in Business from SUNY Empire State College, and Master of Business Administration, Organizational Leadership from Norwich University. Jim’s certifications include Six Sigma Master Black Belt (George Group) and Certified Lean Master (Schneider Electric Production System).
