FRC Group

Focused Results Consulting

Helping clients grow with transformation, teambuilding & process improvement

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who-we-are
  • Consultant – Principal with FRC Group and Manager with Kearney
  • Executive – General Manager, VP multi-site, international Operations
  • Clients & Employers – International and domestic firms of all sizes – Fortune 500, PE & VC, Start-ups: rapid growth, turnaround, post-merger integration (partial client list on page 4)
  • Industries – Aerospace & Defense, High-Tech, Industrial Products, Consumer Packaged Goods, Food & Beverage, Transportation & Logistics.
  • Generalist with core skills in GM P&L, PM/PMO, Operations/Supply Chain, Product Development
  • Interim Executive roles for PE firms
  • OpEx, Lean – 25 years experience using Toyota, Danaher, Honeywell, Raytheon, Motorola, GE best practice models for Lean and Six Sigma
  • Education – UCLA MBA & RPI BS Mechanical Engineering

Proven capabilities, achievements and passions to help people and businesses

Jim Schoen

Jim Schoen

our-outstanding-service

SERVICE OFFERINGS

Growth acceleration through business assessment, high performing teams, Management Systems, OpEx and best practice processes
  • Business Assessment, Strategy, Transformation & Growth
  • Leadership & Organization Development
  • Management Operating Systems
  • Operational Excellence
  • Operations & Supply Chain
  • PMO & Project Management
  • Process Best Practice
  • Aerospace and Defense
  • Industrial & Engineered Products
  • Medical Products
  • Automotive
  • High Tech
  • Consumer Packaged Goods
  • Food & Beverage
  • Logistics and Transportation
our-awesome-work

CLIENTS AND SELECTED ACHIEVEMENTS

We believe our work speaks for itself. Browse our clients and recent accomplishments below.

Sample Clients Goal Approach Results
$190M PE Medical Products Business Lead Business Transformation within $75M Business Unit Developed & led PMO; conducted analyses to drive priorities; selected, planned & supported projects; coached team; validated benefit achievement Enabled dramatic improvements in Quality, Throughput, Cost and Growth
$6B Fortune 500 Consumer Products Manufacturer Business transformation to improve profit by 300 basis points Led $1.6B BU Transformation, with SKU / customer rationalization, Factory & DC footprint, sourcing, lean, systems (ERP/ABI) workstreams to plan and execute work. Improved Sales, profit (300+ basis point), cash flow & operational (Quality, Delivery Fill Rate) performance
$35M VC Consumer Products Start-Up Business Assessment to mitigate risk & enable growth Business assessment, Growth plan, team development, Standard Work and Management Operating System Enabled 500% profitable growth
$7B Govt owned Utility PMO to increase capacity & speed for new customer programs Developed and led PMO Program Management Offices for hundreds of customer programs Improved customer experience, program capacity and time to market
$5M privately owned Tubing Business Inventory improvement to improve fill rate & reduce costs Developed inventory plan, process, and warehouse layout Improved sales 50%, profit 83%, fill rates 25%, inventory turns 54%, lead times 35%.
$3B privately owned Logistics Business Coach Continual Improvement Director to deploy Lean Coached CI Director, developed & deployed Lean OpEx Business System and team, led cross-dock Kaizen Enabled Corp Growth and Improved Trucking BU profit 10% and trailor utilization 12%
$1B Aircraft Seats BU of $7B publicly owned Aerospace Business Improve throughput and recover delivery performance Coached and led Lean Team on OEE / Uptime, Takt time, Line Balancing, Set-Up, Maintenance, Material supply. Increased throughput 35% and recovered on time delivery from under 25% to over 90%.
$3B publicly owned Aircraft Engine Business Support and Lead Business Process Reengineering Developed client team and led deployment of Lean Manufacturing at two manufacturing sites. Enabled client to survive and thrive through Double digit Sales, financial & operational improvement.
$1B publicly owned Aircraft Engine Business Kearney Consulting hired to conduct Business Process Reengineering Led client team in development and deployment of Integrated Product & Process Development (IPPD) Improved product development schedule performance 40% and saved $40M annually
$20 PE Precision Machining Business PE firm needed interim VP Operations to improve performance of new acquisition Developed & led team and lean process – S&OP, OEE, heijunka boards, inventory, visual management Sustainable improvements in Team & Leaders, Sales, financial, operational, on time delivery
$60M PE Aerospace Business PE firm needed interim VP Operations to improve performance of new acquisition Developed three teams and lean processes – Distribution, Manufacturing and Repair, upgraded Sage ERP system Improved Sales, inventory, fill rate, On time delivery and quality performance
$750M privately owned Colfax Corporation VP European Operations ($125M BU) & MD IMO AB ($25M BU) (employee) Built & Led Euro BU and 3 Operations site teams, developed & deployed enterprise lean processes. 2 promotions and large sustainable gains in Sales, Financial & Operational performance
$24B publicly owned ThermoFisher Scientific VP & GM of Barnant and Specialty Motors Divisions (employee) Led two site BU team to develop sales channels & products, outsource manufacturing and deploy lean. Catalyzed profitable Sales growth and Operating Performance Improvement
$50M privately owned Physical Optics Corp VP Business Operations (employee) Recruited and developed strong Directors and supported process development for Proposal, Quality, Procurement. Improved proposal win rate & productivity; Quality audit performance and material costs
$25B Raytheon Corporation Senior Operations Manager (employee) Led processes for Program Management, 3P, Lean, and proposal development $87M Waste Reduction savings, Raytheon Ops Excellence award, total Process improvement
testimonials

Testimonials

Jim is an outstanding team and results oriented transformation leader. I hired Jim in 2020 to support the business transformation. His experience is exceptional and hired him for his natural coaching and hands on practitioner approach. His experience and personal style is what I felt the team needed to develop the vision, detailed plans and execution to transition the business from an inefficient operation business model of separate functional areas to an integrated lean, beginning to end, multi-value stream model. Jim quickly became an integral part of team, exceeding expectations. Recommend Jim for any organization that needs to work through a transformation and needs quick measurable results

– Ron Speagle

– Sr Director, RTI Surgical

Jim came to our organization at a particularly unstable point in our maturity cycle. As a recent startup with 150 employees, we needed to mature every part of our business and show solid operational improvement. Jim’s SOW included mapping out our value stream, documenting standard work, and building the management operating system. His performance was pretty unrivaled — especially given the short timelines and extreme pressure. Notably though, Jim has extreme bandwidth and is willing to take ownership wherever help is needed. He made a measurable impact on the business by advising on HR transformation, building tools and models to help improve supply chain functions, and providing leadership advisory and support during turbulent times. I would consider Jim to be a member of our team, an incredible asset, a force for change, and an all-around solid guy. People tend to over-qualify their talents on their Linkedin profiles, but I can attest that Jim’s talents are sincere. Thanks for helping to transform our business to the next level, Jim.

– Ethan Woods

– President and Founder at Zenco Capital

Jim has done a terrific job supporting our division and taking a leadership role in making sure that we are partnering with the THS 2020 group. Jim’s enthusiasm and drive for results have keep us on track and is helping us deliver our plan. I have had a chance to work with Jim on multiple initiatives and have benefited from his guidance and support.

– Alyssa Berinhout

– Sr. Director of Operations at TreeHouse Foods

Jim was the Interim VP Operations for us at Wetmore Tool & Engineering and in this critical transitional role, he was highly effective at rapid transition and leading Operations to immediately have a marked improvement in delivery and productivity. He was effective at working at Strategic to Tactical tasks, engaging in detailed daily production planning and delivery as well as process improvement in areas across Planning, scheduling, launch, capacity management and maintenance. As a leader he was skilled in communicating best practice concepts to the team in layman terms such that the team effectively embraced and applied the concepts to the betterment of the business. I recommend Jim to any prospective client.

– Ed Barrera

– Chief Financial Officer, Wetmore Tool & Engineering Company

Jim worked for us as a Lean Consultant and exceeded our expectations with leading a Kaizen event, delivering sustainable results, motivating people regarding Lean concepts, and developing a Lean framework and deployment plan. I would recommend Jim as an effective consultant to any potential client.

– Blake Klingeman

– Director of Operations and Performance Improvement at Saltchuk

Jim was hired as a contractor for Desser Holdings to complete an operational assessment of the current practices from order entry through delivery. He successfully evaluated the current situation, launched and implemented a number of key process improvements to enhance the operational effectiveness of the business. He has a deep understanding of Lean Principles and applied them to establish a visual workplace with objective KPIs to drive performance. His efforts contributed significantly to improvements in delivery, quality, and productivity.

– Jeffrey Johnston

– President / CEO Desser Holdings, LLC

Jim was highly effective in assessing, designing, and implimenting operational processes and visual management in a new environment. His work was critical in setting up the processes to enable the next level of operational transformation. One of Jim’s greatest strenghts is his deep understanding of Lean principles and his ability to evaluate and improve an operational challange. Jim’s results included improvements in quality, delivery, and productivity in the organization.

– Adam Gallo

– Chief Financial Officer at Desser Holdings, LLC

Jim is a focused and results driven manager. He has good insight into peoples abilities and how organization can excel thru people management. Knowledgeable about Lean and efficiency improvement techniques gave very good result and made the company go from bad performance to top performance in its class. I enjoyed working with Jim and can definitely recommend him.

– Rolf Polbratt

– Senior Advisor at Motala Verkstad Group

Jim and I worked together on a lean implementation project for an aerospace manufacturer in England from 1996 through 1998. Jim is energetic, hardworking and a self-starter. He led the work at several different sites working with shop floor teams through plant management. He trained and coached several teams through the lean process. He was effective at developing positive relationships at multiple levels in the client organization and delivered superior results in terms of the lean cockpit metrics we tracked during the project

– Pete Tunnicliffe

– President, Athray Group LLC

Jim is a well-rounded Six Sigma Lean Leader with several notable characteristics. He is an unbiased Six Sigma Lean Leader that treats everybody with equal courtesy, respect, and regard. During Kaizen or process improvement events, Jim ensures all participants are heard and allows them to express their personal views to guarantee a successful event. He is organized and well prepared for meetings. Jim is a Six Sigma Lean Leader who is always prepared. In fact, his preparedness and knowledge of lean tools was a significant factor in how we were able to achieve our tight timeframe goals to meet customer’s expectations. In our fast-pasted environment unexpected opportunities surface with diminutive due dates. Jim has a clear sense of purpose and intent when unexpected opportunities occur. He is a self-motivated individual who encourages team work and cross training for all team members to ensure customer’s expectations are consistently met. In summary, it has been a pleasure to watch Jim utilize and teach Lean & Six Sigma during events as well as watching his techniques in managing difficult team members on cross-functional projects. His success stems from his patience when working with team members, Six Sigma & Lean knowledge, and drive to ensure the non-value add waste is removed so that the company’s bottom line will improve

– Byron Parson

– Sr. Lean Manager at Zodiac Aerospace Seats US

Jim is a highly motivated and results oriented leader with great insight into business processes and ability to parse issues down to action items quickly to allow the team to resolve matters and progress with significant operational improvements. His focus in various areas and critical thinking allows the organization to grow around him and interact with his colleagues to promote solutions to problems quickly and minimize organizational liabilities. He also leads the team in growing rapidly with frequent mentoring to his subordinates

– Anthony Lai

– Division General Manager & VP at Physical Optics Corporation

I’ve worked with Jim when I was the leader of the Operations Raytheon Six Sigma Expert team. Jim provided the guidance and direction for our Lean Six Sigma projects. He developed a cost reduction program that enabled us to capture and obtain incremental cost reduction goals. These goals were instrumental in increased cash flow, lower program costs, and were data input for future contract capture activities.

– Sonny Nguyen

– Director Strategic Implementation at Kaiser Permanente

Jim served my organization as Lean PMO consultant in 2020. All I could be amazed of Jim’s habit of taking ownership of the situations, his ability to lead and facilitate large group of individuals of all ranks, and thinking ahead of all in order to deliver high standard of output. Jim has a character to see things through and talk openly about the issues to help the teams get through the tough situations quickly. I wish Jim great luck for his work ethics and creating value for his client organizations.

– Manoj Mohta

– Continuous Improvement Leader, RTI Surgical

Jim Schoen is our Divisional Lead for the Treehouse THS2020 restructuring program and instrumental in success to date. Jim joined the team at a challenging time and quickly ramped up and led a portfolio simplification program achieving significant SKU reduction and cost savings. Integrating well with both the THS2020 restructuring program and the Condiments Divisional Team, Jim led with robust planning, communication and engagement of Divisional Leaders to support success. Jim added value in areas of people engagement, program planning & management, simplification, footprint rationalization, Lean Enterprise, sourcing improvement and systems deployment. With a prioritized, results oriented focus, ability to quick study and adapt, Jim is a great asset to our team and I would recommend him as a Senior Consultant to other companies.

– Triona (Byrne) Schmelter

– President, Meals Solutions Division at TreeHouse Foods

Jim has been great to work with. He is a seasoned pro with great skills in Lean, General Management, Database Analytics, and much more. He gets results by identifying roadblocks, and finds creative ways to solve problems, including very difficult ones. Jim will deliver on achieving the companies objectives, and achieving results.

– Luc Masella

– Director Continuous Improvement at TreeHouse Foods

Jim served as the Interim VP Operations for one of Corridor Capital’s aerospace and defense manufacturing portfolio companies, Wetmore Tool & Engineering. Wetmore has a complex and challenging manufacturing environment requiring the production a significant number of low-volume SKUs with tight tolerances. Jim was critical in this transitional role, with respect to both maintaining organizational stability and helping the team grow and identify new opportunities for operational improvement. Ultimately we saw a marked improvement over just a two month time period in OTD, production and sales. He engaged and communicated effectively at the shop floor level with respect to tactical issues such as daily production planning and delivery, while also advising the CEO and board on strategic and overall process improvement objectives in areas across planning, scheduling, launch, capacity management and maintenance. He was also easy to work with and exhibited a team orientation and level of commitment unusual for an interim leader or consultant. I would recommend Jim to any prospective client.

– Cameron Reilly

– Managing Director, Corridor Capital

Jim with FRC Group was an outstanding discovery for us at Flex Tech. As a small manufacturing business in Los Angeles, we operate in a highly competitive industry, and his inventory improvement work enabled our continued rapid growth. Jim drove large improvements in stock fill rate while improving inventory turns and significantly improving P&L and cash flow bottom line. He communicated clearly and motivated our entire team to support and sustain the work. This work was achieved in a short time frame with a benefit to cost ratio that was highly affordable even for a small business such as ours. I highly recommend Jim and FRC Group as a valuable consultant to any business.

– Tim Coory

– President & CEO, Flex Tech, Gardena, CA

Jim and I worked together to drive a culture of Lean Manufacturing and Stragety Deployment at Colfax Corporation from 1999-2002. Jim’s talents were quickly recognized by senior management, and he was promoted to Managing Director at IMO AB in Stockholm. Jim leveraged his significant skill set to bring a “sleepy” company to top performance. He was able to drive a culture of improvement in very traditional companies, leading the necessary changes despite high resistance. Jim contributions were one factor that eventually led to Colfax’s IPO. I would highly recommend Jim for operations or consulting roles.

– Michael Dwyer

– Experienced Asia-Pacific General Mgr and Expat – now Consulting for Western Companies with Operations in China and India

Jim and I worked together back at Colfax Fluid Handling for approximately 3 years. Jim joined as a continuous improvement leader and was asked to take on an expatriate assignment in our Stockholm IMO-Pump manufacturing site. The location was the origination of the IMO pump- a positive displacement pump. The operation suffered from poor quality, very poor productivity, and overall poor profitability and cash flow. Jim approached the assignment tenaciously utilizing the continuous improvement mindset and tools. We saw significant productivity, cash flow, and profit improvement. Jim pulled all of this off professionally, and with extremely limited support. Jim is an extremely capable, process improvement, oriented leader

– Henry Carroll

– Group CFO Danaher, CFO Pall Corporation at Danaher Corporation

Jim is very intelligent, resultdriven, well-organized, challenging and inspiring. I joined an American Company for the first time and Jim was a very good mentor for me. Under his leadership we manged to improve a lot our Key Performance Indicators. Jim both challenged an inspired me and I really liked working with him. He is a very professional Manager. I will absolutely give him my best recommendations

– Kerstin Sundsten

– Area Credit Manager Nordic Countries

Jim was a member of the A T Kearney process improvement team in the UK working with Rolls Royce. Jim’s work ethic and tenacity for change enabled the entire team to implement sustainable improvements in the operations at Rolls Royce. His leadeship was critically important along with Jim being a subject matter expert in the eyes of the client.

– Steve Bera

– Independent Management Consulting Professional

Jim is detail-oriented, schedule-conscious manager that expects similar performance from his direct reports and outside service providers. I valued Jim’s ability to organize, and remain cognizant of, diverse and multiple activities. I especially appreciated Jim’s ability to organize complex information in easy-to-comprehend summaries, spreadsheets and graphs. Jim’s future employer should not hesitate to assign Jim the hard problems – he can do it.

– Kevin C. Walter

– Senior Vice President Administrative Operations, Chief Administrative Officer at Physical Optics Corporation

Jim is a detail oriented manager with a constant focus on process improvement. He is always seeking to implement business processes that contribute to the bottom line. He fosters organizational strategies that improve communications, streamline tasks, and consolidate efforts. Jim will be a welcome addition to any organization that seeks to continuously and systematically improve

– Mark Drzymkowski

– Director of Programs at RF Simulation Systems (RFSS)

I worked with Jim at Raytheon where he successfully led many critical improvement initiatives. He was effective at goal setting, lean problem solving, program planning and management, team leadership and reaching or surpassing the goals

– Roman Fry

– Senior Manager at Raytheon

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