Ed Hopkins

Available for interim, contract or permanent work

Orders on time.
Inventory down.
Kept that way.

45 years on factory floors. Hand over an operation that is not working, and get back one your own people can run.

Let's talk See what gets fixed

Operations run at

  • Georgia Pacific
  • Koch Industries
  • Positronic Amphenol
  • Carlisle Interconnect
  • Cogent Analytics
  • Monster Transmission
  • Levolor
  • Wellington Puritan Mills

What gets fixed

Six reasons people call, and they rarely arrive alone.

A plant rarely has one problem. Late orders, bloated inventory and a schedule that slips are usually the same problem seen from three different chairs.

One assignment, two numbers

One production planning and inventory control system, installed across North America, Europe and Asia.

Positronic Amphenol. Chief operating officer, 2012 to 2017.

Over 98%

On-time delivery

Up from under 40%

Down 29%

Inventory held in house

Against the same operation before the rollout

How it goes

Walk the floor first. Then the rest.

  1. 1

    Walk the floor first

    Before any meeting. Your operation says more in two days than your reports say in two months.

  2. 2

    Find what is actually holding it back

    Usually one or two things. Most of the rest quiets down once those move.

  3. 3

    Fix the planning underneath

    Scheduling, inventory control, and the system that drives both. That is where on-time delivery lives.

  4. 4

    Build the structure that holds it

    A clear line from your executive team down, so decisions get made where the work is.

  5. 5

    Hand it back

    The assignment ends when your own people have the knowledge and the tools to run it.

The longer version

Who turns up

45 years, starting on a mill floor.

Athens, Georgia, March 1979. Production, maintenance and distribution, in a building where the work was loud and the problems were visible.

Then 25 years at Georgia Pacific and Koch Industries, and since 2012 the seat when a company has a gap. Chief operating officer. Interim president. Interim supply chain director.

The work itself is not complicated. Walk the floor. Find the one or two things holding the operation back. Fix the planning underneath them. Build a structure where people make the call where the work is.

"Empower your workforce to support change."
Ed Hopkins

The whole record

Where the 45 years went

  • 1979 to 1987 Mill floor to general manager Wellington Puritan Mills, then Levolor
  • 1987 to 2012 25 years, pulp and paper Georgia Pacific and Koch Industries
  • 2012 to 2017 Chief operating officer, then interim president Positronic Amphenol
  • 2017 to now Interim seats and turnarounds Monster Transmission, Carlisle Interconnect, Cogent Analytics

Questions that come up before the first call

What does an interim operations executive actually do?
Takes the operations seat and runs it, rather than advising from a conference room. Chief operating officer, president, plant or supply chain director, for as long as the gap lasts.
Interim, contract, or permanent?
Any of the three. Four of the nine roles on the record page were interim seats; the others were permanent.
How long does an assignment run?
From 6 months to nearly 5 years, on past assignments. It ends when your own people can run it without help.
Where does he work?
Based in St. Augustine, Florida, and works anywhere. Past assignments have run across North America, Europe and Asia.
What kind of manufacturing?
Pulp and paper, electronic connectors, aerospace interconnect, automotive, window coverings and textiles, across 45 years.
What does it cost?
It depends on the assignment, and it is settled in conversation. Ask and you get a straight answer.

Let's talk about what is going wrong.

A few sentences is enough. What is late, what is stuck, or which seat is empty.

Let's talk (904) 315-6619