General Manager Operations
British American Tobacco
Total years of experience :14 years, 1 Months
Leading BAT’s combined cigarette manufacturing and leaf operations site employing 1500+ management, unionized and 3P employees with OPEX and CAPEX budget of $18 & $8 million USD respectively.
- Devised 3 year strategy to become BAT’s best factory for OEE, cost, wastages and ESG by 2025.
- Introduced PIT crew model to support BAT factories across the world to assess machinery base condition, build technical capability and bring step change in performance at lower cost and reduced timeframe versus OEMs.
Leading the transformation agenda and strategic projects for the Middle East, South Asia, and North Africa (MESANA) area, which consists of 17 markets with a net annual revenue of more than $1.2 billion USD.
- Established MESANA project management office and transformation board to accelerate project delivery, enable quick decision making and create ownership at all levels.
- Successfully led and delivered restructuring of North Africa cluster to accelerate growth. Project encompassed commercial review of markets, business integration, market closures, people layoffs, organization design, products portfolio and change management.
- Spearheading BAT Jordan’s growth agenda by initiating exports to Lebanon resulting in volume increase by 66% (1.1 billion sticks), revenue by 31% ($ 11.6 million USD) and operating profit by 38% ($ 8.8 million USD).
- Leading game changing business expansion project in KSA encompassing legal entity set up, product portfolio enhancement and state of the art manufacturing facility.
Led the largest tobacco processing and cigarette manufacturing operations of Middle East & South Asia (MESA) area and established operations for Asia Pacific Region’s 1st Modern Oral (Next Gen products) manufacturing facility. Managed a team of 300+ management and unionized employees, OpEx budget of $5 million USD and CapEx budget of $12 million USD.
- Revolutionized Jhelum factory into the best factory by achieving 4% overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) and 100% Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) improvement; and 30% wastages reduction
- Boosted productivity savings to $ 0.5 million USD via process loss elimination and manpower optimization
- Spearheaded Next Gen products manufacturing set up achieving lowest manufacturing cost, benchmark lean autonomous maintenance crew, zero waste to landfill & 100% renewable energy to be declared and recognized as global center of excellence
- Accelerated supplier development and material localization for Next Generation products to lower product costs by 15%, resulting in cost of goods sold savings of $2 million USD
- Led “People & Culture Stream” for the well being of employees across factory focusing on work life balance, talent development, reward and recognition
Led the semi finished and finished product track and trace compliant exports operations setup, headed a team of 10+ multi-function members and 20+ foreign and local service providers, and managed CapEx of $5+ million USD.
Key Achievements:
• Delivered the fastest and first greenfield TPD (Tobacco Product Directive) and TnT (Track and Trace) compliant deployment in BAT
• Achieved on time in full exports readiness (within 7 months) ensuring $50+ million USD annual foreign remittance
• Envisioned “Made in Pakistan” exports change management program across operations targeting 500+ employees
• Designed exports specific skill matrix to fast track capability building under IWS to achieve and sustain highest OEE post machinery commissioning across BAT
Led the Engineering function for South Asia Cluster. Oversaw six manufacturing facilities across three countries. Managed CapEx of $100+ million USD (2016-2019) and reporting into Area Operations Director.
Key Achievements:
• Formulated strategy for South Asia Cluster to sustain growth through capacity enhancement, technology footprint standardization and new product launches
• Engineered “Project Grow” to expedite capacity enhancement in liaison with regional and global teams by installing 3 lines in 9 months to meet 27% increase in sales demand in one year
• Headed “Project Goldshield” from Operations to introduce first resealable pack in South Asia for premium portfolio enabling 10% year on year growth
• Conducted multiple energy assessments across APME Region (Pakistan, South Korea, Singapore) identifying savings over 10+ mln USD with payback less than 2 years
Headed Engineering function managing Engineering Services, Utilities, Facilities and Projects. Responsible for overall Engineering function as Chief Engineer for the organization including three manufacturing facilities with annual volume of 45+ Billion. Managed CapEx of $1 million USD and revenue budget of $4 million USD.
Key Achievements:
• Designed globally recognized and appreciated (across BAT) Energy Conservation Daily Management System enabling savings of 5% year on year with mandatory roll out across all APME Region factories
• Orchestrated Pakistan technology footprint strategy implementation with factory blueprint designing, ancillary services modernization and machinery redeployment complying with BAT technical standards