Our Team

Tony Cowderoy	Derek Small	Andrew Luce
Ketan Varia	Malcolm Hunt	Richard Baker

Tony Cowderoy

30 years experience of delivering sustained performance improvements

Tony, who leads MML, has in-depth operations experience from senior management positions and consulting assignments around the world. He has helped many manufacturing and supply-chain businesses to enhance both their profitability and customer service through improved operational performance. Before moving into consulting, he worked in the aerospace, automotive and capital equipment industries. Tony studied engineering at Cambridge University and management sciences at Cranfield.

Technical expertise - wide ranging project leadership, consulting and management training skills, e.g.

• Integrating Lean and ERP to deliver leading-edge operational performance
• Implementing (and re-implementing) ERP systems to deliver measurable improvements in business performance
• Applying Lean and ERP to configure-to-order, design-to-order and project-based businesses
• Designing and delivering tailored training programmes in ERP, MRPII, Inventory Management, Lean, Business Process Improvement and Product Lifecycle Management

Practical experience — has led more than 30 major assignments across a range of industry sectors

Consulting and project leadership examples:

• Helped a key supplier to Nissan Sunderland, Calsonic Kansei Europe, to implement ERP in a world-class, lean manufacturing operation
• Senior member of a consulting team supporting the turn-around of Kamaz Trucks in the Russian Federation shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union. At the time, Kamaz was the world's largest heavy truck plant with around 90,000 employees. Inventory reductions and improvements in production scheduling that Tony helped to achieve led to cash-flow savings vital to the survival of the business
• Major performance improvement and process re-engineering programme for F G Wilson, a Caterpillar company and one of Europe's largest manufacturers of diesel generators. The programme delivered substantial financial benefits and dramatic performance improvements in lead times and on-time delivery. Click here for more details.  
• Helped an aerospace company to reduce inventory by 1/3rd while cutting delivery arrears by 70%. At the same time, output increased by 20% and overtime was reduced. These improvements were achieved in just 4 months
• Implemented processes and systems which supported 100% per annum growth for 4 years at a specialist vehicle manufacturer

Training programmes: examples of design and delivery

• BAE Systems Military Air Solutions: Tony led the design, development and delivery of a blended education programme covering business processes for managing bills of material across all business functions and throughout the product lifecycle — from pre-bid design to end-of-life disposal. To-date, this programme has been delivered to around 200 senior engineers and managers across five major aircraft programmes. Click here for more details
• Renold Group: for the annual Operations Directors' conference, he designed and delivered a range of business simulations aligned with Renold's internal Lean project. These activities were designed to stimulate the practical application of many of techniques that had previously been covered. They also focused on the integration of lean and ERP in non-repetitive, make-to-order environments.
• Oriflame Cosmetics: designed and delivered a series of courses covering MRPII, Supply Chain Planning, Bills of Materials, and Business Process Mapping and Design. These courses were delivered to international supply chain management and product development personnel at Oriflame sites in Belgium, Ireland and Russia.
• Westland Helicopters: led the development of an education programme designed to stimulate the optimisation of business processes to realise the benefits of Westland's SAP implementation. This programme was required to compare Westland's existing processes with best practice so as to highlight opportunities for improvement. Tony led an intensive business process analysis, mapping the key processes to be addressed in the education programme, before leading the design of the education programme itself. The resulting courses covered a wide range of topics and were delivered to personnel at all levels from the board to the shop floor.

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Derek Small

More than 35 years experience of developing leadership skills and building effective cultures

Derek, who leads our cultural, behavioural and leadership development services, has improved the performance of businesses world-wide by helping teams and individuals at all levels to be more effective. Derek held senior management positions in operations and sales, ultimately becoming responsible for around 2,000 people, before moving into consulting and personal development. In the 1980s he joined MML as part of the start-up team, developed long-standing relationships with major clients and delivered training programmes at all levels. In the 1990s he joined the Covey Leadership Centre where he became a Master Facilitator and then Head of Leadership Curriculum before branching out on his own. Derek returned to MML in 2008 with the aim of developing programmes that integrate leadership, cultural development and technical effectiveness.

Expertise — wide ranging skills in leadership, cultural and behavioural development, change management, business development and training across different cultures, world-wide, e.g.

• developing effective teams at all organisational levels from the shop-floor to multi-national group board rooms
• developing effective shared cultures following mergers and acquisitions
• removing cultural barriers to change
• psychometric testing in support of individual and team development
• personal coaching, particularly for senior executives
• leadership and behavioural aspects of Lean and Six Sigma
• business development, customer relationships and solutions selling
• designing and delivering training in manufacturing operations and supply chain management

Practical experience - has helped companies on every continent to improve their performance

• Rescued a Lean programme at an aerospace manufacturer which had been failing because of cultural problems — after six months, the results were
  • inventory down from £1.5m to £45k
  • average lead time down from 3 months to 8 days
  • delivery to schedule up from 55% to 100%
• Helped a Swedish multi-national to implement a global business competency development framework
• Supported a year-long team building and cross-functional empowerment programme for Tetra Pak Egypt
• Delivered training in change leadership as part of Alfa Laval's Six Sigma and Lean programmes
• Supported a UK industrial group thorough integrating three major acquisitions, helping to take the business from £8m turnover to £100m and to do so profitably

Derek speaks at conferences world-wide. He is an Honorary Member of AIESEC UK and Germany and has been elected a Member of the AIESEC Hall of Fame 2006.

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Andrew Luce

Andrew started his career in Chartered Accountancy in the London Office of Coopers and Lybrand. After qualification he moved to France and pursued a career in Financial and Personnel Management in European subsidiaries of W.R Grace, Rockwell, Schlumberger and Hillenbrand Industries. In 1991 he moved back to the UK joining Deloitte and Touche Consulting before moving to the Cogent Division of Nortel in 1995 as Director European Telecoms. He became an independent consultant in 1998, working for clients such as Fujitsu, The department of Health, the NHS, Interoute, Steria, Vedior, Alcatel, Global Crossing, COLT, Parsons Brinkerhoff, Viatel, and 186k. He has been an MML associate since 2003.

Andrew's recent activities have been concentrated in the field of major change management, technology introduction and / or cost reduction programmes where the essential skills required have been for process design, implementation leadership and organisational development in order to combine rapidly together people from different cultures and backgrounds so that they form effective, focused and mutually supportive teams.

He has extensive experience in the telecoms industry and healthcare, as well as a strong background in manufacturing.

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Ketan Varia

Ketan has more than 15 years of business management & Consulting experience, focused in leading improvement teams within an industrial/operational context. He has an in-depth, practical understanding of Lean and in recent years has been applying this expertise to service businesses and healthcare. Ketan is a non-executive director for North West London Hospitals Trust, a mentor on the Princes Trust and a Chartered Engineer.

He has led change assignments for a variety of FT Global 500 companies and his extensive experience includes improvement projects with Abbey, BAE, EMI Music, Land Rover, Marconi, Network Rail, Motorola & Xerox.

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Malcolm Hunt

Malcolm spent 20 years in pharmaceutical and FMCG manufacturing before becoming a trainer and consultant. He has more than 20 years' experience of consulting and training. His practical experience spans the private and public sectors and includes the management of major projects and organisational transformation as well as operational performance improvement.

He has particular expertise in:

• business process design, development and implementation;
• manufacturing systems implementation and performance improvement;
• project management.

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Richard Baker

Richard is a marketing specialist with a degree in Production Engineering. He has led the development of an industrial marketing consultancy and was major-clients marketing manager for one of the world’s largest legal practices.

His areas of expertise include:

• marketing industrial products;
• marketing professional services;
• managing major accounts.

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