David Strand
AzureSource
President & CEO
AzureSource is an independent consulting firm directed by David Strand.
Strand collaborates with companies from a variety of sectors to meet their distinct needs and exceed their original objectives.
Multinational firms, Fortune 500 innovators, venture capital groups, and midsize companies seek out AzureSource to solve unique challenges in an ever-evolving global landscape.
Strand is experienced in a myriad of arenas including purchasing development, enterprise-wide procurement performance, cost benchmarking, as well as supplier auditing and analytics.
He has developed numerous proprietary programs and analytical evaluation practices that optimize competitive advantages.
Strand works on an individual consulting basis or assembles collaborative teams, dependent on the scope of the project under consideration.
Feel free to call or email with inquiries or to discuss project parameters.
Accomplishments & Experience
- Saved tens of millions with VSM. Disorganized purchasing practices tied up working capital. Led a multidisciplinary management team in Value Stream Mapping (VSM) and Kaizen events. Immediately cut working capital expenditures 35%, saving $8M first year with projected three-year savings estimated to reach up to $20M.
- International Patent Holder – Developer of patented technology for removing dust particles from the windshields of Desert Bound Vehicles
- Turned around quality & delivery time with Supplier Scorecards. Recruited to reverse supplier problems, including inconsistent quality and late shipments. Developed and implemented a comprehensive evaluation program, measuring all KPIs. Cut late deliveries 10% and quality deficiencies 15% in only 90 days.
- Chairman’s Honors Award – Highest individual achievement award at General Motors Corporation for work on True Cost Analytics
- Identified $4B in cost opportunities at GM with true cost analytics. Company needed to drill down to true costs of parts to strengthen supplier negotiations. Assembled a team from 120 separate manufacturing operations. Applied Activity-Based Costing (ABC) to calculate true costs and pinpoint opportunities for savings.
- Instrumental in negotiating $100M in savings. After implementing an Activity-Based Costing model to determine true costs of all commodities utilized by GM, identified opportunities to capture savings. Led teams that negotiated aggressive new contracts with key suppliers. Obtained significant volume discounts and five-year locked-in pricing.
- Global Sourcing: Opened China Office for Service Parts. Including interviewing and hiring team. The project entailed identifying strategic parts to develop in low cost country, find supplier, develop supplier, work with home engineering on development of parts and finally bringing parts to aftermarket. Initially brought over 10M in new parts revenue with plan for 60M.
- Spearheaded a partnership between Navistar and Wake Forest University that produced an award-winning cost-risk analysis solution and I contributed to the curriculum at in the Design for Manufacturability program at Stanford University.