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James
N. Edwards
Principal & Owner
River Oaks Resources
Mr. Nick Edwards, principal and owner of River Oaks
Resources management consulting firm, has 30 years
of experience as a management consultant. He
specializes in manufacturing consulting with primary
emphasis on Business Process Reengineering, Just-In-Time
Manufacturing, Lean Manufacturing, Total Quality Management,
and Manufacturing Control Systems including overall
business planning, Manufacturing Resource Planning
(MRP II), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and
distribution systems. Mr. Edwards has provided
professional services for clients in the electronics,
semiconductor, automotive, medical products, appliance,
machine tool, aerospace, metalworking, printing, molding,
plastics, woodworking, and service industries.
Prior to founding River Oaks Resources in 2000, Mr.
Edwards was principal of Computer Sciences Corporation
management consulting division for six years. From
1985 to 1994, he was a director at Coopers & Lybrand
management consultants. Previously, he
was employed by Rath & Strong, Inc. management
consultants for 19 years, where he served as vice
president of production and inventory control.
Mr. Edwards' extensive history of achievements includes
leading the effort to convert an automotive plant
from a functional to an in-line manufacturing system,
using a "blitz" approach in which each manufacturing
line was converted in one week. Results
included a reduction in lead time from 32 hours to
38 minutes, work-in-process inventory reduction of
89%, space reduction of 46%, in-plant travel distance
reduction of over 68%, and a productivity gain of
over 35%. For another client, he directed
the planning and design effort to convert an office
furniture facility to a series of three focused-flow
factories where fabrication-to-ship lead times were
reduced by 70 to 90 percent.
For an electronics server manufacturer, Mr. Edwards
led a process redesign effort that achieved a reduction
of lead time from eight days to less than two, a productivity
improvement of over 30 percent, and a nearly 45-percent
reduction in product travel distance during the manufacturing
process. For a medical products company,
he led the process redesign phase for a major systems
project. Results included lead-time reductions
of up to 90 percent, yield improvements of 10 to 30
percent, and productivity gains of 15 to 35 percent. For
another client, he directed the pilot project for
a reengineered charge card application system that
reduced acquisition lead times by 70 percent, reduced
errors over 90 percent, and virtually eliminated status
calls.
Mr. Edwards has developed numerous manufacturing support
training materials and methodologies and is the author
of many articles, including "Target Your Opportunities
in Reengineering Your Corporation" and "Integrating
MRP II with JIT." He is a Certified
Management Consultant, Institute of Management Consultants;
a Certified Fellow, Production and Inventory Management,
APICS; and a member of the American Society for Quality. Mr.
Edwards is a founding member and active participant
in the Association for Manufacturing Excellence.
Education
Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry, Williams College, Williams,
Massachusetts
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