Stephen F. Hardy, Founder and President
Stephen Hardy is the President and founder of HMC. His background and qualifications show a broad range of skills, BSEE, Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Chartered Engineer, Masters in Digital Communications and Computer Networks, postgraduate degree in Marketing and MBA in International Marketing and Corporate Strategy. He was a Royal Academy of Engineering Professor for Design and Engineering in the UK from 1991-1993.
Major Holistic Manufacturing™ clients include an automotive parts manufacturer, an international airline (BA), a forklift truck company, a Danish brewery, Bass, Polar, E&J Gallo Winery, J&J - a diesel generating engine manufacturer, Pepsi, BAT, a furniture manufacturer, Tobacco Importers (Malaysia), a major supplier of enterprise resource planning software, one of the fastest growing fast food companies, an international cigarette manufacturing company, several printer manufacturers and a textile machine builder. While the focus of these projects has been on manufacturing, Stephen has also used his sales and marketing expertise in many of these clients in order to help improve sales and sell the extra capacity created by increased efficiency. As President of HMC, Stephen has sold and managed projects in Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Australia, Latin America, Asia and North America - he understands the importance of culture in business. Stephen is native in English and proficient in Spanish and Italian, and his team members each speak at least two languages.
Stephen has conducted many design-for-manufacture and reliability projects in a number of industries. He completed a redesign of a medical device for J&J that overcame several major field failure issues, reduced the number of rejects and facilitated the transfer of the assembly from an area of very high labor skills (and cost) to a new plant with very low labor costs (and skills). In the food industry he has completed projects on the following: Subway oven (redesign and cost reduction, then setup production line), Lincoln conveyor oven (productivity improvement), Boston Market rotisserie (improve reliability and establish production), Burger King equipment for new concept (Design for reliability and cost reduction), Turbo Chef ovens (reliability, customer service and design improvements), convenience store equipment (simplify designs and transfer manufacturing from one site to another), Merco Savory equipment (process variability reduction) and has done acquisition and strategic planning for two food equipment companies. He has shown dramatic improvements in bottling lines by reducing disruptions that are often considered a normal part of production. In a state-of-the-art plant in Europe he improved output by 30% in a 6-month period, and in the following 6 months the client not only sustained this performance but also increased output an additional 20% (total 50% increase). In tobacco processing, cigarette manufacture and cigarette packaging HMC has achieved dramatic improvements in plants in the USA, Venezuela, Trinidad, Argentina, Chile, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Russia, Poland, Germany and Italy.
Stephen started his career at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, graduating as the top engineering student. Upon leaving he joined the UK Atomic Energy Authority with responsibility for IT and instrumentation resources of an R&D facility. This was at the time that the UKAEA was attempting to do more commercial work. Stephen was able to apply his Marketing degree to promote UKAEA services to a range of industries including oil and gas. On leaving the nuclear industry he joined Federal Mogul Corporation as Vice President of Manufacturing for its air bearing division in the UK. After increasing production by 50% in 6 months he was promoted to General Manager and developed a marketing strategy to bring sales into line with the new capacity.
Stephen served as CEO of a high-tech machine tool company (FMS and AGVs), where he was responsible for its turn-around after a management buy-out from Vickers. He also took responsibility for turnkey installation that exceeded $30million. Responsibilities included management of sales and marketing activities in Europe and Asia. As the Group Board Director for a packaging machinery manufacturer, Stephen restructured two assembly plants and a chemical plant, ran R&D operations in Russia, prepared a sub-assembly operation for sale, managed a sales company, managed product development programs, and had responsibility for strategic development of real-time software for use in packaging systems and IT. Stephen ran sales for Willett America, developed the sales and marketing strategy, and hired personnel and agents for the Latin American market. Sales grew 30% in the first year.
The key to success in each of HMC's many projects is our Holistic approach, ensuring that all elements are tightly integrated and strategically consistent. We bring ideas from different industries and different cultures. We also have an extensive network of consultants and academics throughout the USA, Europe and Latin America and call on expertise to support our programs as necessary.
Email: hardysf@h-m-c.com
