In Part 2 of our 25th Anniversary conversation, Ed Hoffman sits down with Kim Ernzen — Chief Operating Officer at StandardAero and former President at Raytheon — to talk about the power of leadership and culture in complex operations. Kim shares her philosophy on building high-performing teams, drawing on decades of experience across aerospace and…
CBS’s 25-Year Anniversary Series To celebrate 25 years of hands-on transformation, CBS is sitting down with the leaders shaping the future of aerospace. In this episode, Ed Hoffman speaks with Kim Ernzen, Chief Operating Officer at StandardAero and former President at Raytheon. They discuss Kim’s career journey — from engineering school in Wichita to leading…
Back in my days as a site lead in manufacturing, I had an operator who made a common problem all too clear to me. At the end of the shift, I asked him how his day had gone. “It was a great day,” he said. “Well, that’s good,” I said, then asked him what made…
Supply chain management, traditionally, has been a complex negotiation process between customers, vendors, and suppliers. This intricate dance of agreeing on specifications, requirements, delivery, parts, and more results in a delivery schedule that customers rely on for their production needs. However, this system is not without its flaws. Last-minute disruptions can occur when vendors fail…
My wife was recently involved in a car accident. She was thankfully unhurt and it wasn’t her fault. Because she needs her vehicle, we paid out of pocket to have it repaired while simultaneously working with the insurance company to get them to cut the reimbursement check. For us, keeping the time between paying out…
In 2004 I was consulting for a business who had acquired a company. Things were not going well. Production was abysmal. The culture was in ruins. No one from the acquired company seemed to have anything good to say about the parent company. I knew from day one that I had my work cut out…
Let’s face it: every business has its problems, its constraints, and its inefficiencies. These issues can be like roadblocks, preventing you from reaching your goals and keeping you from delivering on your promises to your customers. The key is figuring out which of these roadblocks are the most detrimental and, more importantly, how to remove…
A premier global defense, aerospace and security company was looking to expand its operations with additional capital equipment. Over a period of 20 weeks, CBS built a repeatable system that resolved the company’s most pressing program and project management issues, providing visibility into key processes and procedures, which in turn increased project “ownership” and accelerated implementation timelines.
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