Al Kent

Al Kent is an advisor to executives in the Industrials, Chemicals and Energy industries for Strategy&, PwC's strategy consulting group. Based in Florham Park, N.J., he is a principal with PwC U.S. He focuses on cost reduction topics and has more than 17+ years of experience within industry and consulting.

Al is a recognized specialist in a broad range of cost reduction topics – most notably:

• Manufacturing Strategy
• Design to Cost, Direct Materials Sourcing Strategy
• Field Service Strategy
• Stocking Strategy, Inventory Management
• Rapid Cost Reduction Strategies (e.g. Business unit turnarounds)

Al works with his clients to effect real and lasting change – a few examples of recent projects are:

• Manufacturing Strategy: Developed and implemented manufacturing footprint restructuring for an Industrials manufacturer through better customization strategy and leveraging low cost labor regions – relocations led to a 20% improvement in manufacturing costs
• Design to Cost: Redesigned the cost structure of a flagship product by ~25% for a Fortune 100 multi-national Industrials company through a combination of design and sourcing levers – identified the path to achieve these savings in 5 weeks through a series of rapid workshops
• Direct and Indirect Sourcing: Designed and ran a comprehensive sourcing transformation effort for a major Industrials company across their $6B in spending – delivered 12% in direct and indirect savings to the bottom line
• Field Service Strategy: For an Industrials company, restructured their 20,000 person field/managed service business – and reduced costs by 18% - by improving utilization and deployment, restructuring of wages and benefits for the entire organization
• Stocking Strategy, Inventory Management: Developed a market-back stocking strategy for a major bearing, gear manufacturer by revising make-to-stock categories and order policies to better reflect the flow and potential of their machining centers; not only did this allow for a reduction in inventory and lead time through the plant – but also achieved a lift in the market through advantaged availability and service
• Rapid Cost Reduction: Led a 6-month turnaround of a major energy and mining company – focused on support, engineering and production overheads as well as portfolio reduction – achieved a 23% reduction in overheads and significantly reduced portfolio

Al has published multiple articles on cost reduction – most notable are Accelerated Cost Transformation and Retooling labor costs.