Management Bios

Mr. Buzz Van Santvoord

Mr. Buzz Van Santvoord is F. Curtis Barry & Company’s warehouse consultant and is a results-oriented Executive with extensive experience in Operations and Facility Administration in the distribution, logistics, and retail fulfillment industries. Strategic thinker and planner grounded and educated in profitable growth models for start-up, emerging, turnaround, and acquisition positioned businesses. He is recognized as a leader for balancing Customer Satisfaction and Development with the overhead and bottom line importance of Profit and Loss income statements. Constantly benchmarks World Class Customer Service standards and positions them at the center of all business impact decisions. He is a global thinker with excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Most recently Mr. Van Santvoord has worked on a few consulting projects that include:

• Designing of a new facility for a ‘Made in Virginia’ company starting a mail order catalog business,
• Layout and Time in Motion studies for a large warehousing company in the Shenandoah Valley quoting on 3 different 3rd party pick/pack/ship businesses
• New facility design for a national kitchen cabinet distributor in Harrisonburg Va. Helped coordinate move to larger facility

Prior to consulting, Mr. Van Santvoord worked at Plow & Hearth since 1990 where his scope of accountability included Production, Quality Control, Engineering, Maintenance, Planning, Warehousing and Distribution, Environmental Health, Safety and Quality for $150+ MM organization.

Throughout his extensive experience at Plow & Hearth, Mr. Van Santvoord has done the following:

• Re-engineered process workflow, automated delivery and takeaway of returns, and integrated order processing system with Warehouse Management System reducing Holiday returned goods processing backlog from 2 weeks to 2 days.
• Developed and implemented Service Quality Index of 12 world class standards through industry benchmarking.
• Through three distribution center expansions, removed business growth barriers caused by lack of physical space increasing available space by 65 percent.
• Maintained competitive Customer outbound transportation costs within the industry.
• Reduced cost per transaction for an Inbound (Receiving/QA/Prepack) department which was faced with increased volumes and reduced space.
• Re-engineered and minimized touch-points of inbound goods and reduced variable expenses by 15%.
• Reengineered Quality Assurance Program, introducing state-of-the-art technology and reduced order inspection to 40% while maintaining acceptable picking error percentages, reducing variable salary expenses, and increasing throughput.
• Authored Operation Department’s application for the United States Senate Productivity and Quality Award for Virginia application and became an Award Winner.
• Acted as the Corporate Wide Project Manager for several initiatives, including reduction of packing supply expenses (exceeded 9.5% goal), integration of a 2nd and 3rd Distribution Centers.
• Developed and directed RFP (request for proposal) to select a tier 1 telephone switch to service 200 seat call center reducing cost per service call by 25%.
• Identified the need for mid-level management and designed a Team Leader program to identify the best and brightest line staff, and formalized a training program, including cross-training, job shadowing, and employee relations coaching to aid 150% growth.
• Sourced, negotiated, purchased, and implemented 2 Warehouse Management Systems.