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Results
in fast
Approach
Challenge: Manufacturer of Windows and Vinyl Siding products for the consumer market acquired by a private equity firm that had disbanded its project management office and released its project managers only to discover that it lacked the project management discipline to deliver product to market as scheduled as well as the capability to track project progress from a resource, budget and schedule standpoint.
Action: Upon being engaged by the company, we negotiated a set of short- and longer-term priorities to rectify the issues with the company’s project management process. Assessed the status of each product program to determine what work had been accomplished and had yet to be accomplished to achieve commercialization status.
Established project teams and a project meeting cadence for each project to address work to be accomplished and introduced tools such as MS Project Schedule, RAID Log, Change Management Log and a Weekly Report-Out to company leadership on project progress. Working with a newly hired employee whose job it was to re-establish the PMO, we created a Stage Gate Process for formal project reviews to track project progress, resource needs, budget expenditure and commercialization readiness.
Result: Uncovered critical deliverables for each project that needed to be resolved to achieve commercialization status and assigned responsibilities for them. Established a project schedule for each project including critical path activities. Launched the Stage Gate Process for several projects. Implemented project discipline and tools lacking from the company’s project management process. Launched three vinyl siding projects worth over $4 million in gross sales revenue and positioned several other vinyl siding and window projects for a 1Q’26 launch that were planned to yield over $8 million in gross sales revenue.
Challenge: The average cycle time to market to develop and introduce upgrades to existing engineering thermoplastic resins or to introduce new resin variants was 12 months. Each manufacturing site for the company had its own new product development and commercialization process. Due to the lack of a standardized process to develop and commercialize new products across the whole organization, the cost to develop and commercialize a new product varied up to 50% per project per site.
The objective was to develop a standardized new product development and commercialization process that would be common to all manufacturing sites capable of reducing cycle time to market, average cost to develop and commercialize an upgraded or new product, reduce developmental risks and eliminate resource waste.
Action: Co-led the benchmarking of new product development and commercialization processes used by the company’s top 5 clients to identify best practices that could be adopted to achieve project objectives. Audited each of the new product development and commercialization processes utilized by each of the company’s manufacturing sites to extract best and worst practices as well. Utilizing the lessons learned from these exercises, designed, and piloted a new product development and commercialization process to address the need for reduced cost, cycle time, risk and waste at the company’s largest North American manufacturing site on specific projects where the effectiveness and efficiency of the new process could be verified.
The success of the pilot led to the roll-out of the new product development and commercialization processes to all North American manufacturing plants including assignment of key personnel at each site with responsibility to oversee compliance to the process.
Result: Overall cycle time to market for upgraded or new products was reduced 25% from nine (12) months to nine (9) months. Cost associated with developing and introducing new products to market was reduced by an average of $150,000 per project. Within the first 18 months of introducing a standardized new product development and commercialization process for all manufacturing sites, $35 million in sales to new products was captured by the organization.
Challenge: Elevated to President/CEO by Board of Directors to revitalize company on verge of bankruptcy. Company was an employee-owned company that lacked leadership and financial strength to reinvest in its operations but had a well-respected core product line with strong commercial value.
Action: Analyzed financials to verify company had exceptionally high operational costs. Headcount was high compared to the company size, daily production and quality rates were very low, sales were eroding and assets needed major repair due to lack of reinvestment. ESOP was draining money out of the business monthly.
Created a turn-around plan to reduce headcount, address manufacturing and quality issues, improve sales/contribution margins and repair manufacturing assets that were over 25 years old. Convinced Board of Directors that ESOP had to be dissolved and that selling the company was required to attract reinvestment in new capital equipment.
Result: Successfully navigated company through a 363 Bankruptcy with help from a financial restructuring consultant. Dissolved ESOP; reduced headcount by 49% through operational improvements and sales of underperforming divisions; slashed operating costs over $4 million per year and improved profitability with renegotiated sales agreements.
Sold company with an asset market value of $12 million for $22.million via an auction process. Employee’s pensions were saved and all employees in ESOP at time of dissolution received money from sale of business. All outstanding bills from the original company were paid-in-full. New owner invested over $15 million into the company to continue the program to repair/replace old production equipment and to automate the production process.
- Challenge:
Manufacturer struggled to deliver products after losing its project management office and discipline.
- Action:
Rebuilt project structure, tools, and processes to restore tracking and execution.
- Result: Launched $4M in products and set up $8M+ for Q1 2026 release.
- Challenge: Lack of executive visibility led to missed deadlines and lost opportunities.
- Solution: True North introduced formal project management processes and executive dashboards.
- Result: On-time delivery improved by 40%, and project ROI increased by $5,000,000 annually.
Jerry Czernel
Rich has always been an innovator in Project Management disciplines. He is not afraid to ask the hard questions that result in genuine value for his customers. I believe his focus on the hard facts will deliver cost reductions to his True North customers.
Tommy Fristedt
Great information on how to achieve great results. Richard is very experienced and quite pleasant to work with. Highly recommended.
Mike Cretella
Excellent Experience and Very Nice to work with! I highly recommend True North PMP Consulting for any of your projects!
Dr. Ray Glaser
I have known Rich professionally for almost thirty years. In that time, I have seen him bring order out of chaos in several complex business situations. Project management skills and the ability to effectively apply them in practice were the keys to success. He knows the subject matter, can apply it effectively, and can translate that into an organization.
Jennifer Smith
Rich gives a great prep course for the PMP. The practice exams and prep materials are exactly what I was looking for to help me prepare for the PMP Exam.
Jeffrey Stran
I highly recommend Rich and his team at True North. They provide excellent Project Management support and leadership. They very effectively stepped in and provided project leadership and tactical project management from day one and became vital team members to move us forward.
Paul Henzlik
Rich did a very good job. He improved as he began to understand our business and was attentive to our needs.
John Cremer
Rich and his team at True North are great to work with. They provided project leadership/management immediately at a high level!
Kara Oberdove
True North was brought in to help the company I work for expedite several open projects. They helped bridge the gap between the internal silos we had and keep the timelines moving forward. They were great to work with!
Marco Santiago Hernandez
Thanks Richard to you and and your company for all the great support and guidance. Great attitude and expertise
Denzil Oliver
True North touched all aspects of our business to implement a critical path for launching new products and methodologies to market. Rich’s leadership was instrumental as the team(s) collaborated through hurdles and timelines resulting in meeting objectives for all involved…Great Job Team True North PMP Consulting Team!
Ryan Gibson
True North stepped in to help our organization about a year ago. They brought a new level of discipline and accountability to our Project Management discipline that we were greatly lacking. We successfully led us through several strategic projects that have “launched” and are having a very positive impact on our business. I would strongly Rich and the True North team.
Stephen Brooks
It was a pleasure to work with True North. The True North team is outstanding and professional. They helped raise the bar within the AMI team and drove results.
Adam Wood
The True North team did a great job bringing the necessary structure to our project. Always prepared and knowing when to apply the right tools. Rich and team took the time to learn the details of the business while always having the big picture in mind.
Raju Patil
Richard is an excellent coach and a mentor. His vast knowledge of our industry and project management background is very helpful in guiding us through this complex system. Our small team was able to achieve many of our goals due to Richards guidance.
Richard helped us avoid a lot of pitfalls a startup would generally have because of his years of knowledge being in the same position we are in now. Not only has he helped us streamline our processes which is helping our projects run more smoothly, he’s always there to support us each step of the way and provides valuable insights that are priceless.
Tadahiro Komura
True North has been consulting and supporting our company, Teijin Kasei America, for 6 1/2 months. One of the most impressive points was that their approach is very “realistic and efficient”, in other words, a “down-to-earth” type of approach.
The approach of typical consulting companies was too theoretical for us. The True North PMP network of connections in chemical and material industries is fantastic. We strongly recommend True North PMP Consulting. If your company is struggling with some projects like we were, contact them soon!
Beth Graves
True North helped our team get honest about our existing NPD process. They did not impose their ideas on our system. Instead, they allowed us to come to those realizations on our own. Since our project, we have continued to build upon our work together and I will definitely keep them in mind for future opportunities.
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