Jeoffrey Burris, Founder and Principal of Advanced Purchasing Dynamics
Jeoff founded APD after spending 20 years in the automotive industry, where he became a recognized authority on procurement processes. He is a noted builder of high performance teams: he led purchasing staffs at Ford Motor Company, Metaldyne and Intier Automotive Seating. Jeoff’s teams were able to consistently save money on procurement costs and significantly improve related processes.
In addition to developing a deep understanding of purchasing in the domestic automotive industry, Jeoff became a successful manager in the global arena, directing profitable facilities and joint ventures in India, Korea and Mexico.
In 2004, the time was right for Jeoff to bring his passion for discovering optimal procurement solutions to his own firm. He infused APD with methodologies for true cost model engineering, and approaches to evaluate global sourcing options while performing precise, customized risk assessments.
At APD’s Plymouth, Michigan headquarters, Jeoff believes in forging a better, more collaborative relationship with suppliers. His techniques improve the entire organization, not just the purchasing department. He believes that a transparent, highly professional, collaborative approach to procurement brings not only substantial financial rewards but also allows well-informed people to operate in a thriving environment.
Jeoff has a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Supervision from Purdue University and an MBA in Operations from Indiana University. He remains a key figure in the world of procurement and global sourcing.
Patience Hitchcock, Director, Placement
Patience leads the placement division at the Purchasing Authority, finding and placing the top purchasing and procurement talent in manufacturing enterprises. She has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the staffing industry. For more than 10 years, Patience has been recruiting and placing manufacturing, logistics and office professionals. She has extensive expertise in sourcing for manufacturing, including engineers, production managers and leads, and related supply chain supervisors.
Prior to joining APD, Patience climbed the ladder at Randstad USA, where she supported a tier-one automotive supplier. She worked as an Account Manager and ultimately earned the position of Site Manager. She was recognized as a Top Performer in 2012, 2013 and 2014. She has routinely provided previous employers with year-over-year growth, leading to an increase in overall gross margin for the company. Patience also held the role of Resource Manager at Interactive Business Systems and Senior Recruiter/On-Site Manager at Adecco.
Patience has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Eastern Michigan University, and is a Certified Staffing Consultant as conveyed by the American Staffing Association.
Mike Wynn, Senior Director
Mike Wynn is a Senior Director for the Purchasing Authority, where he leads client engagements for sustained improvement of their purchasing practices. He brings more than 20 years of consulting experience guiding companies through strategic improvement initiatives in areas ranging from manufacturing efficiency to sales operations. Mike works closely with our executive team and technical resources to scope and deploy work plans to meet project goals.
Mike has overseen multi-year consulting engagements with a variety of companies, including Baxter, Chrysler, Hewlett Packard, Corning, Libbey, Trane, John Deere, U.S. Postal Service, Gerdau Ameristeel, Toyota, RR Donnelley and Caterpillar. His expertise in professional services management is critical to the success of our consulting, training, and engineering projects.
Mike earned an MBA and a BSE degree in Industrial Engineering, both from the University of Michigan.
Robert Maks, Vice President, Cost Engineering
Bob leads the Purchasing Authority’s cost engineering group with an extensive background in purchasing in the manufacturing sector. For more than 18 years, he has developed, led and implemented procurement/sourcing strategies across direct and indirect commodity segments including: polymers and resins, stampings, seating components, capital and tooling, MRO, purchased services and travel.
Bob lends his expertise to implementing the major cost models used by the Purchasing Authority: true cost modeling, knowledge-based market testing, benchmark and teardown analysis and attribute modeling. Using true cost modeling, APD’s cost engineers walk the plant floor to map labor, overhead, and material costs. Buyers can then use ProcureForce to easily compare supplier quotes to should-be cost models. Working with the cost engineers, Bob uses knowledge-based market testing to develop quotation frameworks to obtain critical information about manufacturing processes and costs. ProcureForce completes the analysis and optimizes the quotations to develop knowledge-based cost models.
In his most recent position prior to joining APD, Bob served as Director of Global Indirect Purchasing for Visteon, a major tier-one automotive supplier. He built and drove robust commodity strategies for a global team of more than 100 purchasing managers and buyers worldwide. Overseeing more than $1.0 billion in annual indirect goods and services purchases, he ensured that sourcing processes and controls were continuously maintained and improved.
As Lear Corporation’s Purchasing Director responsible for $17 billion of global automotive interior, seating, and electronic systems, Bob led purchasing strategy development and implementation within the company’s four production commodity groups.
Bob holds a Master’s degree in international management from Purdue University and a Bachelor’s degree from Central Michigan University.
Jason Lefevbre, Chief Technology Officer
As CTO, Jason leads the Purchasing Authority’s technology vision. With two decades of diverse experience in software development, Jason is the master behind the APD Cloud and its cloud solution, ProcureForce.
Jason is passionate about developer operations and efficient, agile software development lifecycle (SDLC) management. He is a recognized authority on Microsoft .NET and has written several books and many more articles on it in national magazines and for the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN). He has been working with Microsoft .NET since it was an internal, unreleased alpha product.
Currently, Jason focuses on utilizing Amazon cloud services (AWS) to deliver cutting edge, responsive Web applications using front-end JavaScript frameworks and back-end .NET solutions.
Throughout his career, Jason has been an innovator in the software industry. As Founder and Principal of Derecho Software, Jason led the company from inception to established enterprise. He oversaw all sales, administrative and management functions of the organization. Jason successfully built customer solutions using C#, SQL Server, Amazon Cloud (AWS), VB.NET, JavaScript and several other related technologies.
Before opening the doors at Derecho Software, Jason was a Senior Developer at Software Packaging Associates. During his time there, he created a solution to improve accounting, assembly, shipping and sales business operations in Windows and ASP.NET applications, using primarily C# and SQL. Prior to Software Packaging Associates, Jason managed a diverse team focused on development at Resurgent Capital based in Mason, Ohio.
Jason studied mathematics at Wright State University with a concentration in computer science.
Jim Dixon, Director, Consulting
Jim Dixon heads up the consulting division where he leads a wide variety of initiatives that assess and provide solutions for the procurement operations of the Purchasing Authority’s clients. He has led extended engagements with tier-one automotive suppliers to achieve accelerated and sustainable cost savings. For example, he identified 11.2% MRO cost reductions and service enhancements working with a purchasing services provider to handle a client’s MRO buying requirements. For another client, he developed a strategy and implementation plan to centralize and globalize the client’s indirect materials purchasing function, including benchmarking of industry BIC practices.
Jim has effectively utilized his non-production purchasing experience to the benefit of the Purchasing Authority’s clients. For example, he spearheaded a market study and rapid implementation of a third party procurement model at a tier-one automotive supplier, which resulted in more than $2 million of total cost reduction. He has Implemented purchasing strategies for commodities including packaging materials, plastic components and resins, telecommunications, IT software, etc. resulting in client savings of approximately $6 million.
As an automotive supply chain executive with extensive experience in the global procurement of production and non-production materials and services, Jim brings 30 years of experience to the Purchasing Authority. His ability to develop and deliver sound procurement strategies enabled him to move from buyer positions to Purchasing Director within Ford Motor Company. As a purchasing executive, he had global responsibility for machinery, tools, information technology and other indirect material spends.
Jim holds an MBA degree from the University of Illinois and a Bachelor’s degree from Illinois State University.
Adam Thor, Director, Cost Engineering
As a Cost Engineering Director, Adam uses his true cost modeling expertise to assist companies in understanding the cost structure of their material purchases. Clients, guided by his strategies, use this knowledge to control and contain expenses. An effective trainer, Thor teaches buyers to fully comprehend supplier cost structures. He is especially expert in the launch and detailed analysis of part cost modeling, specifically in support of purchasing cost reductions and make/buy analyses. Working with the cost engineering group, he develops data analysis models and quote summaries of RFQ market test data, including cost breakdown and cost driver data. The result is cost savings and greater transparency in the supply chain.
Before joining Advanced Purchasing Dynamics, Thor honed his purchasing and cost engineering skills at manufacturing giants Lear Corporation and General Motors. As a cost engineer at Lear, his work focused on providing data-driven cost analysis to support purchasing decisions. Similarly at GM, he served as a Supplier/Cost Development Engineer, regularly auditing supplier cost structures and determining multiple avenues for price reductions.
Adam is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Industrial and Operations Engineering. He is bilingual in English and Hmong.