Fred Carr

Experience & Activities

Fred Carr is an Operations leader and executive with global manufacturing leadership experience across North America, Asia, and Europe, spanning multisite operations, P&L ownership, Lean transformation, labor relations, greenfield startups, site turnarounds, plant closures, and post-acquisition integration. Fred brings hands-on leadership across automotive, engineered materials, filtration media, refractory materials, cable manufacturing, and industrial products.

Currently, he serves as an Independent Management Consultant. In this role, Fred advises 4 customers/manufacturing organizations on inventory control, material flow, and operational efficiency improvement. He facilitates site-level performance improvement through Lean manufacturing, process discipline, and direct operational problem solving. Fred has catalyzed an estimated inventory loss reduction of 10% and safety concern cut of 50% for customers, leading to 100% satisfaction scores. He has realized a productivity increase of at least 50% for customers, pending enaction of all recommendations.

Prior, he was with the Prysmian Group as Plant Director, heading a 24/7 UAW manufacturing facility with 800+ employees and $300M in annualized revenue. Fred administered HSE, continuous improvement, operations, culture change, scrap reduction, output per labor hour, and product delivery while promoting open leadership roles.

Previously, he served with Atkore as Director of Operations, leading 6 U.S. manufacturing sites, owning P&L, safety, quality, delivery, Lean transformation, acquisition alignment, and organizational change. He managed initiatives to reduce scrap, improve inventory management, boost maintenance performance, and reduce lead times. Fred improved machine availability from 70% to 95% at one site

Earlier in his career, he was with Alkegen as Plant Manager / Operations Director, Thermal Engineered Materials. He administered 9 manufacturing sites across the United States, United Kingdom, and Czech Republic with P&L ownership, Lean execution, Six Sigma methodology, and post-acquisition integration. He was promoted from the role of Global Director, Operations Integration with the organization, directing manufacturing integration, rooftop consolidation planning, synergy savings, and operational cost reduction projects following the Unifrax and Lydall combination. Fred developed and implemented $12.6M in annualized synergy savings by integrating manufacturing operations across Lydall and Unifrax facilities. He also built a rooftop consolidation strategy for 2 mega sites in the U.S. and Europe to enable post-merger operational efficiency, with each mega-site consolidation saving $10M+ per year. Prior, he was Global Director of Operations Excellence for Lydall.

Before this role, Fred supplied leadership at Parker Hannifin as Operations Excellence Manager, IPF Division. He spearheaded continuous improvement across 6 manufacturing sites, including 5 in the US and one in Mexico. He also drove VAVE impact, increasing gross margin by 10 basis points during an 11% year-over-year sales decline by leading VAVE and kaizen initiatives. Notably, Fred also catalyzed $7.2M in savings through Kaizens.