3M named Torsten Pilz, SVP and chief supply chain officer at Honeywell, to lead its supply chain, CEO Bill Brown said during a Feb. 26 investor day conference.
Pilz is slated to start his new role in the next couple of months, the CEO said.
He will succeed 3M Group President of Enterprise Supply Chain Peter Gibbons, who will retire from his role April 2, according to an 8-K form filed Feb. 18. Gibbons has been with the company since 2021, and Brown credited him with being “instrumental in building this combined, unified end-to-end supply chain organization.”
As head of 3M’s enterprise supply chain, Gibbons oversaw planning, internal and external manufacturing, procurement, logistics, engineering and quality.
Pilz currently holds a similar role at Honeywell, according to Brown, and has also served as VP of supply chain at SpaceX and VP of worldwide operations at Amazon.
A supply chain priority for 3M lately has been to get its delivery service levels "to where they need to be,” Brown told analysts during a Q4 earnings call in January. In October 2024, Brown said the company's on-time in-full rate improved to 89% as it tackled supply chain inefficiencies. The company was targeting a goal of above 90%.
“We're definitely losing business for sure, there. We are not delivering. When somebody needs something right now and we don't have it available, that is causing them to go someplace else, even though we have a better brand, sometimes a better product, and attractive price,” Brown told analysts during the recent call.
The manufacturer’s performance in Safety & Industrial, for instance, remains well below expectations with an OTIF rate in the low 80s. Brown emphasized the need for a “fundamental shift.”
“We're doing this by standardizing the demand planning process, using new algorithms to improve forecast accuracy, improving supplier delivery performance, and driving consistency and reliability in logistics,” the CEO said.
During the investors conference, Gibbons outlined the framework to link supply and demand across 3M’s entire supply chain to deliver improved service and inventory, moving up from a high 80s on-time in-full rate, to above 90% OTIF rate. To achieve this, 3M will build out its capabilities, technical skills, as well as adding tools and technologies to its “toolkit.”
“It's clear there are fantastic opportunities to rewire our supply chain, product platforming, delving into tier two, tier three suppliers, looking at AI-powered planning and quality systems, all kinds of fabulous things we can do,” Gibbons told analysts.
