Welcome to Vincent Schuster's Professional Portfolio
Welcome to Vincent Schuster's Professional Portfolio
Experienced and purpose-driven executive, specializing in global IT and digital leadership with a genuine passion for fostering team growth and sparking innovation. Proficient at navigating organizational transformations and driving positive change, adeptly blending empathy and strategic insight to create environments where teams thrive and ideas flourish. Known for expertise in strategic planning, team leadership, and pioneering technology solutions that seamlessly integrate IT, operations, and business units. A collaborative leader who leverages both experience and situational awareness to make informed, decisive decisions. Trusted partner and advisor to all stakeholders. Demonstrated ability to communicate, influence and partner with senior business and IT leaders.
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​"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Vincent Schuster
Professional Portfolio
+1 (201) 738-8942
Email:
Location:
Montgomery, NJ USA
Date of Birth:
July 18, 1975
Phone:
PROJECTS
Innovation Council
2022-2024
My team was really the glue between the business and the digital delivery teams. Nothing could be completed successfully without my team, but our work would sometimes go unnoticed. With the implementation of O365, I recognized the opportunity to expand our teams' capability to deliver value back to the business. After building a few tools to simplify work for my team, we expanded to create the Innovation Council with the goal to deliver value and simplify work to the business at little to no cost to the business. In two years, the team was able to deliver significant value including more than 1300 hours a month savings, 114 hours reduction in cycle time and significant additional insights for improved decision making and problem solving.
IMEX Implementation
2022-2024
At Pfizer we used several digital tools to deliver on the Integrated Manufacturing Excellence program (the one best way) for the business. However, Digital did not utilize these same tools for the Digital processes. I led my team and ultimately the entire manufacturing digital network to leverage the tools and processes that we supported for the business. We were able to implement Visual Management, Continuous Improvement and Standard Work to the digital teams for all 40 sites in less than two years at a Tier 2 level. I also implemented T3 Visual Management and Standard Work to ensure better alignment across my team and to improve visibility to issues and needs as they happened.
Capital Projects
2020-2024
I had overall responsibility for everything Digital at the sites within my scope. Most recently this was 12 sites across the Sterile Injectable and Biotechnology Operations Business Unit. These were Drug Substance, Sterile Injectable and Aseptic Operations manufacturing sites. I had to lead discover, feasibility studies and ultimately finalize the basis and detailed design for capital expansion projects at these sites. Some examples are the Gene Therapy program in Sanford NC, the new facility in Sanford North NC, new building in Grange Castle Ireland, new building in Zagreb Croatia, and new building in Allege Spain. In addition, I was accountable for all of the Digital execution activities related to these Capital Expansions.
COVID-19
2020-2021
When Pfizer was approved to deliver the vaccine for COVID-19, there was a sense of urgency for the good of mankind. We had to do the unthinkable and even unimaginable to produce the volumes of vaccine required which far exceed any production output we have ever had for any other product by a significant amount and we had to do it at light speed. The product was being manufacturing in Puurs Belgium and Kalamazoo Michigan and my team had to find a way to enable this through digital capabilities. We started a $130M program for Digital Enablement across these sites as well as the Drug Substance sites in Grange Castle Ireland and Andover Massachusetts. In a typical year we may get two or three solutions approved to deliver to a given site and sometimes less. However, we were tasked with deploying over 30 applications for each of the two manufacturing sites. These were tools, systems and dashboards enabling the sites to manage the throughput of the materials for the vaccine, monitor temperatures and track the supply chain fully from end to end. We were able to fully deploy all of these systems and in some cases develop and deploy the system all within a year's time. This was unprecedented and required 24x7 focus from the entire team. As a result, Pfizer were able to meet all of the business targets including 3B+ doses in one year.
Manufacturing Site Remediation
2017-2020
I have been involved in and led several remediation activities for sites over the years. One of the sites was struggling to meet their goals and the digital systems were failing upon implementation to the point where major systems were being pulled out. I stepped in to help the site to change the culture and approach to system implementations and process improvement in general. I had to coach and mentor the Digital site leader to help him understand his own strengths and how to leverage those strengths to be successful. After about a year of working with the team on site we were able to commence major programs including a significant JDE remediation where we improved business processes to manage the warehouse, improved compliance and enhanced the user experience across the site. My leadership, decision-making and problem-solving skills were all put to the test in this experience, but now the site is flourishing and the local team is one of the top performing teams in the network.
Another example of significant remediation was the Electronic Batch Records at a site in India. I had to visit the site several times in a single year to perform Kaizen events to map out the flow of information and ultimately design new electronic batch records. Along the way we were able to eliminate unnecessary steps from the process allowing for some facility design changes and a better overall user experience. the results were astounding: 45% reduction of recipe size, 40% reduction in time to execute batch records, and 80% reduction in the number of exceptions raised during the execution of batch records.
Developing Leaders of the Future
2017
As we looked at our Succession planning and the talent in our organization there were a few areas we needed to improve across the board for our colleagues to be ready to take the next step. We needed improved Executive Presence, Emotional Intelligence and Business Relationship Management. I along with one of my peers took the initiative to develop a program to train our colleagues in these topics. We were able to generate an exceptional program to put our colleagues through with a two phased approach. The first phase was to go through the hands-on training in person with articles, videos, exercises and different ways to manage engagement and keep the trainees focused. We held the first training as a train the trainer approach so that the trainees could become the trainers for the next batch since we were doing this above and beyond our day jobs. Phase 2 was mentoring. Each of the trainees would have one of the leaders from our organization as a mentor. I mentored two colleagues and both of these colleagues were promoted to Director levels within 6 months of the. completion of the mentorship.
Acquisitions and Divestitures
2015-2017
When Pfizer purchased the Hospira organization, there were significant gaps in the approach to Digital and the systems compared to Pfizer. I led the integration activities for the Manufacturing digital teams including the allocation of resources to their long-term role within Pfizer. I acted as a mentor and guide for these (90) colleagues as they transitioned into the Pfizer organization. I was also in charge of planning and executing the system rollout schedule for the Hospira sites. This was a significant effort as these implementations were accelerated with a target to complete all implementations across all of the sites in a two year period from start to finish. Included in this was a big bang approach at the site in India where ten major systems including SAP, MES, LIMS and Asset Management all went live at the same time. While this had never been done before, we executed the change management flawlessly and ultimately delivered on the promise to deploy all of these systems along with integrations on the same day. Overall all of the onboarding activities were extremely successful.
Additionally, as part of the integration there were sites in the network that were not intended to remain in Pfizer and were either closed or sold off. Over the years I have led the closure and sale due diligence for several manufacturing facilities.
Six Sigma Projects
2010-2013
I leveraged the skills I gained from Six Sigma training to execute multiple six sigma projects culminating in my Black Belt project to simplify the process for creating incident tickets and ensuring they are routed to the correct queue. This project resulted in over $3.2M in savings by reducing the cost base for the use of the external vendors for help desk ticket management. This process is still in use and adding value today. I still leverage the skills and tools that I gained through my six sigma learnings. I have executed DMAIC and Design for Six Sigma approaches.
Manufacturing Execution Systems
1998-2009
Earlier in my career, I led the design and development of global MES solutions for the business. I facilitated global design for the core solution across 10 manufacturing sites including standard business integrated models. I led the Customer Advisory Board for Rockwell Automation to help define the key requirements to include into the standard software. Prior to that I collaborated with Intellution (now GE) to design and build the iWorkInstruction software for electronic batch records.
Other Significant Projects
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Business Continuity Management Program
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End of Service Life Program
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Cyber Scorecard
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Rotational Program Mentoring
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ELN - Electronic Lab Notebooks (supporting R&D and MSAT)
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Disaster Recovery Events
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Built Support structure and Process from the ground up
SKILLS
Project Management
Decision-Making
People Management
Strategic Planning​​
Visionary Leadership
Continuous Improvement
Training and Development
Stakeholder Management
Compliance Leadership
Thought Leadership
Workflow Optimization
Change Management
Business Development
Innovation
Team Leadership
Problem-Solving​
Operational Excellence
Lean Management
People Management
People Management
EXPERTISE
Digital Transformation
Continuous Improvement
Managing Digital Implementations, improvements and transformation of culture, mindsets and capabilities
Skilled in Six Sigma Methodologies, but also has a knack for identifying ways to simplify work activities to improve outcomes, but also enable people to do more in less time.
Leadership
Skilled at growing people. Excellent at identifying people's strengths and utilizing the strengths while growing the weaknesses and transforming them into strengths.
Remediation, Transformation, MES, Electronic Recipe Design, Simplification
The Schusters
My Family - My Inspiration
