David Cutter, FrieslandCampina: “To continue to drive success, you need to empower operators”

David Cutter joined Royal FrieslandCampina in 2022 as Chief Supply Chain and Research & Development Officer. At the same time, he was appointed to the Executive Board, emphasizing the importance of the global supply chain within the Netherlands-based dairy cooperative. The Australian, with more than 30 years’ experience in global supply chains, helped simplify and standardize factory operations, introducing greater discipline and significantly improving operational performance and efficiency. Also, he introduced a systematization programme for cost benchmarking and savings to reduce all aspects of Cost of Goods Sold. His strong belief in empowerment is turning operators into the ‘CEOs’ of their machines.

“My fundamental belief is that our most undervalued and important people are in the factories and if we can unlock their talents, we can improve performance. I started the role out of these programmes leading from the front. But now that the methodology has been embraced and proven, I feel more like I am encouraging and cheerleading the teams,” Cutter adds.

FrieslandCampina is an international dairy company, fully owned by more than 15,000 dairy farmers in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France as members of the cooperative Zuivelcoöperatie FrieslandCampina U.A. It was established in 1871 by several farmers in the Netherlands who together wanted to strengthen their market position and start cheese production. Over the years this collaboration has continued, sparking much innovation in the dairy sector – from milk, yoghurt and cheese products to infant nutrition and specialized ingredients for the food and pharmaceutical industries.

This story was originally published by Supply Chain Movement. Read the full story at Supply Chain Movement →