ROCHESTER, NY--Eastman Kodak Company has announced a series of organizational changes that represent another step in its effort to create the digital business model necessary for sustained success.
Kodak announced that it would assign its manufacturing facilities to specific business units and streamline certain administrative functions. These moves will increase accountability among the businesses for product manufacturing and inventory, while also enabling further cost reductions.
The changes, which are part of the company's broader digital transformation, were anticipated in the total employment reductions announced last year.
"Our goal has been to dedicate to our business units the resources they need to build on their success and operate in an autonomous manner," said Antonio M. Perez, Kodak's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
"With the changes announced, we will hold the businesses more directly accountable for their results. Kodak is now a digital company, and these actions are required to support our digital business model."
The company expects the majority of the changes to occur by July 1. They include the following actions:
*Units of the Global Manufacturing & Logistics (GM&L) organization will be aligned with and integrated into relevant business units or functions.
*The Chief Administrative Office (CAO) will be disbanded and the reporting relationships of its units shifted within the company.
*In conjunction with these changes, three senior officers will retire later this year, after the changes are implemented. They are:
*Charles S. Brown, Jr., Senior Vice President, and Chief Administrative Officer;
*Daniel T. Meek, Senior Vice President and Director, GM&L;
*Charles C. Barrentine, Vice President and Director, Kodak Operating System.
To maintain functional excellence in manufacturing, the former GM&L operations will report to leaders in the business units who have extensive backgrounds in operations management. They are Darrell A. (Andy) Clapper for Health Group (HG), Theodore D. McNeff for Consumer Digital Imaging Group (CDG), John S. Robinson for Graphic Communications Group (GCG), and Paul A. Walrath for Film & Photofinishing Systems Group (FPG).
McNeff and Walrath are corporate vice presidents and will hold the title of chief operating officer for their respective business units. Clapper will be General Manager and Vice President, Health Group Media Manufacturing. Robinson is General Manager and Vice President, Global Manufacturing & Supply, Graphic Communications Group.
"As a result of the rapid and effective actions we have taken over the past two years to restructure our manufacturing assets, we can increasingly assign responsibility for manufacturing to the business units that the production facilities support," Perez noted.
"In one sense, this marks the last break with the 'economy of scale' manufacturing model that served our company so well for more than 120 years. In a digital age, we need to make decisions faster and better, and these changes will enable that.
"We have made tremendous progress during the past two years with the implementation of our digital strategy, thanks in large part to the contributions of Charlie Brown, Dan Meek, and Charles Barrentine," Perez said. "Kodak has a reputation for world-class manufacturing operations that is due to the contributions made by these three individuals and the teams they have built.
"They were responsible for the creation and institutionalization of the Kodak Operating System, which has and will continue to have a major impact on our company's performance by eliminating waste and minimizing costs. They have served Kodak with distinction, and on behalf of the entire company, I would like to thank them for their years of distinguished service and wish them all the best.
"I also want to express my confidence in Andy Clapper, Ted McNeff, John Robinson and Paul Walrath. They will carry out the work in integrating the manufacturing functions into the business units and building on the benchmark levels of excellence established by their predecessors. Their operational expertise and years of experience at Kodak will benefit the company as we continue our drive to complete our digital transformation."
