Lakshmi Narayanan
Director of Operations / VP Operations
Chennai, India • +91 90030 16482 • lakshmi.narayanan@proton.me • linkedin.com/in/lakshmi-narayanan-ops
Portfolio: www.eliorexa.com/portfolio/operations-manager-senior
Professional Summary
Operations leader with 13 years running multi-site supply-chain and service operations across manufacturing and e-commerce. Sets operational strategy, owns P&L of ₹180 crore, and leads organizations of 200+ across 6 sites — tying process optimization, vendor strategy and SLA governance to margin and growth. Drove Lean/Six Sigma transformations, built vendor ecosystems and KPI cultures, and develops managers into directors.
Skills
Leadership: Operations strategy, P&L ownership, Org building (200+), Change management, Executive stakeholdering, Board reporting
Operational excellence: Lean transformation, Six Sigma Black Belt, Hoshin Kanri, KPI governance, S&OP, Quality systems (ISO 9001)
Supply chain & vendor: Network design, Vendor strategy, Strategic sourcing, Capacity planning, Logistics & 3PL, Inventory optimization
Commercial & systems: Budgeting & cost control, SLA & contract management, SAP S/4HANA, Power BI, Automation/RPA, Risk & compliance
Core Competencies
operations leadership · operations strategy · supply chain · P&L · KPIs · team leadership · vendor management · Lean · Six Sigma · budgeting · SLAs · S&OP · process optimization · scale
Work Experience
Director of Operations — Veturi Consumer Brands
Mar 2018 – Present
Chennai
- Lead operations for a ₹180 crore P&L across 6 sites and 220+ staff, owning the full supply chain from sourcing to last-mile across South India.
- Drove a company-wide Lean/Six Sigma transformation that lifted overall equipment effectiveness from 61% to 84% and cut manufacturing cost-per-unit 23%.
- Redesigned the distribution network and 3PL strategy, consolidating 9 warehouses to 5 and reducing logistics cost ₹14 crore/year while holding 48-hour delivery SLAs.
- Built a strategic vendor program across 80+ suppliers with scorecards and tiered SLAs, raising on-time-in-full from 86% to 98% and de-risking single-source dependencies.
- Instituted a KPI governance and S&OP cadence with monthly business reviews, improving forecast accuracy 22 points and freeing ₹26 crore in working capital.
- Hired and developed 40+ managers and grew 5 into site-head and director roles; established the operations academy used to onboard all new leaders.
Senior Operations Manager — Indus Fulfilment (e-commerce 3PL)
Apr 2014 – Feb 2018
Bengaluru
- Scaled fulfilment operations from 1 to 4 facilities and 12,000 to 60,000 orders/day, leading a 120-person organization under contractual SLAs.
- Launched a continuous-improvement program (Kaizen + DMAIC) that cut cost-per-order 28% and improved order accuracy to 99.4%.
- Negotiated and governed a ₹95 crore annual vendor and logistics budget, beating cost targets 3 years running.
Operations Manager / Production Lead — Earlier roles — Ashok Leyland, TVS Logistics
2011 – 2014
India
- Managed shop-floor and warehouse operations across automotive manufacturing and logistics; promoted twice for delivery, quality and team leadership.
Education
MBA — Operations & Strategy
2011
Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Tiruchirappalli, Tiruchirappalli
B.E. — Mechanical Engineering
2009
College of Engineering, Guindy (Anna University), Chennai
Certifications
- Lean Six Sigma Black Belt — ASQ (American Society for Quality) (2017)
- APICS CSCP — Certified Supply Chain Professional — ASCM (2016)
Selected Achievements
- Cut logistics cost ₹14 crore/year by consolidating 9 warehouses to 5 and re-architecting the 3PL network.
- Lifted overall equipment effectiveness from 61% to 84% through an enterprise Lean/Six Sigma transformation.
- Freed ₹26 crore in working capital by overhauling S&OP and inventory governance across 6 sites.
- Speaker, India Supply Chain Summit 2023 — "Building vendor ecosystems that hit 98% OTIF."; mentors operations leaders via an industry fellowship.