Aj Strandquist

As Chief Executive Officer and founding member at Würth Additive Group I help guide a passionate team to our vision of the future state of inventory management.

Taking the mystery out of digital inventory management. Working with a team of talented people to bring supply chain solutions that utilize 3D printing in existing Würth systems and processes. Our goal is to bring value to Würth customers and support them in finding more manufacturing autonomy.

My role is to work with some very talented colleagues and meet the sales goals set by the team. We are a transparent and open department that accomplishes the majority of our tasks through collaborative project groups with members of other departments. As of 2018 I also lead the additive manufacturing efforts for Würth Industry of North America. Working towards defining the supply chain solutions of tomorrow. The drive for our team is to use our knowledge and resources to help make our customers more profitable and efficient every day.

Having tackled various projects within the Würth group, I was promoted to Project Manager at Würth Snider. The position provides and excellent environment to problem solve and be creative. Past sales experience helps put me in front of customers and have concrete discussions about how a one of our business partners wants to operate and help craft a constructive partnership. I continue to coordinate cross selling opportunities within the Würth Group in essentialy an expanded role. This gives a unique experience of participating in the initial sales call all the way to implementation.

The role of crossing selling manager had me building relationships from autonomous Wurth companies. Due to it being a unique position in the Würth group I've participated in joint-warehouse logistics, work on national programs to further cross selling efforts, as well as be a part of the due diligence team for the largest acquisition in Würth's long history. The goal of this is to offer extremely wide product ranges, customized VMI solutions, consolidated billing, and a high level service to our customers. This initiative is driven by the goal to give our customers the best platform to grow and succeed along with us.

After finding success in selling our programs a door was opened to help with overall sales. My main objective can be boiled down to ensuring we hit our monthly/annual targets. The team I work with consists of 12 sales reps covering 2/3 of New Zealands land mass. To meet our objectives I monitor daily sales, perform ride alongs and evaluations, help sales reps pursue and succeed in new projects, develop training modules, and help balance the annual budget.

Oversaw the Kanban process for three regions in New Zealand. Based out of Wellington I help sales reps with selling the system, organizing installations, optimizing customers, and initiating projects to develop the service. Over a 6 month period the Kanban team helped develop the infrastructure of the program and optimize it while achieving positive sales resuts. In the regions I worked with we were able to see +22% to the total number of bins at our customers, +20% on the number of customers with a VMI account, while achieving a higher profit margin than before. EDL Fasteners is a subsidiary of Wurth.

I took part in a manager's training course at the main campus of Wurth Industry Service in Germany. Accomplishing the goal of getting a view into numerous aspects of the business in 10 months while also travelling around Europe for projects/continued training in other EU countries.

I began with Rosemont farms as a line supervisor overseeing a small part of one of our distribution facilities. In under a year I had completed projects in Florida and the Dominican Republic and then put into action overseeing our distribution functions in San Diego.