Value chain strategy & interim leadership · Amsterdam
I help businesses decide where, how, and whether to make or buy.
Over fifteen years across Philips and Versuni on value chain strategy: design-to-value, make-or-buy, footprint, and total cost. The structural decisions that quietly shape a product's margin for years to come. Available for interim and project engagements.
Most strategy stops at the slide deck, written by people who won't be there when it meets reality. I've spent years on the implementation side of these decisions, so I know where they break. That's what makes the strategy I build hold up.
Work
What I do
Some of the ways I can help, from early design decisions through to board-level strategy.
01
Design-to-Value & DfX
The best value for money is engineered early, before cost hardens into the product. I lead cross-functional Design-to-Value and DfX programs across the full value chain, having run McKinsey-methodology initiatives at Philips (DfX, Design for eXcellence) that optimize cost against value through the design of the product and its supply chain and manufacturing setup.
02
Footprint & make-or-buy
Where, and whether, to produce. Network design, allocation across sites, the in-house versus outsource call, and the relocation and closure business cases behind them, grounded in landed cost and a defensible NPV, not a headline labour rate. I have led a UK factory closure and relocation end to end, from business case to final line restart.
03
Value chain cost & TCO
The true cost of a product across its whole value chain, not just its factory cost price. I map and challenge the cost that sits beyond FCP: logistics, footprint-driven cost, complexity, working capital, duty, and the drivers that hide between functions. It is the analytical backbone under every footprint and make-or-buy call. On one assignment this surfaced the cost drivers others had missed and took €12M out of cost of goods in a single year.
04
Interim project & programme leadership
Not just designing the change, but running it. Senior interim leadership for complex operational programs such as closures, relocations, and transformations, where the same person holds the strategy and the delivery, so nothing is lost in a handoff.
01
Design-to-Value & DfX
The best value for money is engineered early, before cost hardens into the product. I lead cross-functional Design-to-Value and DfX programs across the full value chain, having run McKinsey-methodology initiatives at Philips (DfX, Design for eXcellence) that optimize cost against value through the design of the product and its supply chain and manufacturing setup.
The cheapest cost to remove is the one you never design in. By the time a product reaches the factory floor, most of its cost is already locked by decisions made much earlier in development. Design-to-Value is the discipline of getting into that room early and engineering the best value for money before it hardens.
I lead cross-functional Design-to-Value and DfX programs across the full value chain, bringing design, procurement, manufacturing, and finance into the same conversation. At Philips I ran initiatives built on McKinsey's DfX (Design for eXcellence) methodology: a programme, in the family of Operational Excellence, focused on optimizing cost against value through design, including the design of the supply chain and manufacturing setup, not just the product itself. The work is part analysis, part diplomacy: the savings are in the teardown and the should-cost model, but they only land if engineering and sourcing agree on what "value" means in the first place.
Typical engagements
Cost-down programs on mature products, value engineering for a new platform, DfX (Design for eXcellence) embedded into a development process, and standing up a repeatable methodology a team can run after I've gone.
Best when
Margins are under pressure, a product line has quietly accumulated cost, or a new development needs cost discipline built in from the start.
02
Footprint & make-or-buy
Where, and whether, to produce. Network design, allocation across sites, the in-house versus outsource call, and the relocation and closure business cases behind them, grounded in landed cost and a defensible NPV, not a headline labour rate. I have led a UK factory closure and relocation end to end, from business case to final line restart.
Where you produce, and whether you produce it yourself, are among the most expensive and least reversible decisions a manufacturer makes. They deserve more than a gut call and a spreadsheet built to justify one.
I build the footprint and make-or-buy case from the ground up: network design, volume allocation across sites, the in-house versus outsource call, and the relocation or closure business cases that follow. Every recommendation is grounded in landed cost and a defensible NPV, not a headline labour rate.
When a decision becomes a move, I can run the move. I led a UK factory closure and relocation end to end: business case through to phased asset transfers, line restarts across Europe and Asia, and supply, quality, and compliance held intact throughout. The strategy and the execution were the same pair of hands.
Typical engagements
Manufacturing footprint strategy and network redesign, make-or-buy assessments, regionalization (I've done this across India, Brazil, and Turkey), and site closure or relocation, from the business case through to the last line restart.
Best when
You're carrying a footprint designed for a market that has moved, a make-or-buy call keeps getting deferred, or a relocation needs someone who can both build the case and deliver it.
03
Value chain cost & TCO
The true cost of a product across its whole value chain, not just its factory cost price. I map and challenge the cost that sits beyond FCP: logistics, footprint-driven cost, complexity, working capital, duty, and the drivers that hide between functions. It is the analytical backbone under every footprint and make-or-buy call. On one assignment this surfaced the cost drivers others had missed and took €12M out of cost of goods in a single year.
The factory cost price is only part of what a product actually costs you. The rest sits between the functions, in logistics, footprint, complexity, working capital, and duty, and it rarely shows up on any single team's P&L.
I map and challenge the total cost of a product across its whole value chain, not just its factory cost price. The point is to see the cost the way the business as a whole carries it, surface the drivers that hide between functions, and turn that into a total-cost view solid enough to base a footprint or make-or-buy decision on. It is the analytical backbone under most of the bigger calls I make, and often valuable on its own. On one assignment this surfaced the cost drivers a standard analysis had walked straight past, and took €12M out of cost of goods in a single year.
Typical engagements
End-to-end value chain cost mapping, total-cost-of-ownership models for make-or-buy and footprint decisions, cost-driver analysis beyond factory cost price, and building the capability so a team can maintain the view without me.
Best when
You suspect the real cost of a product sits somewhere outside the factory gate but can't yet prove where, or a footprint or make-or-buy decision needs a total-cost picture that holds up under scrutiny.
04
Interim project & programme leadership
Not just designing the change, but running it. Senior interim leadership for complex operational programs such as closures, relocations, and transformations, where the same person holds the strategy and the delivery, so nothing is lost in a handoff.
Strategy that no one implements isn't strategy, it's a document. The rarer skill is holding both halves: designing the change and then running it, without the handoff where intent gets lost.
I take senior interim leadership of complex operational programs, the kind where the plan and the delivery can't safely be separated: closures, relocations, footprint moves, and transformation programs that have to keep supplying customers while they change underneath. Because I've usually built the strategy myself, there's no translation layer, no learning curve, and no one discovering in month three that the plan didn't survive contact with the factory floor.
Typical engagements
Interim programme lead for a footprint or manufacturing change, turnaround of a stalled operational program, and hands-on delivery leadership for a transformation that needs both credibility with the board and credibility on the shop floor.
Best when
You have a critical operational change and need one senior person accountable for both the thinking and the doing, on a defined timeline, without adding a permanent head.
Approach
I
Every recommendation I make traces to a number you can put in front of a board or an investor, because that's who I built them for.
II
I've seen both sides of the equation. I don't just design the plan, I've implemented my own, including leading a UK factory closure through to completion. Having sat on both the strategy and the delivery side, I understand what it takes to set bold targets and actually make them achievable.
III
When you hire me, you get me: not a pitch team that hands the work to someone junior once the contract is signed. The person you meet is the person who does the work.
CC
About
I'm Coen Cats, a value chain strategist in Amsterdam. I hold an MSc in Mechanical Engineering, and I've kept that engineering foundation even as my work moved into strategy, pairing a technical understanding of how products are actually made with a commercial view of what they should cost and where the value sits. Over more than fifteen years I have worked across R&D, cost engineering, procurement, supply chain, and operations at Philips and Versuni, much of it as an internal consultant. That last role shapes how I work: an internal consultant is still in the building when a recommendation has to survive reality.
That range is the point. I've seen a design-to-value, make-or-buy, or footprint decision from the design side, the sourcing table, the factory floor, and the finance model that goes to the board, so I can tell you where it will break before you commit the capital.
I'm Coen Cats, a value chain strategist based in Amsterdam. I help businesses make the structural decisions that quietly shape a product's margin for years to come: how to design it for value, where to make it, whether to make or buy it, and what it truly costs.
I hold an MSc in Mechanical Engineering, and I've kept that engineering foundation even as my work moved upstream into strategy. It's the pairing that defines how I work: a technical understanding of how products are actually made, joined to a commercial view of what they should cost and where the value really sits. Over more than fifteen years I worked across R&D, cost engineering, procurement, supply chain, and operations at Philips and Versuni, much of it as an internal consultant. That last role matters to how I work: an internal consultant doesn't hand over a recommendation and move on to the next client. You're still in the building when the recommendation has to survive reality.
That span is the whole point of how I work. I've seen a design-to-value, make-or-buy, or footprint decision from four very different seats: the design side where the cost is first committed, the sourcing table where it's negotiated, the factory floor where it's real, and the finance model that goes to the board and, on occasion, to private-equity investors. Because I've sat in all four, I can usually tell you where a decision will break before you commit the capital, rather than after.
Every recommendation I make traces back to a number someone can defend in front of a board, because for years that's exactly who I built them for. And I try to be as direct about what won't work as what will. A polite consultant who only tells you the comfortable half is expensive in ways that don't show up until much later.
I now take on a small number of interim and project engagements through Nexxis Consulting, the practice I founded in Amsterdam. If you're weighing one of these decisions and want a direct, senior look at it, from someone who has made these calls with real capital on the line, that's the conversation I'm best at.
If you're weighing how to design something for value, where to make it, whether to make or buy it, or what it truly costs, that's the conversation I'm best at. A direct look at the decision in front of you, from someone who has made these calls with real capital on the line.
