Sara Paton – Professional CV

Skill summary

• Coaching & leadership
• Business & Data Analysis
• Problem Solving & Root Cause Analysis
• Financial Analysis
• LEAN & Six Sigma
• Management Operating Systems
• Business Improvement
• Behavioural Change
• Information Technology

Professional summary

Sara is a Business Improvement professional with over 20 years of experience in Mining, Utilities and Infrastructure.  Her defining trait is the ability to implement outcomes which lead to reduced costs, improved customer service and increased productivity.

Her collaborative leadership style, based on mutual respect and trust, focuses on team management, training, motivation and development. She has strong analytical background evidenced through successful forecasting, budget development, driver tree and process modeling.

Sara is comfortable operating at all operational levels and is highly effective acting as liaison between senior management and staff.

Career highlights
Date	Employer	Job Title
Jun2018 – Present Jan2018 – Jun2018 Mar2017 – Dec2017 Sep2015 – Dec2016	ImpRes Spicae Consulting  (TasWater) ImpRes (South 32 TEMCO) Transdev Western Australia	Senior Consultant Business Improvement Consultant Senior Consultant Business Improvement Manager
Dec2014 – Present	Outcome Focused Solutions	Owner and Consultant
Mar2014 – Dec2014	Water Corporation	Team Leader – Business Improvement
May2012 – Feb2014	Water Corporation	Team Coach – MOS Project
Jan2009 – May2012	Water Corporation	Senior Maintenance Planner
Jan2004 – Dec2008	Water Corporation	Business Analyst
1999 – 2004	Rio Tinto Argyle Diamonds	Systems Coordinator

Education and professional development

• Bachelor of Science Studies  – Computer Science – Murdoch University
• Master of Innovation and Entrepreneurship – University of Adelaide
• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt

 Professional history

Senior Consultant, ImpRes, Mar 2017 to Present

As a Senior Consultant, Sara provides professional services to a range of Mining and Resources and Utilities sector clients.

Sara has engaged as a lead or support to several large-scale projects for clients across her time at ImpRes. These included implementations of a business improvement system, associated Management Operating System (MOS), PMO coordination for a large Australian base metals company, and Project Management change support for their Asset Management ISO 55000 standard integration.

• Development and roll out of elements of Business Improvement System
• Scheduling and Coordination of key projects at a large Manganese smelting operating
• Development and implementation of a MOS
• Programme Management Office (PMO) coordination with direct engagement by Vice President of Planning for business-critical initiatives
• Supporting the corporate Asset Management team implementation of key projects
• Change Management support for the Functional Asset Management project initialization phase for integrating 11 sites

Senior Consultant, TasWater (via Spicae Consulting), October 2017 to June 2018

As a Senior Consultant, Sara was responsible for delivering a two-phased program supporting the rollout across the TasWater business of:

• A Management Operating System (MOS)
• Power BI and Metrics Reporting connected to Maximo
• Activity integration visibility and reporting support to the Asset Management and Planning and Scheduling Teams  
• Behavioural change management and process change support.

Business Improvement Manager, Transdev Western Australia, September 2015 to December 2016

As the Business Improvement Manager Sara was responsible for the Western Australian delivery of the business improvement program known as ‘Good to Great’ delivering:

• Change management support to the business throughout the program AS IS and TO BE workshops, activity reviews, process mapping, gap analysis and opportunity identification
• Support in the evaluation, data collection, and scoping of user requirements to ensure the systems selected are fit for purpose.
• Coordination of local system installations, user testing, data migration, training and resources.
• Harmonization of local WA business needs with the Transdev Australasia strategy through the design of new processes.
• Support in the design of a new operating model for the organization with the appropriate governance changes required to deliver the identified improvement opportunities.
• A sustainable transition path from a deliberately designed disruptive change project into a business as usual ownership environment to realize the benefits to the bottom line.
• Successfully delivered a deliberately designed disruptive change program.
• Facilitated the delivery of a new business IT network consisting of 6 major systems and 14 other integrated applications aligning to a central data warehouse environment from a predominately MS excel base.
• Project managed a full business review, process redesign and business restructure with an employee base of approximately 1200
• Created a single operational control centre, combining the operations of 7 Depots.

Team Leader – Business Improvement, Water Corporation, March 2014 to December 2014

• Led a Team of 10 coaching resources across the state
• Supported team members through a rotational travel engagement around the state, ensuring the consistency in application is maintained across a diverse and geographically dispersed group
• Coached Senior Managers, and Team Leaders to an increased application of Active Management Principles
• Streamlined MOS installation tools to deliver the changes required to deliver the efficiencies identified
• Developed a behaviors gap evaluation tool for performance development
• Foundation base established and sustained for a further $100m efficiency program

    Team Coach – MOS Project, Water Corporation, May 2012 to February 2014

• Worked across the Western Australian depots to deliver the MOS elements
• Planning and Schedule Tool Development
• Key resource in delivering an identified $40m in adjusted labour efficiencies
• Completed 4 separate business improvement project stages
• Developed planning and scheduling tools to manage daily schedule control
• Installed 7 Management Operating Systems (MOS)
• Delivered 10 sets of Master Schedules and activity lists
• Initiated development of 15 business benefit realisation plans
• Completed over 50 focus sequence interviews

Senior Maintenance Planner, Water Corporation, January 2009 to May 2012

• Responsible for managing a team of people to develop a maintenance plan and schedule in SAP for the front line workforce to execute
• Development and application of Planning and forecasting reporting that resulted in improved planning and tracking of expenditure through activity-based costing.
• Completion of an Activity-Based Planning data alignment program
• Improved Planning and Scheduling through establishing Business Warehouse reporting and tracking

 Business Analyst, Water Corporation, January 2004 to December 2008

• Responsible for managing Financial and Business reporting, budgeting and analysis of all operational expenses and activities within the Agricultural and Goldfields Region.
• Within this role, I was responsible for managing a regional budget of $100m, and developing awareness and capacity to deliver on a zero-based budgeting model engaged through activity-based planning
• Developed an operational costing model, to enable visibility of price volumes and efficiency variances occurring in the business

Systems Coordinator, Rio Tinto Argyle Diamonds, 1999 to 2004

• Responsible for the Management and administration of Maintenance information in MIMS – Ellipse and other Mining systems, encompassing data analysis, system integration and optimisation.
• Role involved considerable analysis and modelling to ensure planning systems and activities were aligned to optimise delivery of mobile equipment machine availability to ensure mining production could be optimised.