Phillips recently reorganized into five strategic business units in a move it says will allow it to better focus resources on specific markets, improving customer responsiveness and product innovation.
The new units under Phillips’ corporate umbrella are Phillips Aftermarket, Phillips OEM, Phillips Connect Technologies, Phillips Asia-Pacific and Phillips Europe. Each unit will have a separate board of advisors to assist in business and performance planning within their distinct markets, the company said.
The restructure includes two senior leadership promotions. Rob Myers was named president of Phillips Aftermarket and Filiberto Coello will take the helm as president of the Phillips OEM business unit.
“We are at a place with our business today where doing things the same way will simply not allow us to grow at the pace which we have in the past,” said Rob Phillips, president and chief operating officer of Phillips Industries. “We’ve over-stretched our existing organizational structure and are showing signs of becoming ‘too corporate.’
“In our business, big doesn’t beat small. It’s the fast that beats the slow, and we are reorganizing in a way that places customer responsiveness and the ability to be flexible as our highest objective.”
The company’s evolution began more than nine decades ago with the design and patent of a reflective turning “signal arm” to make signaling safer for trucks. Since then, Phillips has progressed from a regional truck parts distributor to an innovator and manufacturer of advanced air and electrical components for the heavy-duty trucking industry. Within the last two decades, Phillips has grown from a few hundred employees and three locations in North America to more than 1,500 employees and eight locations worldwide.
“We were raised on ease, flexibility, and a TNT (today-not-tomorrow) attitude,” Rob Phillips said. “By breaking into smaller, more focused businesses, we will continue our tradition of being incredibly easy to do business with.”
With a team-oriented and relationship-driven attitude, Myers is an energetic individual with outstanding communication skills and a strong background leading successful teams and building lasting connections, Phillips said. As a board member of the Heavy-Duty Marketing and Sales Forum (HDMSF, part of HDMA), he also is recognized as knowledgeable within the industry, staying abreast of industry successes and challenges.
He was promoted from director of sales to vice president of sales in 2017. Under his direction, sales have grown exponentially, Phillips maintained. As president of the Phillips Aftermarket unit, he will play an important role in furthering their efforts and growth in that segment of their business.
“We’ve grown significantly during this most recent business cycle and recognize that we’re better for our customers when we’re smaller, scrappier and completely focused on helping them grow their businesses,” Myers said. “Whether it’s with the way we innovate new products or we handle rush orders, we are narrowing our focus on just the Aftermarket, or just the OEM business in order to continually be easier and more reliable than ever to do business with.”
Coello joined Phillips in 2008 as general manager of Phillips’ Electrical Harness Division (EHD) in Arteaga, Mexico. He came to Phillips with a background in lean manufacturing. Trained in Japan in the Toyota Production System, he possessed the knowledge to create and set in motion the proficiencies necessary to deliver solid results at their manufacturing facility.
Over the course of his career, Coello has been instrumental in the development and expansion of Phillips EHD, which has experienced 600% growth since 2008, Phillips claimed. EHD has received numerous ‘Masters of Quality’ Awards from Daimler and has the lowest standard lead time in the industry, delivering custom harnesses in two to three weeks.
Coello was promoted to the position of general director in 2011 and has maintained director-level positions throughout his career at Phillips.