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Sven Houthuys

PartnerAmsterdam

Advises and serves consumer-packaged-goods and energy-sector companies, with a focus on digital, capability building, large-scale transformations, and operational excellence

Sven serves leading consumer-packaged-goods and energy-sector companies on the most challenging operations and transformation topics. As a leader in McKinsey Digital, McKinsey Accelerate, and the firm’s Operations Practice, he focuses on digitally enabled lean manufacturing, large-scale transformations and capability building, and operational excellence.

Sven leads the firm’s work in digital manufacturing, helping clients understand how to design and implement large-scale manufacturing improvement programs that boost performance, while building capabilities in the organization to sustain and improve that performance.

Examples of his recent client work include the following:

  • conducting an operational-performance transformation for a leading packaged-goods company by addressing manufacturing, network footprint, and supply-chain optimization; digital solutions accelerated the transformation and helped build capabilities at scale
  • directing a field maintenance transformation for a leading transmission-system operator, applying change management and building capabilities to enable the transformation
  • creating an asset-productivity program for a chemicals company that accelerated gains from maintenance excellence and process improvement by adopting advanced modeling for output and energy consumption
  • employing digital-operations assessments to identify high-value digital and analytic solutions across operations
  • developing a performance program changing the culture and ways of working for a leading transmission-system operator
  • leading a lean manufacturing transformation for a consumer-goods manufacturer, including efforts focused on overall equipment effectiveness, material waste reduction, and labor optimization

Before joining McKinsey, Sven was a chemical engineer in the consumer-goods and chemicals industries. He speaks Dutch, English, German, and French.

PUBLISHED WORK

Today’s industrial revolution calls for an organization to match”, McKinsey & Company, July 2024

4IR capability building: Opportunities and solutions for lasting impact”, McKinsey & Company, December 2021

The digital future of manufacturing consumer packaged goods”, McKinsey & Company, October 2021

Predictive maintenance: the wrong solution to the right problem in chemicals”, McKinsey & Company, December 2019

PAST EXPERIENCE

Procter & Gamble
Project engineer

DuPont
Process engineer

EDUCATION

KU Leuven
MS, bioengineering
BS, bioengineering