Career Storyline
Dan Roberts' expertise was not built in a classroom — it was built on plant floors, in utility rooms, on haul trucks, and in the executive suites of the operations he transformed. The following traces the arc of that experience and the foundation it provides for his work today.
Before strategy, there was the machine itself.
Dan's career began as an oil field machinist, producing parts and components for drilling and rig equipment, before moving into tool & die manufacturing — building plastic injection molding dies on manual and CNC lathes, mills, drill presses, grinders, and EDM machines. This is where precision, equipment behavior, and the physical reality of manufacturing first became second nature.
A move into manufacturing engineering at Delta Faucet and Balon Valves marked the shift from operating equipment to optimizing it — leading manufacturing optimization projects and designing and deploying equipment and fixture modifications for oil field valve production.
Alongside this hands-on shop floor and engineering work, Dan completed his Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Oklahoma, graduating in December 1990 — pairing formal engineering training with years of direct manufacturing experience. Dan is also a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) in the State of Colorado, and completed the University of Denver's Emerging Executive Leadership Program — Navigating the Future.
Nearly 25 years across every level of operations, from utility systems to global strategy — and the period in which Dan's reliability and leadership philosophy took shape.
Licensed as an Owner/User Boiler & Pressure Vessel Inspector, Dan was responsible for ensuring the safety and reliability of boilers and pressure vessels designed and built on site at the Coors Complex. Dan moved to design and installation of the utilities systems supporting brewing operations, and then to Utilities Engineer and Supervisor of Technical Services roles — leading the site-wide energy strategy and the engineering technician teams supporting Aluminum Can, Glass, Brewing, and Packaging operations.
Dan owned the $60M Golden Valley Engineering budget and the relationship with the new owner of Power Plant Operations — Trigen Nations — and developed and deployed the Predictive Maintenance & Operations strategy for utilities operations in the Golden Valley, supporting all operations.
Responsible for plant engineering on projects ranging from $5K to $15M and leading a site maintenance team of roughly 50, Dan led the Golden glass plant from the bottom quartile to #2 among more than 100 global glass plants in efficiency — developing the Glass Plant Asset Care Strategy and leading the implementation of FMEA-based Reliability Centered Maintenance.
Developed the global Ideal Brewery Strategy and a global Strategic Technology Roadmap focused on product innovation — Dan's first enterprise-level strategy role.
Responsible for the development and global deployment of Asset Care to drive operational performance improvement, including every element of maintenance and reliability assessment across the operation. Dan led the development and deployment of the Plant Maintenance and Autonomous Maintenance pillars of the company's World Class Supply Chain program, and led the Asset Care diligence and integration work for both the Molson–Coors merger and the MillerCoors joint venture.
Leadership of the full Golden Valley Utility and Facility Operations — Central Utilities Systems, Water/Wastewater Treatment, 1,517 acres of campus facilities including container manufacturing, Engineering, Core Technical Services/Construction & Construction Management, and Materials Management — while leading the Asset Care Strategic Team toward the next level of reliability performance. Dan led the transition of the world's largest single site brewery operation through the technical transition from a focus on 5 main brands to more than 20 brands and hundreds of SKUs — low flexibility to high flexibility operation.
Two decades of plant-floor and enterprise leadership became a codified, transferable methodology — and the start of true cross-industry reach.
Dan led the development of McKinsey's Asset Productivity service line, focused on Maintenance and Reliability across industries, and built the Reliability Centered Maintenance — Advanced Reliability Training and Reliable Operations Workshop elements that became the centerpiece of client service for the next decade. He personally coached client service teams and led deployments including:
Building on his experience in operational improvement in the beverage industry, Dan also led client services in operational excellence across industries in:
From plant-level reliability to enterprise-wide transformation and M&A integration.
The broadest and deepest chapter — building the firm's Operational Excellence Playbook and applying it across nearly every major industry.
Dan led development of the McKinsey Operational Excellence Playbook and its deployment across operations — integrating employee engagement and leadership development with operational and maintenance/reliability disciplines, and building the full toolkit: maturity assessment guides, performance analytics guides, prioritization and evaluation guides, implementation development guides, and detailed implementation guides for every lever of Lean/Operational Excellence (OEE management, Value Stream Mapping, SMED/Quick Changeover, Problem Solving, Maintenance & Reliability, Wrench Time, Warehouse Management, and more).
Dan also led the creation of the manufacturing automation playbook leveraging the most recent advances in automation, combined with the fast growing automation & robotics industry to build custom automation solutions where typical OEM solutions fail to drive impact.
In most manufacturing operations, warehousing & logistics becomes a critical area of focus to achieve On-Time-In-Full (OTIF) performance along with cost impacts. Dan leveraged his background at Molson Coors leading the Global Supply Chain Transformation and Network Analytics teams in the delivery of Warehousing & Logistics operational optimization, including, but not limited to network modeling and optimization, 3PL/4PL provider performance transformation, Warehouse efficiency, and Fuel cost optimization.
These playbooks, along with the previous work in maintenance & reliability, has since been applied across an extraordinary breadth of industries and geographies, including:
Dan also led the development and deployment of AI and Agentic approaches to build on the foundational Operational Excellence and Reliability Centered Maintenance across industries, and developed and deployed robotics strategies to leverage the latest in robotics engineering solutions not yet adopted by the OEMs for Food & Beverage operations.
A deliberate return to direct operational leadership — applying the full breadth of consulting methodology and industry experience as a C-suite executive, delivering rapid, measurable transformation in a complex food manufacturing and supply chain environment.
The culmination of four decades of industry leadership, including a decade of elite consulting — distilled into an independent practice purpose-built to deliver transformational performance improvement, at every level of the organizations it serves.
Partnering with leadership teams across industries to drive transformational change in operational performance — building the internal capability to sustain reliable results long after an engagement ends.
Dan also continues as a Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company in this same capacity.
Cognitive psychologists often refer to "the 10-year rule" for mastery, or "elite performance." Four decades spanning the machine shop floor, brewery utility rooms, glass plant turnarounds, global M&A integration, and the codification of a Fortune-caliber consulting methodology give Dan a rare vantage point: he has lived the work he now advises on, at every level of the organization. That foundation underpins his expert advising today.
Daily management systems, Value Stream Mapping, SMED/Quick Changeover, OEE management, Maintenance & Reliability, Warehouse Operations, and digital/agentic and robotics operations — built from direct, hands-on deployment across decades and industries.
Warehouse efficiency and productivity, truck loading, transportation & logistics management, network modeling and optimization, 3PL management, and fuel efficiency — proven through supply chain transformations delivering tens of millions in cost reduction.
FMEA-based Reliability Centered Maintenance, condition monitoring & predictive analytics, advanced Weibull modeling, system reliability analytics, and CMMS implementation — the discipline Dan built and trained organizations in for three decades.
Shop floor engagement systems and tools, leadership workshops, and engagement action planning — drawn from personally leading teams of all sizes, from 1,800-person global operations down to small shop floor crews.
Dan first recognizes the foundations that are required for any operation to sustain, but has experience deploying digital, robotics, AI and agentic solutions across industries to advance already sound operational practices, or leapfrog approaches in lower maturity operations when applying the right recipe.
Every lever Dan advises on today — from a single changeover reduction on a plant floor to a global supply chain integration — has been lived first-hand, somewhere along this path.