About
Pankaj Chandhok | Operations Advisor to Manufacturing CEOs
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Early in my career I joined a manufacturing company that was scaling from 10 million units a month to 10 million units a day.
There was no planning system. Items did not have part numbers. The organisation was running on urgency and improvisation.
Over the years that followed, I built the system from the ground up — demand planning, procurement alignment, vessel scheduling, delivery compliance. By the time it was complete, 97% of shipments caught the vessel they were planned to catch when the order was received 30 to 45 days earlier. We were supplying 80+ countries — meeting the delivery conditions of customers like Walmart, a 7-day delivery window to the US and Europe from India, for the world's largest OEMs.
That experience settled something I have not seen challenged since: the difference between an operation that looks right on paper and one that actually holds under pressure is not technology. It is the quality of the way the operation is managed week to week — how decisions get made, how information moves between functions, and whether what is planned on Monday is still the plan by Thursday.
Every engagement I take on today is built on that foundation.
Thirty years. One through-line.
Timex. HCL. Escorts. Moser Baer. Exicom Tele-Systems. Hexagon. Industries from automotive components to precision instruments, optical media to sports footwear, telecom infrastructure to solid-state storage. Geographies across Asia, Europe, and North America.
The scale and the sector changed every time. The underlying problem appeared in every one of them: a gap between how the leadership team believed the operation was running and how it was actually running — costing cash and margin that showed up in the books but not on any ops report.
Finding that gap precisely, and correcting it, is what I have spent thirty years learning to do.
Since 2023 — independent advisory
In 2023 I left full-time operating roles to work independently with manufacturing CEOs.
The reason was straightforward. The highest-leverage thing I could do — for the companies and for the work — was to bring an outside eye with no political stake, no prior history, and no junior team between the diagnosis and the decision.
The CEO gets me directly. Not a methodology handed to an analyst. Not a report handed to an internal team.
The engagement runs for ninety days. The corrections are embedded and holding before I leave.
I work with one or two clients at a time. No more.
What this has produced
Across engagements since 2023 — and the operating roles that preceded them:
— Working capital reduced by 22%
— Planning accuracy taken to 97%
— On-time delivery improved from 65% to 95%
— Order-to-cash cycle cut by 15 days
— Air freight costs reduced by 97%
What clients say
"Pankaj is a brilliant mind on supply chain planning and management. He can build a supply chain system right from process design till implementation on the ground. More importantly, he is highly customer-centric and sensitive to market needs and organisational imperatives."
— Manish Singhal, Secretary General, ASSOCHAM
"Your approach to analysing our entire process — from the moment we get an order to the final payment — was simply brilliant. The insights you shared have been game-changers for our operations and overall efficiency."
— Atul Khosla, Founder & CEO, Om Nanotech Pvt. Ltd.
"The suggestions given have proven to improve our operational efficiency and effectiveness. The unique perspective has been instrumental in driving substantial improvements across our organisation."
— Neeraj Bansal, CFO, Tricolite Electrical Industries Ltd.
"What sets you apart is your ability to identify impactful changes in our processes. Your keen eye for detail has uncovered opportunities for improvement that have been invaluable in driving meaningful change throughout our organisation."
— Virender Awal, CEO, Mochiko Shoes Pvt. Ltd (Agilitas Sports)
Education
B.E. Mechanical Engineering — Delhi College of Engineering
Senior Management Programme — IIM Calcutta
MBA — Manipal Academy of Higher Education
Supply Chain Excellence — Rutgers University, New Jersey
If you are a manufacturing CEO who recognises what is described here — a 45-minute conversation is the right first step. No pitch. No proposal until I have understood your situation.
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