Experience

Newisys - A Division of Sanmina Corporation
• Computer Hardware Manufacturing
• 1 - 100 Employee
• NPI Senior Manager

  • Dec 2016 - Present


SMA Solar Technology America

• United States
• Utilities
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Senior Director of Operations

  • Jan 2010 - Dec 2016

  Manage all production operations for residential, commercial and utility inverters built through a multiple department, multiple shift operation utilizing full time and contract employees (up to 250 employees with 8 managers). Departments include Production, Test, Industrial Engineering, Launch Management, Service Repair, and Production Planning.  Started up US Operations as Director of Operations for utility inverters in 2010. Transferred 10 products from Germany to US production using cross functional teams. Also transferred one product from Denver to a subcontractor in Canada.  Continually passed the yearly ISO 9001 and 14001 audits with no findings since the original audit in 2011.  Increased productivity in the residential and commercial segments from 74% to 86% while reducing the routing time by 10% through process improvements in 2015.  Developed and managed to an annual budget of over $9M covering 8 cost centers.  Formulated and executed capital investment and staffing plans which increased factory output from 616 Megawatts of inverter power in 2011 to over 1 Gigawatt of power in 2015 for the utility segment.  Consistently maintained over 99% on time delivery for utility segment inverters.



Hutchinson Technology Thailand

• Country Manager

  • Jul 2007 - Mar 2009

  Drove all product delivery, customer service, product quality inspection, warehousing, metrology, market intelligence, and engineering support emanating from this location. Ensured the execution of superior customer service by rapidly identifying and resolving all customer issues. Closely managed the efforts of 6 direct reports with 74 down-line reports at the plant level. Stewarded an operating budget of $5 million that funded 2 cost centers.Guided the delivery of HR, Legal, Regulatory, and Capital Infrastructure within the region as well as administrative, regulatory, and legal compliance. Played a key role in new business development by creating and implementing effective account penetration strategies and comprehensive customer service plans. Proactively alleviated customer concerns with the sole sourcing of products. Established a 24x7 operation that addressed quality issues at the customer site within 4 hours of the issues’ report.  Won a sole source position on a major product as a result of this initiative that led to receiving the Supplier of the Year award from the customer. Enabled the launch of a new product 6 months ahead of schedule in Asia by ramping up a 24X6 3-shift operation that provided full inspection of the product in Thailand. This operation effectively mitigated the challenges created by an automated US inspection system that was incapable of delivering a comprehensive quality inspection up to Asian standards. Saved $67,000 in procurement costs and an additional $100,000 in shipping and handling costs. Successfully transferred the supply base from US to Thailand based vendors. Retained a valued customer by resolving quality issues with no production down-time. Successfully negotiated a statistical audit in place of a 100% manual inspection originally requested by the customer.

• Engineering Manager

  • 1997 - Jul 2007

  Guided the operation of 3 cost centers while stewarding a budget of just under $5 million. Drove continuous improvement in the quality, capacity, and efficiency of operations by employing Lean Methodologies and Root Cause Analysis. Closely managed the efforts of four supervisors tasked with the direct management of 64 employees providing Product Engineering, Process Engineering, Manufacturing Support, Controls Engineering, Automated Inspections, and Chemical Laboratory Services. Ensured the alignment of production capacity with customer demand. Kept product yield on the phototech operation’s most challenging product line at 98%. Championed the use of daily quality meetings and on-floor defect reviews. Won the Minnesota Award for Excellence in Waste and Pollution Prevention by converting from a solvent based to an aqueous based chemistry. Counteracted a downturn in suspension demand by partnering with Phototech Operations and Sales to properly manage excess capacity. Developed alternative uses for technology that sales effectively marketed to small accounts in medical and military etching.



Hutchinson Technology

• Development Engineering Supervisor

  • 1994 - 1997

  Directed the efforts of 7 professionals including 5 Process Development Engineers, a Process Development Technician and a Project Engineer. Drove dramatic improvement in the company’s manufacturing capability by developing and implementing technology progression plans that complimented product progression plans. Enabled the launch of an entirely new product line by leading the engineering of new processes, many of which were later designated as trade secrets.

• Process Engineering Supervisor

  • 1990 - 1994