Experience

Kocer Consulting + Engineering, PLLC

• United States
• Business Consulting and Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Director, Manufacturing and Supply Chain Engineering/Consultant

  • Aug 2022 - Present

  I help clients discover, plan and implement smart ideas and solutions for improving operations and systems in multiple industries such as manufacturing, food processing, distribution, medical, construction and supply chain. I help foster collaboration and teamwork and make tough projects enjoyable while helping clients boost performance and profits. I help clients discover, plan and implement smart ideas and solutions for improving operations and systems in multiple industries such as manufacturing, food processing, distribution, medical, construction and supply chain. I help foster collaboration and teamwork and make tough projects enjoyable while helping clients boost performance and profits.



Szen Solutions

• Program Management Specialist

  • Jun 2018 - Sep 2020

  -Led the transfer of 21 production lines producing 4700 part numbers from Indiana to Mexico in 16 months-Coordinated the sourcing, manufacturing and approval of 5 internal sub-assembly production lines to increase plant capacity. Managed expectations for external machine builders-Managed and tracked completion of approximately 80 corporate tasks and 30 receiving plant tasks for each production line move and approximately 10 customer PPAP tasks for each part number across multiple business groups in two different countries-Defined relevant project tasks working with corporate and receiving plant executive leadership, sales, quality, materials procurement, production planning, logistics, manufacturing engineering and production groups. Facilitated various in person and remote weekly meetings as appropriate to stay on track-Presented high level progress and communicated road blocks to executive team bi weekly-Frequently elevated key issues to management, directors and executives to alleviate bottlenecks and improve team or department performance Show less

• Product Launch and Supplier Development Specialist

  • Apr 2017 - Oct 2018

  -Led launch of new Jump Seat product for safety system and transportation customers. Facilitated design, assembly and implementation of seat manufacturing line-Developed new metal fabrication supplier in Mexico to meet all product specifications

• Lean Manufacturing Specialist

  • Oct 2017 - May 2018

  -Implemented continuous improvement projects and developed local Mexico team through Operational Excellence framework-Trained manufacturing engineers and production supervisors on lean line design techniques, oversaw implementation across several projects



IMMI

• United States
• Motor Vehicle Manufacturing
• 400 - 500 Employee

• International Operations Technical Development Manager

  • Apr 2012 - Jan 2015

  -Led operational and technical initiatives in opening a new manufacturing facility in Wuxi, China. Responsible for managing manufacturing process launches, documenting and launching all corporate procedures, forms and best practices, cross training and developing the local team and helping achieve plant PPM, efficiency and on time shipment metric goals-Helped lead the operations team to achieve 90+% efficiency and the quality team to achieve < 2,000 PPMs within four months of plant startup-Conducted analyses and identified $400k USD annual logistics savings via tooling localization efforts. Worked with the local supply chain manager to develop timelines and task lists to execute plan-Designed, quoted and worked with local Chinese suppliers to implement four additional assembly lines-Led efforts to improve metrics at the Saltillo, Mexico facility. Led teams to improve efficiency by 33% and reduce plant PPMs by 90% in under 11 weeks-Managed manufacturing engineering and cross functional continuous improvement teams to implement weekly improvements Show less

• Manufacturing Engineering Manager

  • Nov 2009 - Apr 2012

  -Managed team of six manufacturing engineers and was responsible for prioritizing and coordinating continuous improvement activities for existing lines and launch of new lines, completion of all APQP, process capability and process release documentation, line balancing and labor costing detail, safety assessments and final handoff to the operations team for multiple processes. Process included injection over molding, automated assembly lines, tube cutting and bending, sheet metal laser cutting and bending, manual and robtic welding (GMAW), high rpm aluminum extrusion cutting and powder coating-Developed excel based engineering time card system to measure time allocation by project. Worked with Director of Operations to achieve desired balance between proactive and reactive time allocation for my team-Was responsible for managing priorities and staffing of five maintenance technicians and one spare parts clerk. Calculated asset mean time between failures (MTBF) and analyzed optimal min/max levels for approximately half a million dollars of spare parts across 2300 different items. Developed excel based report that showed leading drivers of plant downtime, maintenance technician time and emergency work order (EWO) count for over 600 assets; this list was used to assign maintenance continuous improvement projects and measure result-Was Value Analysis Value Engineering (VAVE) manager and developed a process to identify and quantify cost reduction possibilities for products. Identified $1.1 million of savings after four meetings-Led team of internal machine builders to duplicate and internationally transfer several manufacturing processes Show less

• Program Manager

  • Oct 2007 - Nov 2009

  -Responsible for bringing new products to market and managing the internal Stagegate process that involved facilitating defining customer need, product definition, market analysis, business case justification, budget compilation and approval, product tooling kickoff, testing and PPAP approval, Oracle system setup, supply chain orders and manufacturing readiness-Managed approximately 5-10 projects at various phases of implementation while also managing 1-2 VAVE projects-Worked closely with one design engineer to develop, test and launch the harness for the Britax Click and Safe child seat-Worked closely with five design engineers and three manufacturing engineers on a tight timeline to design, develop, test and launch IMMI’s first belted motor coach seat for Greyhound. Timing from project assignment to first shipments was six months-Worked closely with one design engineer to bring to market a high mixed model offering of belted bus seating products as part of IMMI’s Generation 3 bus seat. Worked with sales directors and account managers to prioritize system setups and testing schedules based on past revenue Show less

• Application Engineer

  • Sep 2006 - Nov 2007

• Product Engineer

  • May 2006 - Nov 2007

• Manufacturing Engineer

  • Nov 2004 - May 2006