Van Kessler

Email: abqarb@r.postjobfree.com

Address: ***** **** ****** ****

City: Elkhart

State: IN

Zip: 46514

Country: USA

Phone: 574-***-****

Skill Level: Director

Salary Range: $80,000

Primary Skills/Experience:

See Resume

Educational Background:

See Resume

Job History / Details:

Resume:

Van Kessler 01/18/2013

51230 Blue Ribbon Lane

Elkhart, IN., 46514

574-***-****

abqarb@r.postjobfree.com

Experience:

TCB Enterprises: Production Manager 2010-2012

While at TCB we increased annual sales by 300 percent.

Introduced Value stream concepts with the aid of New Flyer corporate and converted a portion of the plant using what we learned from the mapping exercise resulting in better control of materials and a reduction in labor cost.

Rearranged and moved another work station decreasing wasted movement and decreasing labor costs and gaining better control of material.

Promens USA, Inc.: Operations Director, Midwest Region 2006-2010

Directed plant managers in Lean Manufacturing at three Midwestern manufacturing facilities, leading to reduced labor and scrap improving EBITDA by a substantial amount. Received training from Promens in Germany and by utilizing The Elkhart Chamber.

Coordinated the purchasing departments in my four plant Midwest Region.

Weekly met with sales and engineering on upcoming projects and opportunities helping to decide which projects could be run successfully and at a profit.

Conducted plant tours with the sales department selling Promens and our manufacturing capabilities.

Introduced and implemented Kan Ban methods reducing raw material inventory levels and decreasing stock outs.

Negotiated major commodity buys reducing BOM costs in my region and for all of Promens North America. This was accomplished by increasing competition for our commodity purchases.

The net effect of these changes was hitting an EBITDA number that was 173% of our corporate assigned target.

Spearheaded our ISO 9000 2008 quality management system certification at three manufacturing sites. Allowing Promens to enter new markets keeping sales at a profitable level while traditional markets were down substantially.

Godfrey Marine, Director of Operating Services, 1986-2006

Directed the customer service department. Evaluated warranty claims, and helped to educate dealers on product.

Worked with sales to determine customer needs and wants and helped develop products and services to meet those needs. Informal meetings with sales on a daily basis and more formally at model change.

Gave plant tours to visiting and prospective dealers. Selling the company and our products and methods.

Gave sales support at our annual dealer meeting and worked some of our dealers retail sales shows. At these shows I helped to educate customers about our products and when the customer was showing real interest I would turn them over to one of the dealers sales staff to close the sale.

Major contributor in product development working with vendors. Also kept our products NMMA certified and sat on the rules committee for the NMMA representing Godfrey Marine.

Conducted weekly meetings on product improvement and approved engineering changes. I had the authority to approve or reject changes always keeping the company and our customer in mind. I took major changes in product to the COO before implementation.

Coordinated the purchasing of commodities for my four Midwest manufacturing sites.

Managed seven purchasing department employees.

Responsible to control inventory through out the Elkhart complex.

Introduced and implemented Kan Ban reducing obsolete inventory, excess inventory and stock outs.

Guided the Bill of Material department.

I had dotted line responsibility for manufacturing in Elkhart reporting to the COO.

Pontoon Division Manager, Godfrey Marine, 1983-1986

Introduced and implemented a bonus system for plant associates

Increased Upholstery plant output 67%. This bottle neck was limiting boat production. This increase accounted for boat production increased of 76% allowing Godfrey to become number one in our section of the marine market.

Education

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Weber State University

Certificate in Executive Management, University of Notre Dame, Mendoza College of Business

Contact this candidate