Engineer Manager

Bob Southard

*** *. ****** ***** ******

The Woodlands, Texas

Mr. Smith

When I was 15, I was working for my uncle in his Automotive Machine Shop in Sapulpa, Oklahoma.. I was learning to bore cylinder blocks to a tolerance of .001”, grind pistons to .0005”, and mill cylinder heads to a flatness of .001”. One year later, I was grinding crankshafts to a tolerance of .0005”. I operated these and other automotive machines thru my High School in Their Distributive Education program. I became adept at reading Micrometers to tenths of an inch.

After High School, I worked for Patty Precision Products in Kellyville, Oklahoma where I learned to operate a Bridgeport Milling Machine and a LeBlond Engine Lathe and operated them to a tolerance of .0005”. I was later trained on a 4-H Landis cylindrical grinder where I made plug gages to a tolerance of .0002”. We were manufacturing Bomb Release parts for the Navy’s F-16. I was assigned to Jack Patty, the Tooling Manager, and told to roam the shop and monitor the operations and make any improvements that would make the operation run faster, more smoothly or with greater accuracy.

I later ran an Automotive Machine Shop for my Father for ten years. In 1968, I moved to Houston to attend College and went to work for Precision Machine Service as a manual Bridgport machinist where I made industrial cutting tools. Working from drawings and cutting most of the parts on compound angles. I devised a fixture that allowed me to orient the part on both of its necessary clearance angles to be able to cut the insert pockets and the necessary clearances. Once again, holding tolerances of .001”.

Later, I was made Vice President of the company which had become Toolex. We were dying on the vine with backed up production. I tried to engage the owner, Marcel Carrasosa to become interested in CNC equipment, but, to no avail. He said it was too expensive, he could not afford it. We would discuss it occasionally, but, since it was his money, he always won the argument. When he would complain of it’s expense, I would brag on the equipment’s efficiency. One day, out of the blue, he said, “That machine you’ve been talking about, get me one”. I bought a Bridgeport Series I Milling Machine. I became responsible for it. I learned to program it, maintained it, and for the first year, operated it. I was a machinist again. Two months later, he said, ”I want another one.” The second purchase was a Mori Seiki Lathe which cost $90,000 more than the CNC Bridgeport. They completely revolutionized the way we did business. In two years, we had ten of them. Backed up production was no longer a problem. Now, we were in step with our customers’ needs.

I am a hands on guy. When I was at Toolex, I had a nice office where I wrote programs. But I could only stay in it for about an hour. Then I had to take a walk through the shop, stop and see what was going on. Then, I was good for another hour. It’s always necessary for me to be involved with the action.

I moved to Austin and took a position with Dalton Tool, again, as a Bridgeport operator and a designer. While there I made artificial body joints, mostly of titanium, for Carbomedics and prototypes for plastic molded parts for IBM. After a while, I was drafted by Mike Chisum of Houston Instrument, a manufacturer of pen plotters, as used with a CAD system. He was having production problems with his piece part suppliers. I was hired because of my expertise in manufacturing piece parts. I traveled the US, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, helping their suppliers with production problems in manufacturing our piece parts. Mike would frequently ask when a problem was posed by a supplier. “What will we do about it”? The Manufacturing Vice President of the company, Vern Glover would frequently reply, “Send Southard, he’ll fix it”. And, I usually did. I could usually see through the problem to the solution. I solved many supplier production problems and affected many cost savings by slightly changing a. manufacturing method or by slight part re-design. I saved $200,000, annually, on a slight re-design of the head of a small 4-40 screw. While working as a Manufacturing Engineer, in addition to turning and milling, I learned a lot about various types of plastic molding, sheet metal fabrication, centerless grinding, extrusion, assembly, chemical milling, fabrication of membrane swithches, metal finishing, painting, laser welding and other processes.

Mike moved on to Telxon in Houston, a manufacturer of handheld computers. They were actually bar code readers such as used by Walmart and other retailers. They communicated with mainframe computers by radio, and helped maintain inventory levels. I was again hired by him to help solve mostly mechanical supplier problems. While there I co-designed and oversaw the fabrication of a special piece of process machinery that got our company out of a patent dispute with Hewlett Packard and allowed us to maintain production of our highest revenue producing product. I have included a copy of Mike’s letter of recommendation with this email. While in Austin, I taught courses in Blueprint Reading and Geometric Tolerancing to machine shop and sheet metal workers in Austin industry.

For a while, I managed the Inspection department for Houston Instrument. We were a complete inspection facility with, among the other usual gages and pieces of inspection equipment, a video microscope, a laser micrometer, a CMM and an optical comparator all of which I used.

When I left Telxon, I foolishly retired. It was too soon. I have several good working years left. I am in good health. I bicycle every day. My mind is still active. And I still want to work. I called Marcel Carrascosa, of Toolex, with whom I still have a good friendship. I asked him if he had a small job for me. He said no, but he’d look around, and a couple of weeks later, he called me and asked me to come see him. He said he could only offer me a production job on a Bridgeport at minimum pay. I agreed that was OK. His shop is at Hobby Airport and it took me two hours on the city bus to get there every day. But I was busy, using my skills. My mind and my body were occupied. And, I was happy. But, good things seem to only last for a while. He actually ran out of work. There was nothing left for me to do.

I have much to offer your company. Years of experience. Having grown up in Bristow, Oklahoma, a town near Tulsa of 6,000 good people, I’m a small town guy. I’m laid back and easy going. But I can be aggressive when necessary. I’m a good machine operator with good blueprint reading skills. I am a good inspector. I still have my tools. All I ask for is an opportunity to work. And work, I will. I’m not one of these young guys who one day doesn’t show up for work. I don’t take personal days off. I see a Neurologist every three months to keep my mind sharp. Those couple of hours are about all the time I need off. Please don’t tell me I’m “overqualified”, whatever that means. I like to think I’m very qualified. Yes, over the years, I’ve gained a lot of experience, and I’ve had a lot of experiences, but, I don’t have to use them all for one job. And don’t tell me I’m too old. I am a mature man and my age hasn’t stopped me from bicycling every day or from working with my Church as a carpenter in Disaster Recovery. Or from operating the 10” Clausing Lathe I still keep in my garage, making widgets, small tools, bicycle parts and such.

I live in The Woodlands and would like to work for your fine company. The telephone is the best way to contact me. I’m at 281-***-****. I can be reached by email at ***.********@***.***. And, even if you can’t use my talents, please, give me the courtesy of a call. Thanks in advance.

Sincerely yours,

Bob Southard

Robert (Bob) Southard

123 North Linton Ridge Circle 281-***-****

The Woodlands, Texas 77382 Cell: 713-***-****

***.********@***.***

Summary

• A passionate cost driven manufacturing problem solver with unique ability to reduce manufacturing costs through both design and process improvement. Experience in managing a dynamic and successful manufacturing CNC machine shop. Analyze and plan work force utilization, space requirements, workflow and design layout of equipment and workspace for maximum efficiency. Experience in the development and implementation of continuous improvement and productivity tools. Support manufacturing processes and create work instructions.

Skill Set

• Machinist / toolmaker for fifteen years.

• Machine Shop owner.

• Vice-president of a dynamic and successful 100 employee manufacturing machine shop.

• Managed 100 clerical, engineering, maintenance and production personnel.

• CNC milling machine operator.

• CNC machine programmer.

• Designer using AutoCad.

• Manufacturing Engineer.

• Trained personnel in blueprint reading and machining.

• Assisted designers in designing parts that were cost effectively produceable

• Production manager.

• Approved and selected vendors.

• Supplier Quality Manager.

• Analyzed and planned work force utilization, space requirements, workflow and design layout of equipment and workspace for maximum efficiency.

Accomplishments

• Converted a manual machine shop to CNC and greatly increased production and income.

• Created annual cost reduction of $200,000 as well as assembly ease by slight re-design of a small 4-40 screw.

• Created annual cost reduction of $375,000 by changing to a casting process for a computer housing.

• Designed and managed construction of a computerized system that saved $280,000 per year and totally eliminated human final inspection of an extruded product.

• Created a stamped part that replaced a machined part at an annual savings of 30%.

• Created a stamped part that replaced a machined part at an annual savings of 50%.

• Worked on the design and managed the production of a machine to produce a part at a savings of 50% in solving a patent infringement.

• Experience in taking parts from prototype to production.

•

Professional Experience

Tandy Wire and Cable. Fort Worth, Texas, Manufacturing Engineer/Consultant. Was a contract employee. 2002 to 2002.

Millar Instruments, Houston, Texas, Catheter manufacturer. I was a contract employee.

Manufacturing Engineer/Consultant 2001 to 2001.

Symbol Technologies (formerly Telxon Corporation.) Houston, Tx. 2000 to 2001.

Manufacturing Engineer/Consultant. This company bought out Telxon.

Telxon Corp. Houston, TX. Handheld computer Manufacturer 1997 to 2000. Lead Senior Manufacturing Engineer. Began this job as a contract employee. Instituted over one-half million dollars annual savings. The company was sold.

VAW of America, Phoenix, Arizona. Aluminum Extruder 1995 to 1995

Product Manager, Manufacturing engineer. Designed a conveyorized inspection machine that saved $280,000 per year.

Summagraphics Corp, Austin, Tx. Mfg. Electro-mechanical products 1987 to 1995

Consultant /Senior Manufacturing Engineer, Production Supervisor. Began this job as a contract employee. Managed work of suppliers. Designed special process machinery for production. Oversaw production process. The company was sold.

Dalton Tool, Austin,Texas. Job shop. 1984 to 1987.

Designer and salesman.

Project Machine, Houston, Texas, Self employed, Job Shop 1981 to 1984.

Manufactured cutting tools for local industry. Was owner of this company.

Toolex, Inc. Houston, Texas, Mfg. 1970 to 1981.

Job Shop, Vice-president, General Manager. Led this company from a manual machine shop to a CNC facility. Wrote CNC programs. Assisted design. Devised tooling and routers for production.

Education

Gulf Coast Bible College, Houston, Texas BA, Pastoral Ministry.

Patents

Company was developing a new plotter product for a CAD system and the plotter was to have the ability to identify the paper size it used. The old photo-electric sensor design didn’t work. Added a pattern to the platen design and it worked. This new design was an extruded pattern which enabled the photocell to recognize the paper size. Instituted the new design into production and saved the life of that plotter product. The design was later patented.

December 14, 2001

To whom it may concern:

I am general manager of TDP Electronics, a division of

Radio Shack Corporation which designs and manufactures consumer electronic

products.

My first association with Bob Southard was in 1987 when we were both working

for Houston lnstrument (Later to become Summagraphics), a manufacturer of

wide-format printers and plotters. At that time I was managing the Manufacturing

Engineering Department, and we were having numerous problems finding

suppliers who could produce, at a reasonable cost, the high tolerance machined

parts and extrusions that made up the pen plotter products we were

manufacturing. Because of his extensive experience in the area of fabricated

metal parts and processes, Bob was hired to assist our suppliers in developing

their processes to get acceptable quality results, at the lowest possible cost to

our company. At the same time, he would work closely with our own product

engineers on the producibility of their designs, adjusting tolerances, and making

design revisions for simplification and to lower the ultimate part / product cost.

Through Bob's producibility efforts the company realized repeated cost savings

many times the cost of his annual salary.

Several years later in 1997, when l was employed at Telxon Corporation (a

manufacturer of wireless, hand-held industrial computers) I had another

opportunity to recruit Bob Southard into our manufacturing Engineering work

group. Similar to the situation at Houston lnstrument, the product design group

was having difficulty designing component parts that could be fabricated by our

suppliers at a reasonable cost. Bob began working with the product designers

on the producibility of their designs (such as material choices, design features

and tolerances) and immediately produced some remarkable cost savings.

While I have always had great respect for Bob Southard's technical knowledge

and problem solving skills, I also believe one of his greatest assets is his

exceptionally good people skills. Bob has a positive, "can do attitude which is

greatly appreciated by all of his co-workers, and enables him to accomplish great

things in a fast moving team environment. Bob is well motivated, works hard, and has high

integrity / personal ethics which make it a pleasure with which to work.

ln summary, I would highly recommend Bob to any manufacturer who has a need

for an exceptional problem solver, with a unique ability to reduce manufacturing

costs through both design and process improvement.

Yours truly,

Mike Chisum

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