Quality / Metallurgical Engineer

Quality Engineer / Metallurgist - Thomas I. Smith

***** ********** ***** ******, ** 46528 574-***-**** Cell 574-***-**** *******@***.***

Metallurgical Technical Representative – Customer & Supplier Development – Specifications

Metallurgical Engineering / Cost Reduction / Process Improvement / Six Sigma

Failure Analysis / Team Building / ISO 9000 / QS 9000 / R & D Technical Manufacturing

Combined quality expertise and metallurgical engineering skills to develop outstanding quality assurance programs in four Fortune 500 companies. Earned stellar reputation for ability to conduct root cause analysis to detect production problems and take appropriate corrective actions, resulting in cost savings. Built outstanding quality assurance teams. Skill set readily transferable to multiple industries.

Improved quality 30% at American Appliance.

Virtually eliminated weak weld problems at LJT-TN, L.L.C.

Increased Walker Manufacturing’s metal tempering capacity 30%.

Reduced American Appliance’s customer complaints 50%

Skill Set: Highly creative thinker. Tactical and strategic plan development. Quality centered. Strong leadership abilities. Exceptional team player. Technically oriented. Working under pressure. Customer service focused.

BS, Metallurgical Engineering, Michigan Technological University.

Professional Achievements

Our multifunctional team utilized a three-variable two-level Design of Experiment to prove the “root cause” of the quench crack was a tool mark. We added peen (hammer sound test) and eddy current testing to the magna flux part testing requirements to ensure “zero defects”.

Resolved a costly five year quality situation, by testing and finding three quality reject claims from our customer that met all their specification requirements. I requested retrials for this rejected material with us present to determine why this wire didn’t run well in their operations. Customer refusal indicated that we should end our five year “Make – Test - Ship –Reject – Return – remake cycle”. Fortunately, this management decision to end the relationship resulted in a major improvement in the plant’s quarterly reports changing losses to profits of $1million plus.

Initiated new supplier development and steel processing change to save company over a million dollars per year in steel costs. Steel supplier was unresponsive to automotive customer requirements. Developed a steel specification and plant processing summary sheet to find and develop new suppliers for each product. Working with the new suppliers and purchasing, coordinated the new supplier trials, testing, and PPAP customer approvals for alternate sourcing.

Improved quality 30% at American Appliance. Attacked poor production and quality performance on three automatic welding and production machines. Established cross-functional team to identify root cause of problem and fix machines. Determined source of problem and implemented appropriate corrective actions. Improved product quality, production rate and increased customer satisfaction ratings. Developed and approved two new steel supplier sources.

Virtually eliminated weak weld problems at LJT-TN, L.L.C. Customer complaints relating to weld splits spiraled upwards. Led cross-functional team in addressing weak weld issue. Examined all variables in production process. Developed weld setup chart to document weld conditions hourly. Collected and studied samples for inspection. Identified and corrected the problem..

Career History

Quality – Metallurgical Engineer Consultant – October 2016 to January 2017: I summarized four failure analysis investigations providing the root cause and recommendations to improve the casting designs. Working with their design engineer, we evaluated how the parts might fail with different stress conditions to locate where the part would fail first. Reviewed mold designs for aluminum and brass cast products to improve metal flow, to reduce the turbulence and ensure correct riser size for these castings. Trained the quality team on how to use the binocular microscope and i-phone camera to find the fracture origin and the shear lips on the part surface to the determine the direction that the crack propagated through the material.

Quality Engineer – Metallurgist Thomas I. Smith Page 2

Quality - Process Engineer: A-1 Wire, Elkhart, IN 3/13 to 12/14 –Saved company over a half million dollars in claims when my Metallurgical reports proved the material we shipped met all the requirements for our toughest (specs) aerospace customer. We requested retrials of the rejected wire with us present to learn why our wire wouldn’t run and help them improve their operations. Customer refused our requests - so we both lost but this allowed us to reduce our costs. Ending this relationship did help the company become profitable turning million dollar losses to profit for each quarter. I filed $650,000 in claims against worst supplier requesting corrective actions and Metallurgical reports.

Supplier Quality - Plant Metallurgist, NTN Driveshaft, Columbus, IN 11/09 to 2/13. Working on improving plant induction heat treating (quench & temper) and researching the latest developments (SDF dual frequency) in the induction heating process. Identified and implemented a $58,000 yearly cost saving program and ran trials to prove that the extra heat treat process was not necessary. Conduct failure analysis to determine the root cause of the problem and the savings potentials from process improvements.

Quality Engineer/Metallurgist, Benteler Automotive, Goshen, IN 11/04 to 01/09. Supplier Quality Engineer responsibilities included developing new suppliers, and processes to reduce operating costs within customer required PPAP approvals guidelines. Resolved all plant heat treating and cold stamping problems by working with production, suppliers and tooling engineers to improve processing and to ensure parts meet the specification requirements.

Quality Engineer, LJT-TN, L.L.C. Chattanooga, TN 07/03 – 03/04. $300M ERW welded tubing and steel sheet metal company. Led quality control team. Installed procedures that ensured consistently high quality weld setups.

Corporate Quality Manager, American Appliance Products, Newport, TN 11/01 – 10/02. $40M manufacturer of oven racks and wire guard for air conditioners. Established benchmarks for ISO 9000 implementation. Reduced weld failures 30%. Expanded steel supplier source by working with new suppliers and communicating requirement to their team.

Director of Quality Assurance, Gerrard Steel & Tube, Florence, AL 06/99 – 08/01. Steel sheet, pickle, slit and cold roll manufacturer. Subsidiary of Fortune 500 $10B Illinois Tool Works. Established customer and supplier specification matrix that enabled reduction in purchasing cost. Conducted Six Sigma capability studies related to quality performance. Approved suppliers and modified specifications to direct suppliers to improve plant productivity and part quality.

Quality Assurance Manager, Merit Steel, Kouts, IN 03/98 – 03/99. Wire steel manufacturer primarily for furniture. Subsidiary of Fortune 500 $4.4B Leggett & Platt. Oversaw all quality and metallurgical functions. Initiated Six Sigma capability studies related to quality performance. Metallurgical testing used to approve new suppliers.

Training / Workshops

Maytag Lean Sigma Training Seminar – six days Statistical Process Control Seminar;

Design of Experiments Advanced Quality Planning

PPAP Training Seminar for QS 9000 QS 9000 training

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