Continuous Improvement Manager – LEAN Certified

Michael Gardiner • ac4qak@r.postjobfree.com 49 Quail Road Morgantown WV 26508

Home: 304-***-**** • Cell: 801-***-****

Career Summary

Accomplished manager with a proven ability to develop and implement strategic deployment processes and alignment that support business and financial objectives using Lean methodologies. Led company in culture transformation from small business/tribal knowledge to metric/data driven operations. Led teams in continuous improvement initiatives that increased manufacturing productivity by 30 percent. Recognized as an expert in business alignment, culture change/transformation, applying LEAN processes and problem-solving strategies.

Experience

Swanson Industries Smithtown Road Morgantown WV, 26508

Head of Business Analytics and Process Improvement April 2017 - Current

Responsible for developing, implementing and analyzing key business metrics for the corporation and executing data driven improvement. Duties include establishing corporate direction and goals for operating metrics and improvement activities. Implement and conduct corporate operations reviews and work with plant managers to cascade metrics to the shop floor level.

Aligned business efforts by driving operations metrics linked to plant P&L

Improved transactional accuracy across corporation saving over $250K year over year

Established and run corporate customer service council focused on transactional accuracy and process standardization between plants

Continuous Improvement Leader May 2015 – April 2017

Responsible for continuous improvement direction and activities at 4 repair facilities and 1 manufacturing plant across the US. Duties include working with plant managers to establish operation metrics, process focus and transactional discipline. Coach and train plant management and personnel in Lean tools, activities and problem solving. Carry out improvement initiatives and follow up through training, standardization and sustainment.

Led value stream improvements for part manufacturing.

Executed business process and shop floor kaizen events that resulted in a 40% reduction process time for quoting and invoicing of repair parts

Designed and implemented visual management tools including visual metric boards, daily operations walk, and weekly production/step back meetings that link to monthly operations reviews.

Orbital ATK – Structures & Components 7812 W 4100 S Magna UT, 84044

Continuous Improvement Manager August 2010 – May 2015

Responsible for all continuous improvement direction and activities at the facility of 120 personnel with annual revenue of ~$45-$50M. Duties included establishing a lean culture at site and set site direction and goals for continuous improvement. Deploy, implement and maintain company Performance Enterprise System (PES). Coached and trained site managers and personnel in Lean tools, activities and problem solving. Established and led strategic deployment process implementation and execution.

TS/SCI Clearance

Established framework and led transformation of site culture from a traditional functional group focus to a value stream organization.

Successfully changed company focus from program specific activities to product focus.

oConsolidated composite part fabrication into product families.

oReduced production labor by 20%.

oImproved sales per employee by 10% year over year

Helped implement and lead Aerospace Structures Division in the strategic deployment process.

Designed and implemented visual management tools including visual metric boards, GEMBA walk, and plant scheduling.

Executed over 30 business process and shop floor kaizen events that resulted in a 30% reduction in shop floor overtime.

Implemented and standardized site level 5 why problem-solving process.

Process Engineer Level III March 2007 – August 2010

Responsible for composite component fabrication to support complex space structures. Duties include; developing processes, problem solving, creating manufacturing instructions, implementing lean tools and principles in composite part fabrication processes, teaching lean tools and principles, and participating in internal kaizen events.

Optimized composite part fabrication for the James Webb Space Telescope program reducing lead time and improving quality.

Produced over 300 composite parts with less than a seven percent scrap rate on schedule and on budget.

Participated in and taught Lean modules in an internal Lean University (PES)

Led problem solving teams

Established production schedules and implemented standard work.

Materials and Systems Research Inc. 5395 W 700 S Salt Lake City UT, 84104

Principal Investigator October 2005 – March 2007

Responsible for managing small business research program (~$250k) for Office of Naval Research (ONR). Duties included leading project team to meet program requirements, setting monthly goals (Technical and Financial), writing monthly reports, and quarterly status presentations. Designed, executed, and analyzed experiments and tests to show performance meeting program requirements.

Met all Phase 1 program requirements and received Phase II funding.

Demonstrated industry leading performance with tubular solid oxide fuel cells.

Awarded patent for tubular solid oxide fuel cells developed on the program.

Education

University of Utah

Bachelors of Chemical Engineering

May 2004

Skills & Areas of Expertise

Strategic Deployment and Organizational Alignment

Operations Metrics

ERP systems - QAD

Lean Manufacturing Certification – University of Michigan

Trained in Toyota Kata – University of Michigan & W3Group

Value Stream and Process Mapping

Value Stream Organization Transformation

Standard Work Creation & Implementation

Visual Management

Shop Floor and Business Process Kaizen Events

Problem Solving - 5 Why’s, 8D, and Root Cause Analysis

JIT, One Piece Flow, Kanban Systems

Scheduling and level loading

Fluent in Spanish

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