Donald Chester

***** **** *****

Lakewood Ranch, FL 34211

Cellular: 941-***-****

Email: ac7wfj@r.postjobfree.com

An Experienced Process Engineer who is results-driven and experienced in engaging teams to embrace change while developing a culture of ownership within an organization to ensure successful project completion. Experience driving manufacturing projects related to process improvement, site consolidations, strategic planning, infusing technology, structured capital investments, new product introductions and lean implementation.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE:

Project Management

Financial Analysis

Lean/Six Sigma

Maintenance/Engineering

Scheduling/Planning

Stakeholder Engagement

Chemical Processes

Change Management

Safety Improvement

Regulatory Compliance

Cost Reduction

Strategic Planning

EXPERIENCE:

GAGE PRODUCTS COMPANY - Ferndale, MI

December 2007 – November 2018

Gage Products provides custom purge solvent blends to ninety percent of the global market for color change overs in the automotive market. An $88M Tier 1 and 2 supplier of high performance solvent blends, test fuel blends, calibration fluids and paint line cleaning application products.

Engineering Manager

November 2015 – November 2018

Hands on leadership of all capital projects some of which include expansion of flammable storage space for regulatory compliance, redesign a new plant steam distribution system, increased capacity with a new tank farm with six 35,000 gallon tanks, infuse new technology by implementing a new DCS system to replace multiple single loop controllers.

Responsible for a capital budget of $27 million annually

Lead a group of eight to ten engineers and managers to coordinate all capital project work

Develop and manage budgets for the engineering and maintenance departments totaling nearly $5 M.

Reduced annual plant utilities by $260,000 over the past 2 years by developing a plant wide energy savings initiative which includes: changing all plant lighting from fluorescent to LED, immediate repairs to all compressed air leaks throughout the plant reducing the need to use two 30 hp compressors to using one compressor and alternating usage on each, trained facility specialists to how to perform steam trap surveys quarterly, adding automated valves and timers in all chemical reaction processes which require city water for cooling tank jackets during reaction and through process stream mapping identified several oversized pumps an motors across all departments.

Mentor new engineers dedicating time to focus on their career goals with the company and slowly steering them toward their goals with smaller quarterly objectives made up of software training, six sigma training, equipment teardown with maintenance crew for deeper root cause analysis, value stream mapping exercises as well as two and three day seminars for team building in topics all are in need of refreshing.

Reliability Engineer/ Maintenance Manager

December 2007 – November 2015

Implemented CMMS/EAM software, implemented a preventative maintenance program for all critical assets and reduced reactive work orders from 80% to 20%

Identify areas of production in need process improvement and design for reliability

Identify failure modes for assets critical to production. Found that the 60% of failures in centrifugal pumping applications was pump misalignment thus driving a program to have shaft and impellers dynamically balanced and trained maintenance staff to perform reverse dial alignment of pump and motor mounts. These actions reduced centrifugal pump failure rates by 40% over the following year.

Perform FMEA on complex equipment and recommend corrective action to equipment design or process

Monitor KPI’s and relayed performance progress to maintenance, engineering, safety and management staff via appropriate reporting.

Created in house testing and wrote procedures for ISO compliance

GENERAL MOTORS COMPANY - Warren, MI

December 2003 – December 2007

Test Engineer

Write CNC programs for test runs

Monitor CNC machining performance for extending tool life through analysis of vibration, torque, power and force

Create, implement and document procedures for reliability testing

Conduct pilot studies of mist generation, characterization and mist control from machining

Research MQL and dry machining for milling, boring, drilling and taping

Calibrate and develop preventative maintenance schedule for laboratory equipment

Conduct FEM simulations of machine tests and SPC for better tool life

3M ABRASIVES PLANT - Detroit, MI

November 2002 – December 2003

Quality Engineer

Schedule testing

Control chart test results

Run Gage R&R to improve procedures and release criteria

Develop ISO 9000 documentation for QC Testing

Help implement and document new test equipment

Help trouble shoot existing test equipment and develop new tests for showing product variability

Calibrate test equipment and develop preventative maintenance schedule for laboratory equipment

Provide technical support on process coverage

TECHNICAL SKILLS AND PROFICIENCIES:

Proficient in Six Sigma Methodologies (Green Belt Certified)

Project Management Professional (PMP) Bootcamp

Competent in AutoCAD Plant Design

Experience with Allen Bradley PLC’s

RCA and FMEA

EDUCATION:

May 2008 Wayne State University Detroit, MI

Masters of Science – Manufacturing Engineering

3.83 GPA

May 2002 Wayne State University Detroit, MI

Bachelors of Science – Chemical Engineering

3.57 GPA

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