Ken McNutt

818-***-**** *** West **** North, Lehi, UT 84043 ac8nqg@r.postjobfree.com

Profile

Offers extensive experience as a Director, Vice President, and General Manager for Operations/Manufacturing and Engineering, from large (Fortune 500) to small/midsized organizations. Excels in development and NPI of Automated Capital Equipment, Automated Production, management of Capital Projects, and improvement of production systems and manufacturing processes. Institutes and streamlines processes and operations to grow revenues, minimize downtime, and improve profitability. Management of multiple engineering disciplines. Technically adept, with strong problem solving, decision making, and communication skills, with experience in contract manufacturing, aerospace, semiconductors, Materials Science, and food and beverage. Proficient with AutoCAD, Solid Works, and Microsoft Word/Excel/Project.

Areas of Expertise

Multisite Management Leadership Continuous Improvement and Lean Methods Technical Roadmap Strategies

Packaging Project/Program Management Global Customer/Supplier Relations Materials Engineering/Metallurgy Research

Profit/Loss Responsibility Proposal/Report Writing New Product Introduction and Development Systems Integration

Automated Manufacturing and Systems Department/Division Startup Process Design/Documentation Team Building

Career Track

Senior Manager, Tropical Resources, Inc., American Fork, UT 2013 - present

Assess and improve processes and equipment of automated beverage bottling, food production, and packaging lines in a Lean manufacturing environment. Advise on and lead CAPEX projects for new equipment in US plant and two international facilities. Partner with QA to ensure FDA compliance as a member of the HACCP team at this GMP facility, and for OSHA compliance and as a member of the corporate EH&S team. Oversee global engineering and maintenance functions for multiple plants. Design/lead engineering programs and support new product development. Apply Lean, DOE, and Six Sigma principles to establish and improve standards, drive continuous process improvement, ensure safety, minimize waste, reduce variation, and lead problem solving PDCAs using 8D methods with cross-functional teams.

Redesigned the layout of the automated main production line to accommodate the consolidation of another facility, resulting in a 40% footprint reduction in production floor and 10% decrease in process time, improving production capability and capacity. Reconfiguration of the production line was done in a very compressed time frame.

Eliminated $4M in wasted juice products every year as well as mitigating potential actions from safety issues by leading a cross-functional team to make equipment and process changes to pasteurizing equipment.

My company realized $5M in revenue in the first six months of a co-venture with a medical product company and its product by my playing a key role in establishing an automated production line in-house using Injection Molded and Blow Molded components. Discussed molding tool modifications/part manufacturability concerns with the partner’s tool supplier.

Implemented improvements to automated case-packing equipment, saving $400K in replacement costs and $40K in annual maintenance costs, cutting downtime 70% versus old units, and boosting production 10%.

Led the Maintenance functions in implementing a TPM program to increase collaboration between maintenance and production personnel in routine start-of-shift maintenance tasks. Implemented a CMMS system to better track PMs and schedule and control inventory and costs of critical spare parts.

General Manager, KLM Enterprises, Simi Valley, CA 2001 - 2012

Designed, manufactured, and marketed thermal cure ovens that enabled precise cure cycle control of epoxy attached end-terminations on fiber optic cables for aerospace applications on the International Space Station. Directed all operations, engineering design and development, Program/Project Management and administration, customer/supply chain relations, purchasing, manufacturing, and process/ characterization documentation.

Supplied cure ovens and spare parts to four aerospace companies involved with building the International Space Station.

Designed the housing, wiring harness, and the heating cure block of the oven which was capable of curing one dozen connectors simultaneously and featuring a fuzzy logic programmable controller and reliable heating element capable of withstanding 500,000 cycles.

Characterized and qualified the performance of new units, wrote the technical operation and maintenance manuals.

Director of Mechanical Engineering, ETEC Systems, Inc., Hayward, CA 2000 - 2001

Oversaw the mechanical engineering design, development, and verification activities of an automated capital equipment producer for state-of-the-art electron-beam and laser-beam pattern scribe systems for the photolithography/semiconductor industry. Guided mechanical engineering teams at two sites, one in California and another in Oregon responsible for performing in-house design/development of new products, supporting existing products, and coordinating total systems integration with electrical/software engineering teams.

Enabled on-time delivery and roll out of a new electron-beam photolithography system, with price per unit of $12 to $15M, by introducing a systematic engineering design review process that gauged the merits of the design and conducted preliminary checks of integration issues before designs were finalized and full-scale hardware fabrication expenses were incurred.

Bolstered design robustness by taking over reliability testing of various components during the pilot production and integration phase of system development and identifying/correcting component and subsystem design issues.

Vice President of Engineering, Irvine Optical, LLC, Burbank, CA 1998 - 2000

Directed design, development, fabrication, NPI functions, and support of automated robotic wafer sorter systems and semi-automated wafer inspection equipment used for SPC in semiconductor production. Controlled annual R&D and engineering budgets of $1.5M and $2M, respectively. Oversaw all aspects of product production/introduction, manufacturing/operations, testing and support; wrote proposals to support sales/marketing to meet customer RFQs, requirements and specifications. Led the mechanical, electrical, software and manufacturing engineering disciplines to develop new systems, facilitate total systems integration, and support existing/new products worldwide. Collaborated with suppliers and existing/potential domestic and international customers and communicated company actions/strategies.

Led development of a new tool system with orders totaling $5M in new annual sales by determining that previous cleanliness specifications were impossible to attain, met with semiconductor fabrication customers to redefine and renegotiate performance specifications, and led engineering teams to meet those specifications,

Spearheaded the acceptance by European customers of new systems with 20% or $30M of annual sales by Initiating third-party testing for system compliance to CE and UL safety standards.

Launched a new family of modular robotic wafer handlers that delivered $1M in modular system sales within six months of introduction featuring streamlined production flows, drastically lower inventory costs, and easy custom configuration with little/no follow-on reengineering required for rapid implementation and long-term user flexibility.

Lessened support and travel expenses by pioneering the company’s first pilot production, rapid prototyping, and testing functions to quickly transition new components/systems from engineering to manufacturing, which allowed for greater system reliability and robustness and fewer repairs.

Instituted a change control board governing all ECRs and ECOs for all products company-wide. Spearheaded sustaining engineering efforts and improvements of existing products.

Secured a $600K payment on undelivered but finished systems from a Korean customer by assuring that their current/future technical needs would be met, resulting in the customer making the payment that had been outstanding for nearly one year.

Program Manager, Equipe Technologies, Sunnyvale, CA 1997 - 1998

Established a new company division and headed all operation functions to develop, manufacture, and introduce fully integrated automated front-end semiconductor robotic wafer handling systems; established a pilot production department, ramping up from 0 units to full production volumes, and instituted daily production practices, Lean-based manufacturing standards, continuous improvements and a Kanban system. Held responsibility for P&L as well as all supply chain management. Managed the team of development engineers and production assembly technicians and another team of skilled rapid-prototyping technicians in another department. Assisted account managers by conducting customer presentations and visiting clients.

Took sales from $0 to $1M per month by playing the key role in propelling production for this new division from one initial prototype to five units per week.

Partnered with development engineering to improve pilot production/testing of equipment and accelerate the transition from R&D to manufacturing, reducing the cycle time by as much as 50%.

Served on the change control board, which instituted ECO and revision control on all production units as well as controls on assembly/process procedures. Partnered with production control in the deployment of an MRP system.

Guided a team in producing and displaying new equipment for a major industry convention that resulted in $1M in new sales in less than three months after the exhibit.

Senior Process Engineer, Member of the Technical Staff, Watkins-Johnson Company, Palo Alto, CA 1994 - 1997

Adapted Metal-Injection-Molding technology to produce precision metal hermetic packaging for hybrid electrical devices for the space, military, and telecom markets. Oversaw secondary finish techniques for MIM part production, including coining, plating, and glass-to-metal seals. Administered and enhanced manufacturing processes used to fabricate microwave and RF hybrid components, including wire-bonding, brazing, soldering, epoxy attach, and gap welding. Studied packaging and processing options for medium to high frequency GaAs MMIC devices

Set up and managed a new Metal-Injection-Molding (MIM) production area to replace classic CNC machining to manufacture hermetically sealed packages of highly complex geometries and hard-to-form alloys, while holding finish dimensions to 0.001” tolerances; specified/qualified production equipment, defined/refined molding parameters using DOE, defined downstream processes/ product flow, drafted process/training documentation for ISO 9000 certification, trained production technicians and process engineers, and oversaw initial production runs for process validation—fabrication costs of parts were slashed by at least 50%, or over $1M per year, and parts were for qualified for military markets.

Developed tooling required for MIM production parts and aided in designing injection molds.

Enhanced process robustness/reliability, throughput, and product volume by identifying flaws and making strategic changes to vapor phase equipment/process designs.

Contributed as a key member of a team to develop and manufacture a new electrical device for a telecom application in a joint venture between W-J and AT&T Lucent Technologies; modified a vapor-phase solder reflow system and designed associated tooling, all which led to a $1M order from Lucent.

Chemical Research Engineer, Unocal Science & Technology, Brea, CA 1988 to 1993

Researched oil energy resources, innovative materials, metals and alloys and their technical applications for this Fortune 500 energy and materials resource company.

Formulated new lanthanide-based permanent magnets, and designed the equipment involved in the processing of these materials.

Developed a licensed process of Fused Salt Electrowinning of lanthanide metals from oxides; and designed and fabricated the equipment for the process.

Submitted three patent applications on the electrowinning of lanthanide metals.

Investigated carbon graphite compositions and silicon carbide and their incorporation into composites and ceramics.

Significantly contributed to the patented method of pH modification of geothermal brines for scale reduction.

Education

Executive M.B.A. (In Progress), Washington State University

B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (Cum Laude), California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

B.S. in Biological Sciences, University of Southern California

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