Manager Plant

Rich Wahlen

*** ***** ***** *******, ******** ***10

*******@*****.*** 630-***-****

Manufacturing Plant Management

Process Engineering Manufacturing Team Leadership

Results-driven and dedicated with wide-ranging experience planning and leading in a manufacturing and engineering environment. Track record devising, evaluating, and implementing new products and designs as well as continuous process improvements to minimize waste and reduce costs while maximizing quality and yield. Establish effective work instructions, quality control and safety programs, encouraging proactive participation across the manufacturing floor. Excellent communicator; success building cohesive teams focused on production goals, team values, safety, and throughput. Recognized by management as a person who is highly organized, displays excellent leadership, problem solving abilities and gets the job done.

Areas of expertise

Team Supervision

Inventory Control

Resource Allocation

Engineering / Assembly operations

Safety & Regulatory Compliance

Policy / Procedure Development

Team Building & Training

ISO 9001Standards

Manufacturing Management

Professional Experience

RICHARDSON ELECTRONICS LTD., Lafox, Illinois – May,1989 to November, 2018

Manufacturing Resource Manager (2016 to 2018)

Managed day to day operations of employees in the manufacturing of a very diversified line of Vacuum tube and RF Component manufacturing operations generating $27M in annual revenue. Establish operational policies and implement process improvements to ensure superior quality and delivery of customer specified parts as well as our own manufacturing designed parts. Directly manage seven supervisors overseeing 65+ exempt and non-exempt employees. Design and implement coaching and training programs to develop staff, facilitate efficiency, and continuously improve performance while keeping all employees motivated and involved with new ideas. Ensure adherence to strict quality control and copy exact procedures. Member of Safety Committee, Material Review Board and Engineering Change Order teams.

Selected Contributions:

Led team of technicians and engineers in France to bring magnetron tube production to Richardson Electronics in 2016.

Expanded manufacturing organization including the addition of a second shift to accommodate a very large growth in demand for a very challenging customer with copy exact requirements.

Created cross training skills matrixes for manufacturing that’s used by planning and also in evaluating manufacturing needs for additional training so we had cross trained employees in all areas which helped level load various departments which in turn improved lead times and efficiencies.

Safety is important, zero lost time due to accidents in manufacturing for over four years.

Production Manager (2004 to 2016)

Coordinate all aspects of production in the manufacturing facility. Reviewed and monitored schedules to keep production flowing by coordinating with managers and supervisors. Plan, coordinate and follow through on the introduction of new manufactured products which included creating Bills of Materials, cost estimating, process flow, documentation and training. Supervised all manufacturing direct labor employees and manufacturing engineering personnel.

Selected Contributions:

Oversaw the chemical treatment and plating departments when the company needed help in those areas, this occurred three times over a fifteen year period. During these periods improvements were made including fixturing and bath maintenance process improvements, which increased output through the department by forty percent.

Production Coordination Manager (1998 to 2004)

Coordinate production through all manufacturing areas except the machine shop department. Directly supervised 35 employees in manufacturing of various assigned product lines. Managed inventory levels of finished product and all components within those product lines. Design and perform engineering functions on new products assigned. Responsible for capital expenses and budget within all assigned areas as well as assisting Director of Manufacturing with the entire manufacturing plant budget including our chemical processing and plating departments.

Selected Contributions:

Created redesign of one product saving $110 per tube at a rate of 500 tubes per year for last fifteen years for a savings of $825,000. Also parts of this tube are recyclable and reusable, improved design, less rework and also a higher yield bringing the lifetime savings closer to $1,300,000

The above is only one of many other redesigns and or material changes that saved thousands of dollars over the years.

Production Supervisor / Engineer (1989 to 1998)

Supervise and schedule employees to insure smooth workflow and efficient utilization of resources in the manufacturing of microwave, x-ray and various power tubes. Ran ceramic metallizing, brazing and heat treating areas. Managed scheduling, inventory control and quality assurance for microwave production area. Designed, built and processed prototype electron tubes including design of fixturing. Set up and operated various machines for fabrication of machined parts. Resolved all engineering and production issues encountered during pilot run production. Engineering responsibilities of several product lines. Hired by Richardson Electronics to transfer the tube production line from Amperex Electronics in New York to Richardson Electronics in Illinois.

Selected Contributions:

Managed equipment and process transfers of product lines from New York to Illinois and while doing so actually improved product yields by five percent.

Trained 20 plus employees in the manufacture of products completely different than previously manufactured at Richardson Electronics.

Education and Training

Bachelor degree in Business Management with Marketing Minor

NORTH CENTRAL COLLEGE – Naperville, Illinois

Associates degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology

STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK – Farmingdale, New York

Professional Development

Management and Supervisory OSHA / Hazmat and safety trainings

Lean Manufacturing training MRP training in PeopleSoft and XRM

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