Electrical Engineer Project Manager

Kyle Vest

**** ***** **. *******, ** *****

402-***-**** • *******@*****.***

MANAGEMENT / PROJECT LEADER / ENGINEERING

Lean Business Optimization / Waste Elimination, Product Life Cycle Management

Aggressive, result driven management professional with proven history in business growth. Documented

success in both areas of bottom line advancement including new product development to increase market share

and expand market coverage as well as process improvements in all organizational levels to streamline

operations based on standardized lean principles. Extensive background in product development from idea

stage up to and including product release as well as production process from layout planning to process

improvement. Proven ability to take project from idea stage to delivered product coordinating necessary

resources to successfully satisfy customer specifications including Ford Vehicle Operations, Toyota Motors

Manufacturing, and John Deere.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

KZCO, Greenwood, Nebraska • 2004 – Present

Actuated valve manufacturing company. Medium size, innovative custom manufacturer.

Lead Electrical Engineer / Engineering Project Manager

Chief electrical engineer managing electrical department overseeing multiple product lines. Created

electrical team capable of meeting sales demands based on custom product specifications. Developed

flexible product lines to maximize feature offering while minimizing physical products. Establish project

development schedules based on customer orders, vendor availability, and competing projects.

Recommended product line improvement plans as well as key member of new business development

strategy. Create engineering operating procedures to standardize design process to reduce wasted

engineering resources and eliminate double work.

Key achievements:

• Reduced control circuitry cost by over 60% while extending feature set.

• Updated designs from old technology relay drive to leading edge solid state design.

• Introduced EH5, EH7, CAN (ISOBUS), and MV1 actuators, CheckMate wireless control,

and I-OpenR product lines with each line containing multiple products to cover targeted

market.

• Researched and created an operational report showing how previous business practices

wasted up to 75% of engineering resources and created operation standards to eliminate

the waste. Specifically, reduced electrical engineering product maintenance load from 5 full

staff to 1.

• Led products through FCC approval, JDQ53.3 certification, and aided in ISO certification.

Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing, Lincoln, Nebraska • 2000 – 2004

Worldwide manufacturer with sales volume in excess of $12B and 32,000+ employees

Project Engineer

Responsible for managing product lines according to Kawasaki Production System (KPS) consisting

anywhere between 30 to 100+ workers. Trained in KPS which was developed alongside Toyota

Production System (TPS) which covers aspects necessary for continuous improvement lean

manufacturing. Principles include mixed model production, one piece production, just in time

manufacturing, inventory management, kan-ban, and poka-yoke all of which are used together to

eliminate areas of waste to streamline manufacturing. Created tooling, line layouts, process standards,

conveyor controls, and testing equipment to aid production. Guided purchasing to direct vendors in part

procurement, approving changes to reduces piece cost and maintain quality levels. Assisted quality

Kyle Vest • Page 2 • *******@*****.***

assurance to improve tooling for production as well as create action plan for non-conforming parts.

Directed production control with inventory management and schedule planning finding alternative parts

when necessary as well as standardizing product design to reduce unique part count.

Key achievements:

• Led model year changes for personal watercraft, ATV, and industrial robot product lines.

• Headed complete redesign of robot assembly line. New layout increased production

capacity by 33% and reduced production time by 18% resulting in a project payoff of less

than three years.

• Directed multiple large projects for Ford Vehicle Operations each with unique specifications

and custom products.

• Created custom software application to integrate three individual network operations into

one automated system eliminating a labor intensive, paper oriented testing procedure.

• Hands on and classroom training of KPS.

• Traveled to KHI (Japan plant) for model planning and training.

• Promoted two levels in less than 5 years.

City Councilman, Ashland, NE • December 2012-Present

Successfully campaigned for city council unseated both the incumbent and another candidate with previous

council experience. Responsibilities include creating ordinances, city budgets, future planning, special request

approvals, and overseeing city departments including police department, fire and rescue squad, building

commission, grounds department, and water treatment.

AWARDS

John Deere Innovation Award

This award is the highest award given through John Deere's Achieving Excellence program. Only four innovation

awards are given annually from their pool of nearly 30,000 suppliers worldwide. Award was given for the

ISOBUS actuator of which I was the lead product designer.

City Council President

This is a nominated position voted on by peers.

Eagle Award

Given for engineering and business development excellence. This award has only been given three times in the

35 year history of KZCO.

SKILLS

• International Project Management • Lean Management • Product/Project Management

• Continuous Process Improvement • Operation Procedure Generation • Customer and Vendor Interface

• Team Development/Training • Market Analysis • Operation Procedure Generation

• Design for Manufacturability • R&D • Software Design

• Budget Review • Excellent computer skills • Strategic Business Development

EDUCATION

BS, Electrical Engineering

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

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