Engineer Customer Service

Leigh Strickler

Marietta, GA

********@*****.*** - 706-***-****

WORK EXPERIENCE

Director of Operations

Summit Industries Incorporated - 2012 to 2014

Led manufacturing operations including production, maintenance, warehousing and shipping operations, and

customer service in a non-regulated and FDA regulated consumer goods facility. Oversaw technologies

including formulation, filling and packaging. Managed up to five direct reports with up to 40 facility personnel.

Coordinated annual production and movement of 350K cases involving 75 SKUs of finished goods in leather

care and incontinence categories. Managed a yearly operating expense budget of $2.6M between direct,

indirect and finished goods costs.

• Set labor needs budget at $580K for 2014 vs. $850K in 2013 by optimizing head count throughout 2013

based on production volumes and operational efficiencies.

• Led the production, warehouse, facility and quality department with no major financial, quality, safety, or

environmental events in the four-month absence of a CEO and Quality Director.

• Reduced out-of-stocks by 75% by leading a four-month inventory build strategy.

• Reduced total SKUs from 150 to 75 in 2013 by leading outsourcing and obsoleting products that were not

aligned with company's future strategies.

• Designed, installed and qualified a new tube filling machine within three months which increased throughput

by 50% and reduced the defect rate of tubes by 80%.

• Introduced Lean concepts to the site by designing and implementing filling line OEE sheets to gather data

which were used to update the current cost standards.

Small Volume Integrated Production Stream Director

Merial Limited - 2010 to 2012

Led Manufacturing Operations for four major product franchises (canine, feline, rabies, equine) within USDA

regulated sterile animal vaccine manufacturing. Oversaw technologies including cells, media, active ingredient,

formulation, filling, packaging, and maintenance. Managed six direct reports and a total of 63 supervisory

and technician staff. Responsible for annual production of approximately 30MM 3cc doses. Managed a yearly

operating expense budget of $4.7M.

• Relocated all small volume filling production from two major filling lines to one while maintaining 90%

production throughput.

• Orchestrated a first time 24/7 filling operation at Athens site to increase filling capacity by 50% and rebuild

inventory.

Continuous Improvement Engineer

Merial Limited - 2007 to 2010

Led ongoing Lean design and implementation in five large volume product areas: bioreactor, fermentation,

batching, sterile vial filling/capping and packaging. Acted as main liaison with 45 manufacturing personnel

for design, analysis, communication, and implementation of all Lean initiatives. Provided daily support to all

areas for troubleshooting of processing and equipment problems. Successfully created and implemented Lean

tools in the following categories: 5S, Supermarket/Kanban, standard work, scheduling boards, Gemba Walks,

Hoshin Kanri Objective Setting, time/motion studies, Key Performance Indicators, communication boards, and

maintenance scheduling tool.

• Improved consumable spend by 25% by designing and implementing a Kanban system for 150 consumable

items which established appropriate inventory and re-order points.

Lean Manufacturing Engineer

Merial Limited - 2005 to 2007

Led all Lean initiatives for factory with 50 employees manufacturing bulk active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Introduced Lean concepts into a union facility over 50 years old. Served as the value stream map leader and

trainer for one major product family for an FDA-regulated GMP bulk pharmaceutical manufacturing facility with

500+ employees.

• Identified and initiated five Kaizen projects with a projected savings of $18.5M in inventory and $2.5M in

carrying cost by completing a current and future state value stream map using validated data.

• Instructed designated site personnel properly create a Value Stream Map by authoring a facilitator guide

which focused on using the DMAIC methodology.

• Identified 13 areas for 5S improvement and successful implementation of four 5S projects by training

personnel and leading teams to plan and execute their individual 5S projects.

• Served as a member of Divisional Change Leadership Team for improved campaign changeovers utilizing

the DMAIC and SMED approach by attending divisional cross-site meetings and setting a strategy for 50%

reduction of changeover duration of one process.

• Served as project facilitator for quality operations laboratory optimization team by creating current and future

state maps and measuring data which targeted sample testing cycle time reduction using the DMAIC (Six

Sigma) approach.

• Led the decommissioning effort of Factory 3 in 2007 including all process trains and personnel due to

announcement of site closure. All vessels and auxiliary equipment met cleaning specifications per required

timeline.

Continuous Improvement Engineer

Merial Limited - Albany, GA - 1996 to 2007

Merial Limited -

Continuous Improvement Engineer -

• Improved changeover time by a minimum of one week per family by designing and implementing an electronic

scheduling board for four product families.

• Implemented 75 continuous improvement ideas from production personnel by designing and implementing

a Gemba Walk system.

Merck & Co. Inc., Albany, GA 1996-2007

Senior Manufacturing Engineer

Merial Limited - 2003 to 2005

Managed all technical and quality aspects of manufacturing processes in 50-employee factory. Led and

developed two manufacturing engineers. Acted as departmental manager as necessary. Led and supported

implementation of process and equipment changes for optimization and cost reduction. Developed, revised,

and approved site and factory policies and procedures.

• Reduced inventory of questionable value from $16M to $0.2M between 2003 and 2005 by leading a team

and systematically reducing the inventory by reprocessing it or destroying it.

• Improved THF solvent recovery uptime in 2004 from 60% to 85% by implementing a series of mechanical,

parameter and sequence changes to optimize the process.

• Implemented 75 equipment changes and 14 process changes in a single year that focused on minimizing

raw material usage and maximizing yield of bulk active ingredients by planning, documenting, executing and

validating each change with team coordination and leadership.

Prior experience includes roles in technical and day-to-day leadership in the manufacturing industry as well

as quality assurance analysis and manufacturing process engineering.

EDUCATION

Master of Science in Chemical Engineering

University of Virginia - Charlottesville, VA

Bachelor of Science in Chemistry-Engineering

Washington and Lee University - Lexington, VA

SKILLS

Six Sigma Black Belt Certified, Donald E. Smith Associates, Inc., 2006

Contact this candidate