Joe S. Whisonant Jr.

Kannapolis NC *****

704-***-****

acq6h6@r.postjobfree.com

https://www.linkedin.com/pub/joe-whisonant/a/635/96b

Summary Statement

A strong team player, coach and leader with a background in business management with World Class organizations. Extensive experience in many different areas of product development, new product introduction and business management that include purchasing, quality assurance and operations process improvement. Have led organizations to introduce new products to achieve outstanding results. In depth experience in managing very large projects and organizations throughout the world.

Experience

Legrand North America, Concord, NC

2006 – 2015

Director- Purchase for Resale Business Division

Complete responsibility for managing and product quality of a $250MM business division with manufacturing facilities throughout the world. Led a staff of 9 planning, inventory control and purchasing associates located in 3 locations. Led the quality assurance efforts with a staff that included a quality manager, quality engineers and quality inspectors. Oversaw the performance of 40 worldwide suppliers and was responsible for improving their performance in product delivery, reliability and quality.

Built an organization that included planning, inventory control, purchasing and quality assurance responsible for suppliers throughout the globe. Led efforts to grow the division from $25MM to $250MM in 5 years.

Achieved customer service levels of over 98% on time delivery consistently and product defect levels of less than 3 PPM

Led efforts to relocate major product lines that resulted in over $10MM in additional yearly profit margin.

Recognized as a Legrand “New Heights “process improvement winner twice for various projects that included growth into new markets and significant cost reductions.

Recipient of 10 Legrand achievement awards that recognized efforts for global logistics and product cost reductions.

Finalist in the Cabarrus county manufacturing excellence award.

Legrand North America, Concord, NC

2000 – 2006

Director Quality Assurance.

Led a staff of 6 quality managers and 12 quality engineers across 6 facilities in the USA and Mexico. Responsible for product testing and control at 6 quality laboratories. Lead efforts to relocate products and approve suppliers around the world.

Achieved ISO 9000 certification.

Drove the relocation of the GFCI product line to China resulting in over a $10MM addition in profit margin.

Spearheaded efforts to relocate the residential wiring device line to China.

Led efforts to incorporate newly acquired companies and their products into the Legrand system.

Led continuous improvement efforts using KAIZEN techniques to make significant improvements in the manufacturing facilities.

Consistanly achieved product quality levels of less than 3 PPM defect level.

Oversaw the activities of three quality assurance and labs and the testing requirements for UL and ETL.

Joe S. Whisonant page 2

Textron Inc., Stanfield, NC 1994-2000

Director Quality Assurance

Relocated facilities and their quality systems from Santa Ana CA to Stanfield NC. Responsible for setting up quality and continuous improvement systems at the new facility. Responsible for hiring a staff of 6 quality engineers. Took on the quality management responsibilities of the Parsippany NJ facility. This included a staff of 4 individuals.

Achieved Ford Q1 accreditation.

Led process improvement efforts that included KAIZEN events that resulted in significant cost savings in manufacturing facilities.

Received the coveted Chrysler Gold Penastar Award for quality performance.

Extremely knowledgeable in the automotive PPAP process, APQP tools and FMEA techniques.

Was selected as Textron Change agent and lead continuous improvement activities across Textron.

Aplix Inc., Charlotte, NC 1993-1994

Quality Assurance Manager

Responsible for all quality assurance activities within a small privately held company.

Achieved Ford Q1 status.

Achieved Smith & Nephew preferred supplier status.

Led the introduction of new products into the automotive industry using the PPAP and APQP processes.

Milliken & Co. 1983-1993

Process Improvement Manager

Process Improvement Specialist

Research Fellow ITT

Supported efforts to achieve the Malcom Baldrige Award

Selected to startup of State of the Art fabric formation plant and put into place all quality and process improvement systems.

Trained on Ford Statistical Process Control techniques

Achieved 99.9% defect free product production.

Supported the research to introduce sate of the air yarn manufacturing system in conjunction with Murata Inc.

Published Thesis research.

Joe S. Whisonant page 3

Education, Professional Development and Training

Master of Science in Technology, Institute of Textile Technology - Charlottesville, VA

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Appalachian State University- Boone, NC

Milliken & Co. SPC training

Dale Carnegie

Cross Functional Team Building

Ford SPC techniques

APQP

5S techniques

Ford PPAP / APQP training

Memberships

APICS

Appalachian State University Former Athletes Association

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