Engineering & Continuous Improvement Leader

Joseph M. Knapp

**** ******* *****; Portage, MI *9024; 269-***-****; ********@***.***

Profile

I am a highly accomplished engineer, continuous improvement professional, and business leader. I hold a master’s degree in mechanical engineering. I am a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt with an exceptional understanding of the practical application of the tools and process. I am an industry expert on stamping presses and sit on the ANSI B11.1 mechanical power press standards committee. My past project successes have included projects up to $15M in size. I take a very hands on approach to projects and problem solving. Currently, projects that I lead and direct save the company in excess of $4.75M per year.

Employment Experience

January 2013 to present: Pridgeon and Clay (Grand Rapids, MI)

oPosition: Principal Engineer

oResponsibilities and Accomplishments:

Mentoring the organization’s engineers in the proper use of data based problem solving and how to insure that they were specifying and purchasing equipment that would be reliable in the long term for the organization.

Leading all major equipment capital purchases

630T Servo Press Project (approximately $4.6M overall capital expenditure)

Served as technical lead for the overall design, sourcing, installation, startup, and launch of the Aida 630T servo press and all other supporting equipment.

630T Aida servo drive press, Atlas die cart, Star Cleaning Systems automated parts washer, scrap conveyance systems, lubrication systems, 20T overhead crane, and supporting infrastructure for the overall press line.

Speedfam Rebuild Program ($230k per machine for 10 machines over a 2 year period)

If exhaust flanges have a ground surface, they do not require a gasket during assembly. The Speedfam process (through feed grinder is no longer available for purchase)

Analysis showing that modern technologies only gave roughly 90% of the throughput of a Speedfam machine for almost 3 times the investment ($230k to rebuild a Speedfam vs $650k for new equipment)

Technical specification to completely rebuild machines that were last updated in the early 1980’s into modern fully CNC controlled (including the use of a servo hydraulic system) grinding centers

Increase in overall throughput by approximately 30% by increasing the motor horsepower from 25 HP to 32.5 HP through the use of more modern winding materials and grooving methods.

Capital Justification Process (the organization was planning to spend approximately $15M per year in capital to improve and grow the business when the prior years had been around $5M)

Establishing formal requirements for the purchase of capital equipment

Standardizing the means of requesting capital equipment (and launching a new web based software program to help all individuals purchasing capital equipment to more effectively manage their projects on time and within budget)

Capital Equipment Cash Flow Modeling

Building and helping the organization to effectively use financial models predicting the outflow of cash based on capital equipment that was being purchased.

oPosition: Corporate Director Of Continuous Improvement

oResponsibilities and Accomplishments:

Providing general corporate leadership at a director’s level position

Developing a formalized continuous improvement program from the ground up

Finding hiring, training, and coaching a new CI team to deliver high impact projects and results

Teaching, training, and coaching all engineers in Six Sigma

Developing and building CI training materials to educate the teams about lean and six sigma

Building the foundation and plans to drive lean culture into the organization

Spreading the idea of continuous improvement and formalized cost reduction from the main facility to all global facilities while insuring that the global teams execute with the same or better levels of excellence than the main Grand Rapids facility.

Hungary (Apostag)

oIntroducing the facility to the idea of waste reduction and process improvement (in working with this facility, it was the first time in all of my experience that the team being trained had the look and discussion of: “wow, we can do this”; this was their first time of being exposed to the idea of lean manufacturing)

oInstituting a formalized CI cost reduction program that was instrumental in transforming the operation from a losing facility to a profitable one

1,915k EUR year over year profit improvement

Mexico (Monterrey)

oInitiating the scrap reduction initiative through the use of the Top 10 scrap review and the daily QRQC review. This initiative reduced the in process scrap from 7.68% to 2.00%

oRe-education of team on generalized process improvement and the elimination of waste towards driving improvements

oOverall cost reduction plan management to understand both new and carryover savings from projects in the works and those already completed.

Major Accomplishments:

Year Over Year Profit Improvement Of: $2M or 35% improvement. This was accomplished with 49 more people (6% more people) than the previous year

Scrap Reduction: Started at 2.2% and reduced to 1.6% (approximately a $128k per month cost savings) through the use of the Top 50 Scrap review process

5S Revival:

oRe-building the 5S system based on building and sustaining each level of the 5 S’s.

oAll team members are trained on each S as their area progresses through the steps of the overall 5S program.

oThe 5S audit was revised so that it is only focusing on the S that the area is currently working in (and maintaining the previous S’s) while also taking the subjectivity out of the audit by using a series of questions with “canned” answers for the scoring system.

Incorporating Continuous Improvement Into New Hire Orientation

oAll new hire employees receive an overview of continuous improvement with an emphasis on good 5S and how they can work daily to reduce all of the 8 kinds of waste that they encounter in their daily jobs

Employee Suggestion System

oThe system was revised so that all employees are able to enter their own suggestions into the system.

oThe system was revived to where all suggestions are now reviewed on a monthly (minimum) basis and feedback is given to the employee who made the suggestion as to its status.

oIncentives are now being used to encourage employees to share ideas for improvement

oThe employee suggestion system was built for deployment into the Mexico and Hungary operations in its own database and in its local language (Q2 2014 deployment)

Midbed Wheel Project

oOverall increase in line capacity from 38 pph to 51 pph

oImproved flow of the line through minor equipment moves and a focus on a lean process flow

oFound true root cause for high scrap and repair rates and implemented permanent corrective actions (at the sub assembly level)

Compression Bracket Project

o47 second cycle time reduced to 31 seconds

oWasted time was found by a step to step value stream map within the operation

oAll improvements were validated for quality using six sigma statistical tools

oTooth inspection (100% customer requirement) gage R&R improved from 80% to 12% by converting from laser inspection to camera inspection.

oThis project changed this product from something that was a loser and a product that we wanted to get away from into a winner and the kind of business that should be pursued.

Cardboard Consumption Reduction: Historically, all WIP was processed in cardboard pallet boxes. This has been transitioned into plastic knock down containers for a savings of $134,583

Customer VAVE Events

Central Stores Crib Project

oFull review of obsolete items for removal ($2.9M total inventory)

oRemoval of $274k of obsolete and phantom inventory

May 2006 to January 2013: Johnson Controls (Battle Creek, MI)

oPosition: Continuous Improvement Manager & Master Black Belt

oResponsibilities and Accomplishments:

Providing general leadership as a staff level manager

Hiring staff for lean six sigma black belts

Managing day to day activities for staff of CI department

Responsible to insure the CI department delivers hard cost savings of $370k (annualized) per month

Coaching as a technical expert for: six sigma, lean manufacturing, and other problem solving activities

Leading large scale process improvements for:

Adding 2 major weld cells with assembly lines to add an additional $15.4M in annual sales for an investment of $8.22M while reducing the annual cost of overtime premium by $1.45M

Replacing worn out tooling for an investment of $1.891M for an annualized hard savings of $1.563M

Teaching corporate training courses in six sigma and lean manufacturing

oSpecial Assignment To The JCI – Lakewood Facility In Holland, MI To Launch A New Roll Forming Line To Manufacture Seat Track Rails

Project scope was to take a “pile of machinery” and convert it into a functional production line

Project equipment included: de-coiler reel with dual heads, steel accumulator, powered coil straightener, coil feeder, 200T stamping press, dual roll form machine with up to 42 roll passes (one for uppers rails and one for lower rails) with powered change over, and fully automated flying pierce and cutoff to allow continuous operation of the roll mill

Successfully decreased project timing by 6 weeks for the flying piece/cutoff by helping vendors manage incoming raw material delivery times

Responsible to lead the team to procure and install all auxiliary equipment (such as machine guarding, power & air outlets, hand tools needed for the line, etc….) needed for a successful start up of the manufacturing operation

Responsible for overall project management as well as daily executive status reports

oPosition: Continuous Improvement ~ Six Sigma Black Belt, Lean Implementer, and Kepner-Tregoe Practitioner

oResponsibilities and Accomplishments:

Met or exceeded monthly cost savings goal of $257,000 in hard savings per month every month

Acted as the department manager in the absence of a full time department manager

Coaching and mentoring engineers in using sound data for solving difficult problems

Set guidelines for the Metals & Mechanisms division for conducting destructive gage R&R activities

Facilitating regular Kaizen activities

Updating, revising, and implementing corporate training materials for JCMS tools:

JCMS Culture & Awareness, The Seven Kinds of Waste, Problem Solving & Teams, 5S & Visual Management, Kaizen & Standardized Work, Value Stream Mapping, Error Proofing, Total Productive Maintenance, Quick Changeover, Material Control, and Best Business Practices

Specific Noteworthy Projects:

Six Sigma Project proving the true root cause of splits in a sheet metal stamping

Six Sigma Project using a DOE to set a product push test to the optimized location to insure that a product safety issue could not be manufactured again

Kepner-Tregoe project using the KT decision matrix for each piece of equipment and each stage of planning a $3.9M capital equipment project

DOE tools used to confirm the root cause of a product safety issue (PPSC) from the cracking of gear teeth in a recliner mechanism

Proved through the use of gage R&R tools that stamping press tonnage monitors are both repeatable and reproducible to within 8.59%

Six Sigma Project to set the optimized settings for blind welds in laser welding to minimize the process variation while setting the nominal to an optimized value

Combined Lean and Six Sigma project to build and move equipment so that the product is “where made where used” and the overall customer quality is improved

Lean project (transactional) on non-BOM manufacturing components that will be leverageable across all of JCI’s North American Automotive Experience facilities

oPosition: Engineer (Project/Program Engineering & Product/Process Development/Improvement)

oResponsibilities and Accomplishments:

Responsible for implementation and coordination of: sheet metal products, tooling, equipment, and process (from design concept to mass production) to bringing a brown field operation from nothing but a dirt floor into a fully functioning, world class operation

Fully responsible for approximately $15M in new capital equipment including: all equipment concepts, multifunctional team coordination/leadership, design specifications, design reviews, runoff, installation, tryout, debug, ramp up, 100% up time reliability, maintenance, and continuous improvement through lean, six sigma, DFV, and DFMA projects of:

1000T Komatsu stamping press

2 800T Komatsu stamping presses

3 Coe coil feed lines (fully automated)

3 Wayne Trail servo transfers (for fully automated part and material handling)

Prab scrap conveyor system

Conveyability conveyors

2 Wolverine overhead cranes (30/10T and 25T)

Other peripheral and support equipment

Engineering support for product coating line (Autophoretic coating a.k.a A-coat)

Technical team leader for process improvement teams as well as product, equipment, and tooling troubleshooting and re-design

Implementation of permanent corrective actions for all issues affecting product quality, delivery, safety, or machine downtime

Continuous improvement to improve product cost through design for value (DFV)

Technical Coordinator for tool and die problem solving / re-engineering / re-design

Lead technical associate on the machine utilization (MU) improvement team

Improved machine efficiency from approximately 45% to over 70% resulting in an estimated annual savings of $2M in operating costs

Use of lean, six sigma, DFMA, and DFV principals were the main contributors to this success

Leader of the automatic die change (ADC) initiative

Implementation saved approximately 40 minutes per tool change (50% savings) resulting in approximately $1M in annual operating cost savings

April 2003 to April 2006: L&W Engineering Company (Belleville, Michigan)

oPosition: Project Engineer (Program Management)

oResponsibilities and Accomplishments:

Honda Account:

Fully Responsible for the Steering Hanger Beam (a.k.a. Instrument Panel) for the 2006 Honda Civic ($54 assembly accounting for approximately $20M in annual sales)

Launching the program from concept into mass production

oInsuring that the process is stable and repeatable

Sourcing & program managing 40 stamping dies

Sourcing & program managing 5 mig weld trunnions and 2 mig weld dial table cells

Sourcing & program managing a custom cell to align, expand, pierce, & form a 2 tube cross car beam

Technical leader for coordinating and insuring on time deliveries between: multiple internal facilities, vendors, technical partner in Japan, and multiple customer (Honda) facilities.

Feasibility review of all components and sub assemblies

Joint Check events at Honda to review product applications and assist with pre-production new-model builds

Regular communication with Honda East Liberty Plant, Honda Canada Manufacturing, Honda Research & Development, and Honda New Model – Japan

Fully accountable for all of the above to be on time and within budget

Johnson Controls Account:

Daily customer interaction to discuss technical challenges / feasibility, scheduling, pre-production events / deliverables, and commercial issues

Seating components for:

Nissan: Xterra, Pathfinder, Frontier, Titan, and Armada

oFully responsible for pre-prototype to mass production (technical and commercial)

Mercedes: M-Class and Grand Sport Tourer

oFully responsible for pre-prototype to mass production (technical and commercial)

Ford: F-150, Expedition, Explorer, Lincoln Navigator and Aviator

oFully responsible for pre-prototype to mass production (technical and commercial)

September 2001 to December 2002: United States Can Company (Hubbard, OH)

oPosition: Plant Project Engineer / Manufacturing Engineer

oContainer / canning industry

oPrimary responsibilities included daily trouble shooting of multiple production lines to address design issues and to ensure zero stops in production. Highlighted projects include:

Redesign feed system for rings for the 1-quart can (reduced down time from 80+% to less than 30%)

Redesign die for the rings for the 1-quart can (stabilize part to reduce down time by approximately 20%)

Redesign of knockout levers and shafts for the 1-gallon can line

Reconfigure the conveyor system for the 1-gallon can line to minimize product damage (includes designing a system to stabilize cans in automated packaging cell and re-designing the magnetic conveyor system)

oPosition: Engineering Co-Op Student

Project to change wire suppliers from 700 lb canisters to 4000 lb tubs

Various die and component designs and re-designs

Accomplishments, Organizations, Certifications, Training, And Software:

2011: Six Sigma Master Black Belt

2010: Certified Six Sigma Black Belt

2010: Certified Kepner-Tregoe Practitioner

2010: Lean Implementer

2009: Contributing author and committee member to the ANSI B11.1 2009 standard

2009 Formal Training in Engineering Optimization

2008: Fundamentals of RS Logix 5000 ~ Battle Creek, MI

2006: Formal Training in DFMA (Design For Manufacture And Assembly along with Design For Value and Design For Process Optimization)

2004: PFMEA through AIAG

2002: Fundamentals of Engineering Certification (formerly EIT) ~ State of Michigan

1997: Eagle Scout

Minitab Statistical Software

AutoCAD (design, detailing, modification, and analysis)

Solid modeling (for viewing Catia / Solid Works files)

Microsoft Office

PLC for: Allen Bradley RS Logix & SLC, Mitsubishi, and Rexroth / Indramat (including Visual Motion)

Education:

2010: Masters of Science in Mechanical engineering (Cognate Of: Failure modes and their optimized redesign ~ Thesis on engineering optimization) from Kettering University (Flint, MI)

2002: Bachelor Of Science in Mechanical Engineering (Machine Design specialty with a minor in applied and computational mathematics) from GMI (Flint, MI)

Hobbies and Interests:

Lawn and garden

Wood Working

Outdoor activities (such as boating, fishing, targeting, camping, hiking, etc.)

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