Engineering Engineer

JEFFREY E. LEICH Jr.

***** ******* ***** ****** ***, MI 48315

********@*******.*** (c) 586-***-****

ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONAL

Product Engineering for Automotive Interior Systems, Tier I & OEM

Highly effective leader who excels at working with cross functional teams to deliver superior results. Proven success in building effective teams, fostering innovation, facilitating change, and driving continuous improvement.

CORE COMPETENCIES

Product Eng., Design, Development, and Mfg. Product Launch

Proven Leadership to Achieve Project Metrics Customer Focused

Problem Solving/Issue Resolution Validation Engineering & Testing

Strategy Development & Deployment Trusted & Driven Leader

Master of Science in Management – Walsh College, Troy, MI

B.S. – Mechanical Engineering – Michigan State University, E. Lansing, MI

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

IAC Group

Director of Engineering - Advanced Development & Materials Eng. (11/2012 to 7/2015)

Troy Validation Center (Site Responsibility)

Managed the Troy Validation Lab, Validation Engineering, and the Advanced Development of adhesives and coverstocks for North America. Direct responsibility for 13 salaried and eight contract engineers and technicians.

Developed, validated, & launched a spray PUR adhesive application process to replace water based spray adhesive on door upper products (First use at IAC)

oReduced adhesive cost by $382K/year and decreased capital cost by $450K

oDecreased plant floor space by 1200 square feet

Developed, validated, and launched an adhesively bonded coverstock construction with a pre-applied adhesive for compression bonded components (First use at IAC)

oEliminated adhesive application capital & floor space requirements at the plant

oReduced cost by $1.3M/year once implemented on all five programs

Developed, validated, and launched an APAO hot melt adhesive that can bond directly to TPO substrates without pre-treatment (First use at IAC)

oReduced adhesive cost by $432K/year and decreased capital cost by $600K

oDecreased plant floor space by 1200 square feet

Developed a method to roll coat the adhesive in selective areas only on a larger blank which reduced the adhesive cost by 20% and could be read across to other programs

Implemented $1.2 M in annual cost reductions in 2014, and $1.3 M through July 2015 with another $1.4M scheduled to implement by the end of 2015

Implemented & successfully achieved comprehensive customer satisfaction based metrics at Validation Center, which dramatically improved customer satisfaction survey results

Jeffrey E. Leich Jr. Page 2

Vice President of Engineering- Product Engineering (12/2003 to 11/2012)

Effectively led a diverse team of over 50 engineers and 120 designers, to engineer, design, validate, and launch Interior Systems. Proven leadership skills fostering innovation, driving engineering disciplines, accountability, and teamwork to deliver exceptional results.

Designed, developed, patented and launched Safe-TEC (injection molded tunable energy-absorbing countermeasure that could be integrated to eliminate components)

oManaged the technology implementation on vehicles from four OEM’s

Created a proposal to substitute seven energy management components on a Truck Door Panel with one Safe-TEC countermeasure which resulted in a savings of $2.7M/year

Created proposal to substitute 14 steel safety countermeasures & fasteners with two Safe-TEC countermeasures resulting in 1.7 lb./Veh mass savings & $3M/yr cost savings

Co-Inventor of Patent #8,348,313 Energy Absorber for Vehicle Bumper

Developed a strategy to double the 2003 offshore design utilization from 10% to 20%

o2004 Goal: $3.3M Savings, 2004 Achieved: $6.6M

oDeployed Design Cost Optimization model to increase utilization to 40% by 2008

Led Die Cut Material Optimization team to reduce material costs by $1.46 M/yr in 2010

Successfully executed the design & engineering for a program developed in Korea

Standardized the engineering and design feasibility process to include key product attributes, interfaces, and criteria that needed to be validated prior to design release

Fostered robust cross functional communication with the eng., design, manufacturing, and advanced development team members through the master section sign off process

Implemented robust “digital validation plans” using CAE analysis, mold flow, and warpage analysis to validate high RPN failure modes identified in the DFMEA

Implemented a standardized “Dimensional Control Strategy” sign off as a Best Practice that identified the dimensional strategy and enablers to meet the Fit/Finish objectives

Reduced unplanned post design release engineering changes each year in the position

Increased validation testing success rate and met the objectives each year

Managed team below the budget objective & exceeded cost reduction target each year

Lear Corporation- Interior Systems Division (Interior Division Sold to IAC Group in 2007)

Director of Engineering - DaimlerChrysler Division (4/2001- 12/2003)

Established a performance based culture with a high employee satisfaction rate & low employee turnover. Built a highly effective team and implemented a disciplined engineering & design process to deliver robust design executions and results that exceeded objectives.

Platform Manager - DaimlerChrysler Division (9/2000 – 4/2001)

Engineering Manager - DaimlerChrysler Division (5/1999 – 9/2000)

Systems Engineer – (United Technologies Automotive acquired by Lear) (1/1998 – 5/1999)

General Motors- Small Car Group

Assistant Interior Systems Manager: Pontiac Grand Am Program (6/1997 – 1/1998)

Senior Project Engineer, Interior Trim Department (9/1992 – 6/1997)

Validation Engineer, Interior Trim & Seats, Reliability & Test Department (6/1989 – 9/1992)

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