Plant Manager

KEITH H. BOTTOMS

**** ******** ***** *********, ** 60423

Home: 815-***-**** Cell: 708-***-****

**********@***.***

CAREER SUMMARY

A manufacturing management professional with 23+ years of experience working within operations, maintenance and engineering in various industries. Specific areas of expertise include production, financial management, quality, regulatory compliance and plant startups. Excellent communication, analytical and leadership skills combined with the ability to develop teams and solve problems. Strong FDA, GMP, ISO and OHSA regulatory compliance experience.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

DAWN FOOD PRODUCTS, INC., Manteno, IL 2013 – 2015

Plant Manager II

Responsible for direction of plant operations for production of frozen cookie pucks, frozen and Ready-to-Sell muffins, snack cakes and un-iced cupcakes. Manufacturing facility consists of 110,000 square feet of production and warehouse areas. Manage 9 direct reports who manage 130 non-union team members in Production, Safety, Quality, Maintenance, Sanitation, Finance, Human Resources, Warehousing and Scheduling. Develop and administer operating budget of $20 million and capital budget of $2 million.

Managed the overall activities of the plant including the directing, advising, and managing of direct and indirect subordinates to ensure strong team member and team performance.

Coordinated plant profit forecasting and operating statements involving production estimates, raw material cost, labor cost, supplies, machinery maintenance and repair, etc. to keep plant operating at a profitable margin and losses at a minimum.

Established performance expectations, monitors against expectations, and provided necessary feedback to team members to enhance their growth in position and promotional opportunities.

Ensured maintenance of equipment and a safe, clean work environment.

AZTECA FOODS, INC., Chicago, IL 2011 – 2013

Director of Manufacturing

Responsible for direction of plant operations for production of flour and corn tortillas and baked and fried corn chips. Plant consists of 120,000 square feet of manufacturing and warehouse areas. Manage 6 direct reports who manage 80 union and non-union employees in Production, Maintenance and Warehousing. Develop and administer operating and capital budget.

Lead plant in developing operations strategies to improve safety and quality, reduce costs, increase manufacturing efficiencies, commercialize new products and improve employee morale.

HEARTLAND SWEETENERS, LLC, Indianapolis, IN 2009 - 2011

Plant Manager

Direct plant operations for production of private label artificial sweeteners. Plant consists of 140,000 square feet of manufacturing and warehouse areas. Manage 6 direct reports who supervise 100 non-union employees in Production, Maintenance, Quality, Finance, Sanitation and Supply Chain. Develop and administer $6 million operating budget and $0.6 million capital budget.

Lead plant in developing operations strategies to improve safety and quality, reduce costs, increase efficiencies and improve employee morale.

MERISANT US INC., Chicago, IL 2003 - 2009

Manufacturing Director, North America/Europe, Africa, Middle East (2008 – 2009)

Responsible for directing multiple artificial sweetener manufacturing operations to include the Manteno, IL and Teplice, Czech Republic facilities. Accountable for ensuring Safety, Quality, Cost of Goods (COGS) optimization and asset productivity improvements at both facilities. Managed Plant Startup of Czech Republic facility by hiring, training and developing a high-performing team of one Plant Manger, four managers, 66 hourly employees and an administrative staff of 16.

KEITH H. BOTTOMS 815-***-**** PAGE 2

Successfully attained ISO 9001: 2000, HACCP and SQF Certification in the Czech Plant and Safe Quality Foods (SQF) certification in the Illinois Plant.

Provided costing, volume and profitability estimates and manufacturing of private label products. Business grew to 3% of plant volume.

Plant Manager (2004 – 2008)

Directed plant operations for production of both branded and private label artificial sweeteners. Managed six direct reports who supervised 150 non-union employees in Finance, Operations, Human Resources, Quality, Engineering and Supply Chain. Developed and administered $18 million operating budget and $1.5 million capital budget.

Implemented operational improvements that reduced packaging losses, increased up time, reduced material usage variances and achieved 100% production-to-schedule.

Demonstrated strong commitment to safety, quality and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) that resulted in successful FDA, Kosher, HALAL and third-party audits. Plant also became certified in OHSA Voluntary Protection Program (VPP), ISO 9000 and OHSAS 18001.

Initiated, developed and managed Contract Manufacturing operations to include outside tollers and other contract manufacturers. Contract manufacturing business grew to 15% of total plant volume and increased EBITDA by $2 million.

Created, developed and implemented a quarterly hourly bonus program tied to plant goals that decreased safety incidents, decreased consumer complaints by 25%, reduced budget costs by 15% and reduced attrition by 10%

Operations Manager/Technical Services Manager (2003 – 2004)

Lead 4 production supervisors and engineers who supervised 120 employees in Operations and Engineering. Developed and managed production and capital budgets by ensuring adequate human and financial resources to support day-to-day operations.

Managed the transition from a 3-shift 24/5 operation to a 4-shift 24/7 operation. This included schedule development, policy changes and implementation of a temp-to-hire program. Results included decreased attrition of 10%, increased overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) of 5%, and overtime reduction of 40%.

Successfully implemented a $4 million capital project that replaced obsolete equipment, increased overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) by 5%, reduced staffing by 33 employees, decreased packaging losses by 3% and increased annualized EBITDA by $2.5 million

Managed $1.5 million capital budget that include projects aimed at obsolete equipment replacement, regulatory compliance, profit improvement and growth

KRAFT FOODS, Dover, DE 2002–2003

Maintenance Engineer

Responsible for leading plant-wide overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) and efficiency improvements by providing engineering support to plant maintenance technicians to help resolve equipment performance issues. Utilized Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) to identify key contributors of downtime and identify action plans for performance improvement.

CORNING, INC., Concord, NC 1999-2002

Projects Buyer (2002)

Identified, evaluated, selected and developed supplier sources for equipment, suppliers, services and materials.

Wrote, reviewed and negotiated development and supplier contracts that committed time, monies and resources.

Engineering Team Leader (2000–2002)

Supervised 10 directly reporting salaried and hourly employees. Managed major cost reduction, capacity, quality improvement, and corrective action or maintenance projects in support of Optical Fiber business.

Senior Manufacturing Engineer (1999-2000)

Managed the installation, debug and startup of 50 optical fiber screeners in the Fiber Processing area. Supported and maintained processes and equipment used in Optical Fiber manufacturing – OSMs. Designed, tested, implemented and documented changes to processes and equipment that improved selections, rates, utilization and product quality

KEITH H. BOTTOMS 815-***-**** PAGE 3

PHILIP MORRIS U.S.A., Concord, NC 1996-1999

Shift Maintenance Manager - Filter Making, Bays 5 & 6, Finished Goods (1998–1999)

Responsible for the coaching and development of three maintenance supervisors. Developed and managed Preventative Maintenance program with an emphasis on reducing labor cost and parts usage while increasing machine output and runtime.

Maintenance Supervisor (1996 – 1998)

Trained and monitored the work of 20 multi-craft maintenance technicians to achieve maximum operating efficiency, minimize downtime, and meet company productivity, safety and quality objectives.

FORD MOTOR COMPANY, Norfolk, VA 1995 - 1996

Production Supervisor

Supervised 22 hourly and 4 skilled trades personnel responsible for the assembly of the 1996 and 1997 F-Series truck. Supervised the start-up of second shift Bodysides zone for the 1997 F-Series truck.

CORNING, INC., Wilmington, NC 1991 - 1995

Controls/Senior Controls Engineer

Defined, cost justified, and implemented projects aimed at manufacturing cost reduction and process improvement. This included a project that eliminated a process step, reduced staffing by 48 operators and resulted in a cost savings of $ 2MM annually.

EDUCATION

Master of Business Administration Wake Forest University Charlotte, NC

Bachelor of Science, Electrical Engineering North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Corning Incorporated Division Cash Award (DCA) - August 1993, October 1999 and December 2000

TECHNICAL SKILLS

Proficient in Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and SAP

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