Manager Engineering

Richard J. Koenes

Saint Joseph, MI ***** +1-269-***-****

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

Summary

I am a seasoned Engineering leader with proven experiences in successfully hiring, developing, and guiding a global staff. Evaluating safety, performance, quality and reliability issues for customers, reducing barriers to execution, driving fact based decisions, and developing the organizational talent needed to execute the company’s current and future plans.

Leading a Global Organization – Strategic start-up experience, established and delivered annual efficiency improvements (6,000+ Man-hours in 2015), and drove standardization across locations. Planned and executed both expansion and consolidation efforts, as well as day-to-day operations of test laboratories in two global regions across multiple locations.

Developing Leaders and Building Teams – Built high-performing, collaborative teams with engagement score of 85 in 2015. Demonstrated ability to develop future leaders and export talent to other areas of the company.

Analyze New Designs, Cost Reductions and Quality Improvements – Active in safety reviews and test protocol for determining design robustness and failure analysis for new designs and proposed design changes. Utilize Design of Experiment techniques to improve design knowledge and robustness. Reduced part complexity and cost by eliminating unnecessary and non-value added design requirements.

Experience

Whirlpool Corporation, Benton Harbor, MI 49022 (1985 – 2016)

A $20 billion global home appliance manufacturer across all major categories, including laundry, cooking, refrigeration, dishwashers, countertop appliances, garage organization, and water filtration.

Director of Product Approval and Lab Operations for the Dishwasher category – 303 Upton Drive, Saint Joseph MI 49085 (2006-2016):

Responsible for the design validation and analysis including safety, regulatory and performance testing across both North America and European regions. Managed a team of over 100 staff members across four locations and two regions.

Effectively facilitated, led, and transferred technical competency; hired and staffed a team to a lower cost region in Europe (Germany to Poland) Grew new team to 33 people saving $2.1 million annually in the lab organization.

Drove consolidation and efficiency improvements for existing operations in North American operations. Consolidated two locations into one team and location, reducing $1.7 million annually without loss of service capabilities or quality.

Developed a flow of talent for the laboratory and exported talent to other functions within the corporation. Focus on human capital management to hire new talent into the organization, and teach them about our processes and products. Mentored 3 individuals to manager roles and over 15 high talent exchanges to other functions within the corporation over the last 10 years.

Drove product safety testing protocol, monitored safety audits, worked globally to harmonize the regional testing and interpretation of results across the dishwasher labs.

Established team goals and expectations for the implementation of tools: DVP&R, Lean, OPEX, FRACAS and Test to Learn. Saved 6000+ man-hours of Lean savings in 2015.

Added environmental variations (water hardness, voltage variation, soils, detergents, etc.) into test protocol to better represent consumer use conditions in reliability testing protocol. Resulted in earlier and increased consumer failure mode identification.

Drove data acquisition strategy, staffed the vision, and implemented globally.

Represented organization in multiple Codes and Regulatory industry committees to help drive the direction and standards development for our industry (AHAM, UL, CSA).

Strategically pitched and staffed a new cross product safety test laboratory in Poland which was critical to implement a strategy of common standards for Whirlpool products globally. The Polish laboratory became the model lab for safety testing in Europe.

Transformed the European packaging strategy into a cross product laboratory located in Poland. This reduced cost by $270,000 and improved turnaround time by 50% for both Dishwasher and Refrigeration products in the European region.

Drove a cross product, cross regional effort to standardize and consolidate test procedures and to develop a common practice for future test procedure development.

Chosen to lead a technical team to evaluate a field issue, determined root cause, made recommendation for an action plan to best address consumer needs while enhancing the company’s reputation with the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Upon this teams recommendation a 2.3 million unit recall out of 9 million total populations was initiated by the company.

Engineering Lab Operations Manager: (2005 – 2006) – Saint Joseph, MI.

Led the laboratory operations team responsible for performance, safety and regulatory testing

Developed a strategy and staffed a laboratory operations team to support and service the design team. Recruited and hired three lab operation engineers.

Drove a solutions oriented mindset within the laboratory operations team breaking down the barriers with the design staff.

Design Engineering Future Model Line Manager: (2004 – 2005) – Saint Joseph, MI.

Program Manager leading the design team responsible for Laundry model line development, design and release.

Worked cross functionally to negotiate the Marketing requirements, Engineering cost and quality improvement goals, and Manufacturing requirements to deliver new models to the market.

Responsible for a team that developed the design, created the bill of materials and managed the production introduction phase for appearance parts on washers and dryer platforms.

Laundry Engineering PALO Manager: (1999 – 2004) – Saint Joseph, MI.

Washer and Dryer laboratory team leader responsible for the testing and approval of new and current product changes. This job was focused on one regional and two manufacturing locations.

Factory on-site Engineering and Quality Manager: (1997 – 1999) – Clyde, Ohio.

Day-to-Day engineering team leader with responsibility for resolving factory engineering issues, supplier quality follow-up, production line testing, and first part approval.

Senior Procurement Resident: (1995 – 1997) – Whirlpool factory in Clyde, Ohio.

Factory procurement production representative responsible for handling daily part availability, delivery interruptions, quality issues, non production purchases, and value chain analysis projects.

Member of a focused five person team to analyze the cost benefits to design specification for key parts and suppliers. Achieved $250K+ savings for the company

Responsible for supporting day to day supply of production parts and addressing any quality issues with the supply base.

Responsible for purchase of factory non-production purchases.

Developed contracts with non-production suppliers for continuous improvement. Drove annual cost reduction goals with the supply base.

Summary of Earlier Career

Whirlpool Brand Model Line Design Eng: (1991 – 1995) – Saint Joseph, MI.

Project Manager responsible for project schedules and development of ascetic profile and console design for branded washer and dryer model line launches. Working with marketing, procurement, and suppliers to align the design and tooling decisions while coordinating the introduction into the production process.

UL Codes Dishwasher Engineer at Whirlpool: (1988 – 1991) – Saint Joseph, MI.

Developed code agency submissions and coordinate the safety and codes testing for U.S. built dishwashers.

Developed testing requirements. Collected the required codes test data, reviewed for accuracy, and developed and maintained the required product listing submittals to UL.

Managed the working relationship and communications between the Whirlpool dishwasher team and Underwriters Laboratories.

Education

Masters – Business Administration - MBA

Tiffin University: 155 Miami St. Tiffin, OH 44883

Bachelors Degree:

Siena Heights University: 1247 E. Siena Heights

Electronics Engineering Technology

Second Major in Business Administration

Graduated: Cum Laude

Drive, Adrian MI 49221

Associates Degree:

I.T.T. Technology Institute: Fort Wayne, IN 46808

Electronics Engineering Technology

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