JOHN SAAR

Remotely located in San Diego, Ca

715-***-**** acwyik@r.postjobfree.com

WHAT I AM LOOKING FOR

Quality Assurance has changed dramatically in the last 10 years just as manufacturing has changed. I have been part of all of it. We are now faced with performing Quality Assurance via remote control using long distance, languages and cultures. I have had experience in Quality Assurance for 40 years, most of them in management. Teaching / training, Customer Relations, Supplier Development and Continuous Improvement are what I bring to the Companies where I have worked. I am interested in passing along my abilities and the unique things I have learned over the years to the next generation by teaching in a Technical School Environment or as a part time employee. I am particularly interested in techniques I’ve learned featuring Lean Processes and Waste Reduction.

RETIREMENT

After 40 years of progressive Quality Management at 8 different companies, I have retired. After 3.5 years of retirement, I’m tired of it and I need to help a company or a group make the transition from Quality Control to Quality Assurance / Continuous Improvement and Total Customer Satisfaction.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

ARDISAM, Inc. Cumberland, WI 2003 – 2012

Design, Manufacture and Market Lawn & Garden Equipment, Sporting Goods and Outdoor Hunting and Fishing Gear - $50M in sales annually.

Quality Assurance Director

Responsible for all aspects of Quality Assurance, Supplier Quality, Continuous Improvement, Training and Customer Support Activities.

-Have reduced Warranty Impact of all products by 25% per year over the last 6 years.

oInstallation of Quality Systems and Continuous refinement of processes has allowed us to do this.

-Created internal Metrics as a way to measure department goals that allow Continuous Improvement at the above rates. Reduction of waste and its root causes are a chief reason these numbers are so impressive.

-Installed a Real Time, easy to use Corrective Action Reporting (CAR) system that is being used by the entire company.

-Installed Supplier Quality Systems in Chinese supply base (20 suppliers) that allow Continuous Improvement in a fast growing and ever changing product market. Waste reduction systems are a big part of the improvement.

-Continuous Improvement defined above has allowed Ardisam to grow 15% per year over the last 6 years.

AXLETECH INTERNATIONAL, Oshkosh, WI 2002 – 2003

Design and manufacture of off-road axles for military, construction and aviation industries - $74M in sales.

Quality Assurance Manager

Responsible for all aspects of quality assurance, supplier quality, technical service and some production.

-Created a process that reviewed and verified new or changed products that were manufactured for the first time. Cut customer related PPM by over 80% in 5 months with this installation.

-Installed systems that resulted in 35% reduction of year over year vendor scrap

-Helped define and implement a new warranty-tracking database that did not exist before 2003. This database allowed everyone in the company to define trends in warranty data and to create reports that were customer or product specific.

-Worked with suppliers to Allison Transmission to respond to critical characteristics with control plans that would prevent defects in the production of critical parts in Allison products.

EXCELSUS TECHNOLOGIES INC., Carlsbad, CA 2000 – 2002

Design and manufacture of DSL Internet communication components - $70M per year in sales.

Director of Quality Assurance

Responsible for all aspects of quality assurance, receiving and supplier quality.

-Took a $70M company from no quality or manufacturing system to compliance to ISO9001:2000 in one year. The first company on the west coast to be registered to this new standard. It gave the company significant competitive advantages in the market place.

-By directing the supply base to verify product quality at the source, company saved over $200,000 in bad product being shipped, sorted and inspected by Excelsus. Company went dock to stock receiving process and increased inventory turns. Worked with overseas suppliers to reduce defects by 30% in 1st year.

SENSORMATIC – VIDEO PRODUCTS DIVISION, San Diego, CA 1997 – 2000

Design and manufacture of video security instrumentation, cameras and controls.

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Director of Quality Assurance 1999 – 2000

Responsible for all aspects of quality in a worldwide organization of a $300M division.

-Created and installed a multi-plant organization to optimize quality reporting and continuous improvement. This organization resulted in better communication, utilization of common metrics, higher levels of customer satisfaction and cost savings to the division.

Senior Quality Assurance Manager 1997 – 1999

Responsible for all aspects of quality assurance in a $120M division.

-Improved the reliability of our critical next generation product by over 80% over the first generation by performing reliability testing and choosing more reliable components. This reliability testing keeps weak designs and components out of the market place, which resulted in much higher customer satisfaction.

-Reduced cycle time on customer repair from over 5 days to less than 1 day in a one-year timeframe. This resulted in significant customer satisfaction improvements.

-Saved the company over $50,000 per year by reducing product complexity and replacement costs.

ACTION INSTRUMENTS, San Diego, CA 1995 – 1997

Design and manufacture of instrumentation for industrial controls – Sales per year were $25M

Quality Manager

Responsible for all aspects of quality assurance.

-Implemented a quality yield calculation model for manufacturing. Improved yield from 75% in 1995 to over 90% by 1997. Saved the company over $200,000 in scrap and productivity losses.

-Created and installed an effective quality suggestion program that consistently improved the response and quality of suggestions. This process saved the company over $50,000 per year in costs and improved morale of the workers.

-Streamlined the customer service call and repair center which integrated the center within the manufacturing facility and reduced the infrastructure while cutting the cycle time of repair and call turnaround.

ADVANCE TRANSFORMER, DIVISION OF PHILIPS CORP, Rosemont, IL 1990 – 1995

Design and manufacture of lighting ballasts for the lighting industry. Annual sales of $500M

Vice President of Quality

Responsible for quality assurance of international manufacturing operations.

-Created and installed a reliability system that saved the company over $2M in annual replacement costs on a new product line. Launched 2 new product lines with industry best return rates using this model.

-Renewed the quality department in less than 2 years. Reduced the size of the department by 50% and improved productivity to which resulted in a more customer oriented department.

MOTOROLA, AUTOMOTIVE & INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS GROUP, Northbrook, IL 1987 – 1990

Design and manufacture of critical under the hood electronics for the automotive industry. Sales of $120M.

Senior Quality Manager

Responsible for design and manufacturing quality.

-Improved the quality system in the SCAP sensor area resulting in the issuance of Ford’s Q1 status after the process was moved. The Sensor was the heart of the Ford’s electronic engine control system and Q1 status was a Ford requirement. This process had high management visibility and was brought in ahead of schedule.

FORD MOTOR COMPANY, ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC DIVISION, Ypsilanti, MI 1979 – 1987

Design and manufacture of electrical and electronic components installed on Ford cars and trucks. $2B in sales.

Supplier Quality Engineer 1979 – 1983

Responsible for critical suppliers that manufactured components for the division. Responsible for reducing the warranty impact of those suppliers.

Warranty Supervisor 1983 – 1987

Responsible for supervising 5 supplier quality engineers and reporting continuous improvement to meet division’s goals for warranty impact.

-Part of the team that developed Team Oriented Problem Solving in 1987. Still being used.

-Part of a team that assessed over 100 suppliers for their ability to supply company with world-class components. This resulted in finding several suppliers that reduced the warranty impact to our division by more than 15% in 1987 and 1988.

EDUCATION

M.S. in Technical Management, National Technological University, Fort Collins Colorado – 2002

B.S. in Chemistry, University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh, Wisconsin - 1971

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