General Manager, Manufacturing Engineering Mgr., Operations, Material

Rick Ruppert

**** ****** **** **. ******, Ill. **080

815-***-**** (Cell) acy7gf@r.postjobfree.com

Vice President / General Manager / Director / Operations / Manufacturing Engineering

Operating and Management Executive successful at building high-performance companies, staff teams, and leading sophisticated manufacturing and service organizations with P&L responsibility. A strategic visionary, with a clear sense of purpose and urgency when faced with diverse situational challenges during rapid growth. Skilled at establishing operational excellence within culturally diverse environments, translating conceptual models into specific growth strategies, utilizing LEAN Enterprise techniques and tools to drive an environment of continuous improvement designed to improve market share, gross revenue and EBITDA. Key qualifications include:

Entrepreneur and Visionary

Reorganization & Turnaround Management

P&L Management and Responsibility

Operational Planning, Capital Investment

Strategic Business Planning, 1-5 yr.

Re-engineering Operations & Process Improvement

Budgeting (Operating/Capital) &Pricing Strategies

Negotiating/Bidding Government Contracts

Profitability Improvements, Increased GM

Extensive Lean Enterprise Implementation

Strong Operations Background

Marketing Strategies, Sales Force Organization

Infrastructure Development

Strong Leader, Excellent Communicator

Professional Experience

Schultes Precision Manufacturing, Buffalo Grove Ill. 2011 to 2016

General Manager

Responsible for $17M in annual sales selling to the industrial, medical and aerospace markets. Schultes is a privately held manufacturing and light assembly job shop. Reported Directly to the President/Owner. Created infrastructure to help grow revenues from $13M to $17M.

Developed and implement systems and infrastructure to support continued growth. Systems included electronic print and document control, introduction to an employee handbook, employee training modules, and program reviews of processes for aerospace products.

Responsibilities include hands on daily interface with all (136) employees and customers, adhering to schedules for 80 machines and changing customer requirements. All orders where make to print in a very dynamic fast past environment with lead times of 4 weeks from order to ship. Primary focus was on efficiency and through put of the shop.

Esterline Control Systems, BVR Technologies, Rockford Ill. 2004 to 2011

Vice President / General Manager 2005 to 2011

Responsible for $23M in P&L responsibility as part of the Esterline Controls Systems platform ($250M) of the total Esterline Corporation $1.5 billion in total annual revenue. BVR is a global defense, commercial avionics, and medical industry company. Lead the strategic planning process, formulate the company vision and strategic direction, initiate growth strategies, justified all major financial management and new product development initiatives, provide strategic guidance on operations, and approve capital projects.

Reported to Platform President (executive team) 7 direct staff level reports (director and manager level) with full P&L responsibility. Platform and sales initiatives required 40% travel.

Recruited and developed management staff to articulate growth and operational plans to achieve 3 and 5 year strategic plans. Increase total head count from 42 to 110 and increased sales per employee from $162k to $209k. Increased gross margins from 21% to an average of 45% over three product groups (medical, motion control, commercial and military avionics).

Increase revenues from $6.8M to $23M in 6 years achieving double digit growth year over year. Equalized ROI and ROS while decoupling SG&A during growth.

Increase order backlogs from $7.5M to $26.4M over 6 years expanding customer base and distributing order growth over 8 customers versus 2. Sustained 3-5% annual R&D programs year over year.

Strived for operational excellence utilizing LEAN Enterprise tools and techniques (TPS/DMAIC) by increasing velocity of targeted business segments using value streams. Strategies were developed by separating business model into 7 phases which determined the velocity of order to cash and improved systematically through strategies and plans.

Established sales representation locally at major customer locations. Created multi-year sales and product development programs to expand product offerings and increase customer base.

Developed and supported synergies between sister companies across all of Esterline (i.e. materials, sales, lean, and HR)

Barber Colman-Dyna Products Group, (Division of Invensys) Loves Park IL. 1999-2004

Manufacturing Manager

Reported to General Manager (staff position) 6 direct reports; 3 Cell Team Leaders, 3 Industrial Engineers and 36 hourly employees. Total revenues of $27M.

Improved gross margins from 8% to 28% over a two year period.

Transferred the Dyna Manufacturing floor to a new location within the plant using Lean techniques. Achieved combined cost reductions of $335k.

Created machine shop and printed circuit board assembly lines. Machine shop capabilities consisted of CNC equipment, hobbing, grinding, drilling, and de-burring. Achieved $625k in cost reductions in one year.

Consolidated FMS (Mundelein facility) electronics production into Dyna facility. Achieved $50k cost reduction.

Implemented lean tools; 5’s, SMED, Rabbit Chase, Kanbans, and certified operators.

Eliminated centralized warehouse, all materials are delivered to the point of use. Stock is warehoused in cells by assembly personnel.

Restructured direct reports into 3 teams coupled with quality personnel.

Eliminated traditional labor reporting system and time clock. All efficiencies are recorded on an hourly basis.

Consolidated customer returns and repairs into production system. All work is performed and information is fed directly back into the production system and resolved through root cause analysis.

Barber Colman-Dyna Products Group, (Division of Invensys) Loves Park IL. 1997-1999

Dyna Assembly Manager

Reported to the Vice President/General Manager (staff position), responsibilities included Dyna assembly, Industrial Engineering, and Materials group.

Managed 7 direct reports and 45 employees. Reduced head count by 17% inFY98/99. Processed 23 % more products with the same head count than previous year.

Directed 3 buyer/planners and material function related to production, inventory and on time delivery. Reduced head count from 5 to 3.

Developed and administered production and capital tooling budgets in excess of $1.2M.

Achieved cost reduction of $350k in FY 98/99 through continuous improvement programs.

Barber Colman-Aerospace & Power Controls Group, (Division of Invensys) Loves Park IL. 3/1996-2/1997

Materials Manager

Reported to VP of Materials with 4 direct reports responsible for $13M in annual purchases including mechanical, electrical, MRO and sub contract machining, plating, and heat treating services.

Created supply chain infrastructure. Consolidated 2 purchasing groups into one with a dotted line responsibility with the 3rd in Dayton Ohio.

Created Purchasing system administering inventory control, purchased commodities, vendor consolidations, certified suppliers and a vendor rating system.

Worked with Invensys Corporate Purchasing developing purchasing strategies and supplier handbook.

Negotiated blanket order commitments and implemented vendor consolidations resulting in cost reductions of $450k in 10 months.

Barber Colman-Aerospace & Power Controls Group, (Division of Invensys) Loves Park IL. 1989-1996

Industrial Engineering Manager

Reported to Manufacturing Manager, 17 direct reports; 7 Industrial Engineers, 3 CNC programmers, 1 Senior Buyer, 1 Buyer and 5 Production Control Personnel.

Participate on corporate LEAN Team visiting Invensys companies, training and participating in LEAN events across the United States and Mexico.

Participated in the government auditing process of cost justifications for government contracts.

Barber Colman Aerospace Div. (privately held) 1979-1989

Various Positions

Industrial Engineering supervisor, Industrial Engineer, CNC programmer, machine shop Lead Man and machinist.

Education

Rock Valley College, Rockford, IL.

Associates in Applied Science, Automated Technologies, honors, 1992

Northern Illinois University, Dekalb, IL.

Completed 90 hrs; BS Industrial Technology Degree

Interests

Travel, Music, Wood Working, Computers

References available upon request

Contact this candidate