Project Manager Product Development

NISHANT TIKEKAR

**** ******* **., ***** ****, OH 43123, (M): 614-***-****, Email: ***************@*******.***

Professional Summary

Professional with more than 12 years’ progressive experience in formulating and managing complex, transformational multi-million dollar projects that maximize ROIs in demanding business and engineering conditions and improve business performance (productivity, quality, capacity & cost-effectiveness) in high-paced manufacturing and IT environments. Passionate about formulating and executing systemic improvement ideas and projects.

Excel in liaising between cross-functional teams including sales, manufacturing, business administration and R&D to achieve on-time and on-budget project completions and enhance customer satisfaction.

Certifications and technical skills

Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification.

MS Office Suite, MS Visio, MS Project, MS SharePoint, Salesforce.com (SFDC), SAP, Minitab, Agile and Waterfall methodologies, BASIC, C, SQL, Python, Hadoop, Service Now

Key skills: Strategic planning, Program and Project Management, Business & Product Development, IT implementation, Process Engineering, Business Analysis, Content management, Cross-functional team leadership, advanced statistical analysis, Predictive analysis, Clinical research and regulatory domain.

Latest Work Experience

Cardinal Health/Manpower Group, Columbus, Ohio, USA

Consultant/Project Manager Sep 16 – Present

Delivered a global supply chain project to change from a forecast-based to reorder point-approach of product replenishment in global inventories. Achieved reduction of >30 DIOH & $60M in annual cost benefits to the bottom-line. Cascading benefits in manufacturing were >$100 M.

Initiated a project to build a real-time cloud-based service in Amazon Web Services enabling end customers to place direct orders. Reduced turn-around time from 5 days to less than 48 hours.

Motivated and managed a team of twenty highly-qualified, skilled and competitive professionals during the project. Managed status reports, relationships with stakeholders, risk mitigation techniques and issues, and distributed information through MS SharePoint.

Axalta Coating Systems (formerly DuPont Inc.), Columbus, Ohio, USA

Manufacturing Technology Leader/Program Manager Apr 14 – Aug 16

Formulated multiple projects, conducted financial analysis and justification and obtained approvals from C-level to implement the projects.

Implemented process modifications that enabled higher productivity and doubled the capacity. Resulted in ability to make new products with over $7 million in annual cost savings and profits.

Managed product portfolios and tailored products per customer desire to increase profits by over $1 million.

Designed and implemented novel equipment modifications and automations using Six Sigma principles that enabled capability to make new & existing products at lower cost. Increased variable margin by >20%.

Achieved improvements in productivity, cycle time, quality and cost of production by large data analysis, adopting best/lean manufacturing practices, planning and strategizing appropriate production activities. Reduced incidence of quality issues by over 20% and annual losses due to poor quality by over $1 million.

Managed status reports, relationships with stakeholders, risk mitigation techniques and issues, and developed project plans.

Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA

Project Manager/Product Developer Nov 09 – Mar 14

Managed the project to improve performance of orthopedic implants by analyzing orthopedic explants for damage and wear, collecting data to model wear patterns, and provide solutions for improvement in product quality to minimize/eliminate need for revision surgery and affiliated expenditure. Executed the program for product improvement by more than 50%.

Based on inputs from customers, provided critical data insights from large data collection and statistical evaluation and executed activities for product improvement by reverse engineering.

Designed battery components of Li-ion batteries for potential commercial applications by planning and executing experiments based on Six Sigma and DOE principles. Participated in application design sessions and strategic discussions with MetaMateria Technologies, LLC to discuss open items and research findings, determined evaluation techniques and research direction.

Amedica Corporation, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Project Manager/Product Developer Jun 07 – Nov 09

Collaborate with Manufacturing, Quality and Marketing teams to identify and manage product development by investigating material compositions and mechanical design to produce cervical and thoracic spinal implants in FDA environment.

Worked as a project team member to determine process parameters and cycles, drove improvements to minimize waste and increase efficiency of production using DOE techniques and MS Excel.

Drove process development to yield parts with >40% increase in strength, and in the root-cause analysis to determine failure modes on finished products.

Educational Qualifications and Select Accolades

University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA: M.S. & Ph.D., Materials Sci. & Metallurgical Eng., 2000 – 2007. Ph.D. dissertation has been published as a book.

Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT/NIT Nagpur), Nagpur, MH, India: B.E., Metallurgical Engineering, 1995 – 1999 (Top-ranked institute of national importance in India).

President of Student Advisory Committee for Metallurgical Engineering, University of Utah, 2005. Won ‘Second Prize’ on Engineering Day and ‘Outstanding Presentation’ award at the University of Utah. Won multiple awards in various inter-collegiate and university competitions in India.

Reviewer of peer-reviewed publications for acclaimed international journals. Have published >20 manuscripts in internationally acclaimed journals/magazines and have been invited for multiple oral and poster presentations in international conferences.

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