FRANK J. CASAL

Rutherford, NJ 201-***-**** 201-***-**** ad2kbu@r.postjobfree.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/frank-casal-NJ

PLANT MANAGER

A team building, results-oriented executive with a BSME, an MBA, 6 Sigma Green Belt trained, Lean Manufacturing Principles, and over twenty years of Risk Management, business planning leadership experience in a design and manufacturing environment including safety, customer service, planning, operations and quality management, design, estimating and development of new products, engineering management, Lean Manufacturing principles, and accounting. A business-savvy Change Agent with a consistent track record of substantial improvements in all areas of a company that resulted in immediate significant increases to the bottom line, and experience in implementing, and working with ISO9000, QS9000 and SQF systems. Linguistic skills include English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

KEY SKILLS

Operations Management Leadership and Team Management and Development Continuous Improvement Safety Culture and Compliance Process Development and Optimization Inventory Management and Control Supply Chain Management Quality Assurance and Compliance Cost Reduction and Budget Management Lean Manufacturing Principles (5S, SMED, TPM, VSM, Kanban, Cellular Mfg.) Strategic Planning and Risk Management Relationship Building and Stakeholder Management Communication Strategy Development Succession Planning

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Novolex, LLC, Elizabeth, NJ September 2021 – June 2023

Manufacturer and Distribution of Food Service Paper Bags

Plant Manager

Oversaw Manufacturing Operations in a unionized $400+ MM paper converting plant. Managed 250+ employees SQF certified, food service grade paper bag manufacturer, including HR, Scheduling, Purchasing, Production, Maintenance, Engineering, Warehouse, Quality, EH&S and SQF Compliance.

Primary Change Agent for creating a culture of continuous improvement, accountability and employee engagement. Created a team based, continuous improvement focused plant, and instituted a vision focused on safety and operational improvements that resulted in immediate upgrades in the safety awareness, organization, appearance, employee morale and engagement, operational efficiencies and OSHA compliance.

Spearheaded all employee assessments, development, management and directing the activities at all levels of the plant. Trained all supervisors in Supervisory, Human Performance and Safe lead (Safety Awareness and Interaction) principles. This significantly improved interaction with direct employees which resulted in greater safety awareness, increased employee engagement and productivity.

Establishment of a Root Cause & Corrective Action (RCCA) process reduced raw material scrap rate by 26%.

Through process development and personal involvement, guidance and development of the Scheduling, Production and Warehouse teams, increased inventory accuracy from 92% to 99.75 % net and from 52% to 89% absolute while reducing raw material inventory by 37% and FG by 10%, and improving OTIF by 14%, to 96%.

Instituted an environment of being inspection ready all the time. Achieved a 95% rating in 2023 Safe Quality Foods (SQF) certification audit.

Through personal interaction and leadership of the process engineering, maintenance and production teams, increased OEE by 9% in under 1 year.

Englert Leaf Guard Inc, Perth Amboy, NJ February 2020 - March 2021

Manufacturer & Distributor of Metal Roofing & Gutter Products, $250 MM

Vice President, Operations

Spearheaded Strategy Development, Risk Management and Operations Management including Manufacturing, Engineering, Operational Excellence, Quality, Procurement, Planning, Inventory, Transportation and Logistics and Field Distribution Centers functions and activities.

Oversaw organization of ~200 people through 6 direct reports, including leaders over Stamping, Roll Forming, Paint Line, Safety, Procurement, Logistics/Transportation, Maintenance, Tool & Die, and Quality/Operational Excellence. The Operations department supported a YOY growth of 30+% and the launch of a new Roofing Installation Division, despite the constraints placed by COVID, while upgrading the department to WCM.

Restructured the operational departments to focus on safety, organization and efficiency. Worked with HR to hire a Safety Manager and began to transform the safety culture by bringing daily awareness to safety, revamping the training program from yearly to monthly, launching a safety committee comprised of management and floor associates, and implementing 6S, the use of PPE, machine guarding and other shop floor safety initiatives.

Developed Operational Vision. Mentored Operations Management to transform the organization.

Created a Quality Assurance Department to ensure product quality in operations. Developed bare metal specifications to ensure accountability of raw material suppliers, and customer quality claims. Began to develop specifications, work instructions and operator training to ensure quality standards are measurable and met.

Created a Supply Chain Dept. and restructured the Scheduling and Logistical depts. to drive efficiencies throughout production. Developed loading protocols and trucking lanes to minimize freight costs and improve efficiencies.

Upgraded the Plant Engineering Dept. and created a Manufacturing Engineering Dept., for a focus on maintenance efficiency and equipment upgrades. The effort, in infancy, has improved the downtime by 6% over the prior year.

Primary Change Agent for creating a culture of continuous improvement and employee engagement. Created a CI Focused department and instituted a Kaizen event cadence initially focused on operational improvements in 6S and Cell Manufacturing. This resulted in immediate upgrades in the safety awareness, organization, appearance, production efficiencies and shop floor employee morale and engagement.

Established operational metrics for each department and began to develop management staff to ensure accountability for achieving these goals. Process improvements and metrics resulted in operational efficiency improvements of 21%, and up to 36% on a departmental basis.

Achieved $1.8 MM yearly cost reduction on purchased items in 6 months by personally negotiating new contracts with existing and newly identified suppliers.

Managed Cost and Capital Budget Development, Process Improvement and Accounting to ensure adherence.

Created the vision for operational excellence, and key member of the executive team that drove improvements to deliver EBITDA results that paid ~ 2X of individual bonus target.

Key Member of the Leadership and Core Team for the implementation and launch of a new ERP system, INFOR.

Associated Materials, LLC. July 2015 – February 2020

A leader in Building Materials for Residential & Commercial markets, $1.5 B

Plant Manager

Headed Manufacturing Operations in a unionized $135+ MM metal painting and forming plant, including HR, Scheduling, Purchasing, Production, Maintenance, Engineering, Warehouse, Quality, EH&S Accounting.

Through Effective Plant Leadership, increased CM by 57.5% and GP by 130%, and added an additional $2.2MM to the bottom line in 2016. In 2017 delivered a GP of 133% over plan. 2019’s GP was $8.5MM over plan.

Participation with Sales, Product Management and Supply Chain increased customer satisfaction and cost savings, reversed the steady volume decline of 55% over 9 years, to a 2019 volume increase of 45% over 2015 and 15% over plan. Guidance of our internal customers to in source 100% of their demand, resulted in an additional $1 MM to the bottom line in 2017.

Overhaul of the plant’s safety program to include 5S program, employee engagement and accountability, and stressing supervisor-employee interaction, employee training and development and Team building.

Through positive leadership and a hold-accountable style, effectively motivated and engaged the work force to continuously improve, resulting in a 6% productivity gain, a 10% VOH reduction and 1.7% freight reduction YOY.

Through the use of Lean concepts, scrap decreased by 16% while maintaining 99.98 % defect free shipments.

Achieved ISO 9000:2015 certification in 1 year. Recertification audits went without findings.

Increased inventory accuracy from 94.3% in 2015 to 98.4% in 2016 and 99.78% in 2017. 2019’s physical resulted in a 99.97% accuracy garnering exemption from physical inventory requirement in 2020.

Using Lean Manufacturing (Kanban, TPM, Min/Max, SMED) reduced effective product lead time from 8.95 days in 2015 to 7.23 days in 2017 while reducing freight costs by 3.4% ($113K). Further efficiency improvements yielded a freight reduction to budget in excess of $1 MM in 2019 while maintaining WC lead times.

Kimber Mfg., Inc. January 2013 – July 2015

Consumer Products, $150 MM

Plant Manager

Oversaw Plant Operations and support activities, including Operations of Costa Rica facility.

Through Effective Plant Leadership and use of Lean concepts, increased MIM throughput by 14% and capacity by 37% while coming in under budget. This increase in performance ensured the company’s 25% year-over-year growth.

Launched the first Safety committee and achieved the first recordable free year in the company’s history.

Through Hands-on-management production levels increased by 11% over 2012 and reduced work hours by 20%.

Increased shipments of a particular product line by 61% reversing a 4-year, 20% year-over-year drop in levels.

Introduced Lean Manufacturing Process by championing the first Kaizen event held at the company.

By implementing Kanban, TPM techniques and Min/Max inventory guidelines, increased production levels at the Costa Rica facility by 300% within 3 months while only increasing direct labor costs by 10%

Successfully developed operational and logistical procedures that ensured a successful and aggressive ramp-up of an extremely important product line.

ADDITIONAL RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

Owens Corning Inc LLC. (Building Materials, $6 B)

Operations Leader

National Manufacturing Co. Inc., (Deep Drawn Enclosures, $19 MM)

Director of Manufacturing and Engineering

EDUCATION

Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) with a Major in Finance & a Minor in Marketing/International Business

University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA

Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (B.S.M.E.)

New Jersey Institute of Technology Newark, NJ

COURSEWORK

Problem Solving & Decision Making.

Effective Leadership & Communication.

Personnel Supervision.

6-Sigma Green Belt Certification.

Lean Mfg. (5S, SMED, TPM, VSM, Kanban, Cellular Mfg.)

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