William Mueller

PLANT MANAGER/DIRECTOR OF OPS/VP OF OPS

956-***-**** ad2oe6@r.postjobfree.com https://linkedin.com/in/billmueller68 https://williammueller.workfolio.com

Brownsville, Texas

Highly effective Plant Manager with more than 20 years’ manufacturing experience in medical devices, consumer products, automotive, aerospace, and electronics. Extensive plant start-up and turnaround expertise applying LEAN, Six Sigma, TPM, and TPS methodology. Highly skilled in optimizing manufacturing operations, both the processes and the development of key staff members. Bi-lingual in English and Spanish.

Expertise includes injection molding, extrusion, electronics assembly, precision CNC machining, composites, general assembly, laser welding, and metal stamping.

Turned around operations in sales and profits. Produced profits within six months after years of negative earnings. Increased revenues by 50% in one year and achieved positive earnings of 10.6% during the second year.

Drove 45% increase in EBITDA within two years by driving excellent processes and development of management staff.

Graduate studies in MBA program - University of California Dominguez Hills

BE - Bachelor of Science in Engineering -US Coast Guard Academy.

Career History

Manufacturing Operations Improvement Consultant

Tenneco Inc. (Elite Staffing), and Aptiv

October 2019 – Present

Both companies are manufacturers of automotive parts and assemblies for multiple vehicle markets as OEM, T1, T2, and aftermarket manufacturers.

Hired to lead the drive to improved performance. Achievements include:

Increased output from 60% to 100% production to meet customer’s orders.

Reduced plastic regrind by 55% in an injection molding plant.

Reduced customer complaints by 85%.

Developed training program resulting in 32% labor efficiency improvement.

Vice President of Operations

Cumsa Corporation, subsidiary of Avis Industrial Corporation

June 2018 - August 2019

Cumsa manufactures automotive key and locksets, ignition switches, electrical wiring harnesses, and solenoids in Matamoros, MX, and distributes out of Brownsville, TX.

Recruited to turn around years of under-performance, with continual losses in revenue and margins. Held full P&L responsibility, and provided overall strategic leadership, directing short- and long-range goals, strategies, plans, and policies.

Developed and implemented a Five-Year Plan with comprehensive KPIs and performance goals designed to achieve 500% revenue growth with 15% profit margin target. Over previous six years revenue had dropped from $50M to $8 M.

* Restructured leadership team and recruited new managers in Sales, Operations, Materials & Purchasing, and Quality departments.

* Collaborated with the CFO to implement enhanced internal financial controls with improved tracking for accounting & budget, key metrics by division, and more

detailed cost control and reporting by function.

Implemented a proven automotive project management process, APQP, launching a major contract for solenoid components for 30 General Motors platforms on time and with zero quality problems.

Achieved the new automotive certification IATF 16949 and QS 9001 on first certification audit.

Successfully turned around operations and sales, producing monthly profits within six months, increased revenues by 50%, and achieved positive earnings of 10.6% in less than one year.

Board of Directors voted to close the business due to three major, external issues not controllable by company management.

Director of Mexican Operations

ArcelorMittal Tailored Blanks

March 2016 - June 2018

Headquartered in Toronto, Canada with extensive manufacturing operations in Mexico, AMTB is a fabricator of state-of-the-art laser-welded blanks from high strength steel as components to automotive chassis and bodies.

Recruited to expand manufacturing from two plants in Mexico to four and to improve overall operations and productivity. Full P&L responsibility. OEM and Tier 1 supplier.

Restructured management team, replacing four of the nine managers in Mexico to optimize staff capabilities, support expansion, and increase margins.

Drove 45% increase in EBITDA for Mexican operations through capital improvements to process equipment, additional revenues from new business, and new leadership in the management staff.

Implemented a focused safety policy and processes, reducing lost-time accidents from six in first year to zero accidents the following year.

Established improved infrastructure to support growth and expansion by planning and acquiring more than $25M in capital equipment.

Capital funding source closed during first year. Plan for expansion of two plants was terminated with additional plans to consolidate into one plant.

Dura Automotive Systems

April 2009 - March 2016

DURA Automotive Systems is a global Tier One automotive supplier, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan with global sales of $1.5B.

Dura General Manager, January 2013 - March 2016. Promoted to GM to turnaround under-performing plant in Monterrey, Mexico. Held full P&L and Balance Sheet responsibilities for operations producing metal stampings and laser-welded parts for seating and suspension components for the automotive market. Managed total of 215 employees. Automotive Tier 1 and Tier 2 supplier.

Managed union labor relations and ensured product quality, met TS 16949 and ISO 9001 standards.

Improved retention by improving worker's safety programs, enhancing wages, benefits and incentives, and overall working conditions.

Increased profitability from negative (2.5%) to positive 7.8% in three years while sales declined by 23% during a general economic turndown.

Reduced customer complaints by 45% by second year by implementing a root cause analysis process with permanent corrective actions.

Reduced annual excess freight costs from $850k to $45k in one year.

Dura Plant Manager, April 2009 - January 2013. Managed new automotive cable systems plant in Matamoros, Mexico with 750 employees built to absorb the work from three other Dura plants in the USA as part of a bankruptcy recovery plan. Automotive OEM supplier.

Improved EBITDA from 17.5% to 22.5%, improved product quality from 95 to 10 PPMs in three years and increased on-time delivery from 93% to 99.5%.

Implemented Value Stream layout and management structure to run three value streams producing significant improvements to profitability and product quality.

Achieved Ford Q1 Award and General Motors Award for top 2% of suppliers.

Plant Manager – BeachMold and Tool Company, March 2008 – April 2009

Hired as Plant Manager with goal to turnaround negative profits, optimize the inventory management system, and correct issues causing late deliveries. Automotive Tier 1 and Tier 2 supplier. Corporate office closed plants due to the world-wide economic slowdown.

Senior Operations Manager - Alps Automotive, March 2007 - February 2008. Directed all injection-molding and decorating of automotive interior parts for the Alps Molding and Paint Division operation. Alps reduced headcount by 75% in two months due to the world-wide economic slowdown. Automotive OEM and Tier 1 supplier.

Plant Manager - Core Molding Technologies, March 2002 - March 2007. Hired to manage a 300,000 sq ft plant with 800 employees. Plant was bankrupt in Matamoros, Mexico and subsequently purchased by Core Molding, their first acquisition outside of the US. Within 7 months company achieved profitability. Automotive OEM supplier.

Earlier Career:

-Director of Engineering and Quality in major assembly plant - MATTEL, Inc.

-Senior Manager of Tooling, Manufacturing Engineering, and precision CNC Machining Operations - Northrup-Grumman, Inc.

Key Skill Areas

Team Building/ Leadership / Team Development / Innovation Management / Customer Service / Decision-Making / Cross-Functional Team Leadership / Change Management

Analytic Problem Solving / Process Improvement / Program Management/ Project management/ Automotive / Injection Molding / Engineering / Budgeting / Strategic Business Planning / ISO 9001 and IATF 16949 / PFMEA / Value Stream Mapping / Organizational Transformation / Business Turnarounds / Greenfield Projects / Lean Manufacturing / Lean Six Sigma / 5S / Kaizen / Business Development / APQP / Toyota Production System / ERP / Operations Management / Manufacturing Operations / Supply Chain Management / Root Cause Analysis / Product Development / Manufacturing Operations Management / Process Engineering / Process Control / Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) / Team Focus / Resolution Skills / Customer Service/QMS/ 8D / Materials / Supplier Quality / Microsoft Excel / Strategy / Sales Management / Business Process Management / Union Labor / ISO Standards / Total Productive Maintenance TPM / Forecasting / Business Process Improvement / Communications / Time Study / Teamwork / Plant Operations / Team Management / Critical Thinking / Organizational Leadership / Kaizen / Lean Management / Plant Management / MRP / Supervisor Experience / ERP Systems / Financial Acumen / Quality Systems /EH&S / Safety / CNC Machining

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