Process developer and innovator.
Resume:
Michael Laurin
Pittsfield, MA *****
ad5wpz@r.postjobfree.com
Prolific innovator and manager with executive level experience. Final recipient of the prestigious DAN FOX award for product innovation for my work on glass laminates, Freezer Film, and Film Insert Molding. A great fit in many organizations at several levels. Willing to relocate to: Pittsfield, MA - Dalton, MA - Lanesborough, MA Authorized to work in the US for any employer
Work Experience
Sales Associate
Advanced Auto Parts - Pittsfield, MA
September 2023 to Present
Assist customers with locating parts they need for their vehicles. Install batteries and windshield wiper blades. Assist with the development of planograms to display product as desired. Assist with pricing changes for product on the floor.
Commercial Diver
Aquatic Roots - Pittsfield, MA
June 2023 to September 2023
Joined a team of commercial divers to assist with the weed removal at beaches throughout the Berkshire County area and beyond. Excellent summer job.
Thermoforming Operator
Chegra - Phoenix, AZ
June 2022 to September 2022
Worked at my former Technician Gary's thermoforming shop doing any and all projects that came in. We did a substantial amount of bathroom surrounds and ramps for pinball machines. I also assisted Gary with a set of fixtures that allowed us to line bend a part to an exact angle. It was fun working for my buddy Gary and I would do it again if the opportunity presented itself. Consultant
Panasonic Corporation of North America - Georgia Southern, GA January 2021 to July 2022
Consultant for Film Insert Molding focused on operational excellence of the vendor Sunningdale working for Panasonic. Assisted with daily meetings to discuss areas needing further improvement. Identified key areas to focus on like masking removal away from the mold and deionization of the film insert prior to loading in the tool to cut down on dust and other debris on the components. Traveled to the Singapore facility where I worked with the team to implement the daily meeting. Traveled to the Malaysia facility on a separate trip and helped to determine that the Malaysia facility was better adapted to long term production compared to the Singapore facility. This was primarily due to the entire production area being in a controlled clean room environment. There were still some issues I helped to identify such as areas that were not clean and that could contribute to poor quality molded parts. Trough my efforts at both the Singapore and Malaysia facilities, I helped the team raise the yield from a low of 5% to approximately 98% through continuous performance optimization and a focus on operational excellence. Energy Infrastructure Program Manager
Celanese - Pittsfield, MA
March 2020 to October 2021
Worked for Surabhi Varshney on her team of program managers. I was specifically tasked with evaluating the energy infrastructure space and how the Celanese products fit into this space. We already had some significant penetration in oil and gas for the fuel lines. I focused on solar, wind, and the storage units for both systems. I was able to use my contacts at Tesla to get some great insight into how Tesla builds their energy storage units. We got to the point of sampling materials for the majority of the applications within the energy storage units. This ranged from bus bars to inverters. In total there were over 500 applications we sampled into. In addition to working on energy infrastructure, I worked on a project with Sonoco to create an industrially compostable and paper recyclable replacement for single use plastic containers. I was able to produce prototypes where I pressure formed our acetate film with an adhesive system on it into pressed bowls made from sugar cane pulp. The result was a bowl with a fabulous vapor barrier on its surface. The best part about it was that it could be industrially composted or paper recycled. Unfortunately my new manager was not aware of the massive success of this product and I was laid off in the fall of 2021.
Americas Commercial Technology Manager
Corning - Corning, NY
February 2019 to January 2020
Americas Technology Manager focused on the proliferation of cold form technology and development of the translation package for this proliferation. This was essentially an extension of the work I had done with Corning when I was at SABIC working on the London Underground curved glass. By using a vacuum buck we could curve the glass as needed and then complete the lamination with the display technology desired by the OEM. I and my team were able to sign up Volvo and BMW for technology transfers. Unfortunately the team ran into issues being able to consistently pass the head form impact test needed for displays in the interior of a vehicle cabin. These issues culminated in me being laid off in January of 2020. Golf Caddy
Pittsfield Country Club - Pittsfield, MA
June 2016 to September 2018
Golf caddy helping members with carrying their equipment, finding balls, and suggesting clubs according to their ability.
Staff Engineer and Manager
Tesla - Hawthorne, CA
September 2016 to January 2018
Staff Engineer at Tesla focused on several diverse projects including Solar Roof, high efficiency Wheel covers, in mold decoration, and Film Insert Molding with long fiber injection. For solar roof, I played a key role in developing ways to produce the show and tell shingles that would be mounted on the roofs for the demonstration. I developed the lamination method to produce several hundred tiles that demonstrated the London Tile look. We used a similar process to make the formed rounded terracotta tiles. In total I worked with a small team to produce all of the hundreds of tiles demonstrated in the fall of 2016. For the high efficiency wheel cover project, I worked with one of the product design engineers to develop a skin of film that could be used in exchange for a less efficient wheel hubcap design. The goal was to make a hubcap that would provide extended range for the vehicle. We were able to develop a design using a sail material laminate that provided an increase of 5% to the range of the vehicle. There were several in mold decorated (IMD) components that I was involved with while at Tesla. One in particular was the door handle application. Here I brought the project to some friends I had worked with while at GE Plastics and SABIC. They were able to quickly turn some prototypes around and demonstrate the concept to the design team with me. My last major program at Tesla was to look at using long fiber injection onto film to make structural panels and eliminate the need for paint lines. To this day, I believe this technology has major merit and I would love to work with a company to bring it to reality. It essentially combines FIM with long fiber injection which provides a much more structural component compared to standard injection molding. The film skin gives you the car color and the long fiber injection gives you the structural component. Throughout my experience at Tesla, I was involved substantially in sourcing activities and would travel a significant amount to Mexico to visit Saint Gobain a major glass supplier for Tesla. Technical Development Engineering Manager
SABIC - Saudi Basic Industries Corp. - Pittsfield, MA January 2008 to September 2016
Built up a team of engineers and technicians to evaluate new film and sheet NPIs with a specific focus on developing thin glass and polycarbonate structures. One of our first applications was for the windows on the doors of the London Underground. These components required us to pass a test where our panel was placed in close proximity to a panel of heaters that was close to the temperature of the surface of the sun. By using our clear flame smoke toxicity (FST) sheet we were able to pass the test. The reason was simple, The FST sheet would char along the edge of the laminate and hold all the molten plastic within the sandwich construction. The London Underground team and their vendor Bombardier were extremely excited about the technology because it would allow them to open and close the doors much faster than they could with conventional windows. Our windows provided a 30% weight savings and a similar time savings to open and close the doors. Unfortunately, despite having an end customer aligned with their fabricator the product was never produced because the SABIC leadership did an about face at a meeting with Corning, our partner. The SABIC leadership wanted to have Corning manage the lamination of the products despite having developed the entire process in house by me and my team and having a qualified vendor waiting in the wings to start producing the laminates. This meeting at Corning essentially ended the relationship with Corning and all of the other concept like glass insert molding were shelved. As I drove home that day I called my friend Mike Pilliod who had become a manager at TESLA and who had called me the week before.
Product Manager
GE Plastics Specialty Film and Sheet - Pittsfield, MA January 2004 to December 2008
Developed new products related to IMD/FIM. These included products such at True to Form which was a low stress polycarbonate film, T2FOQ which was an optical quality version of the T2F product, multiple attempts at a formable hard coat product using T2FOQ as the base film and several films that provided a higher pencil hardness value which was an OEM test that held us back on several applications in the field. Many of our applications for this process were in the automotive realm or were heavily influenced by automotive. Products like T2F were specifically designed for the automotive bezels with tight graphic tolerances. In total my team and I developed over 15 NPIs and generated well over 15 million in new sales. EX-Pat Field Development Engineer
GE Plastics - China, ME
January 2003 to December 2003
Worked with the Pacific field team to develop more than 80 vendors in the Pacific who were capable of the In Mold Decoration (IMD) or Film Insert Molding (FIM) process. I traveled extensively despite the SARS epidemic that occurred that same year. In April I needed to return to the US with my family but after spending one month home I was able to return to conduct additional business for the remainder of my assignment. Despite SARS and the need to change plans often to accommodate customers and OEMs the assignment was a major success and set our team up well for lots of IMD/FIM business. Field Engineer for GE Structured Products
GE Plastics - Pittsfield, MA
June 1999 to December 2003
Assisted customers and field team with applications related to the specialty film and sheet products. Lead a team of engineers to conduct trials including New Product Introduction (NPI) trials. At this time I had a major focus on building the infrastructure needed to be successful with in mold decoration or Film insert molding(FIM). I would visit vendors and work with OEMs to evaluate their capability to do the process. In many cases it was a matter of general housekeeping that held them back from success. My team and I were able to build a team of vendors who could print, form, trim and in many cases injection mold to produce a FIM part.We had over 50 vendors located throughout the globe that we could confidently take an OEM to for production quality parts. In the fall of 2002 I was asked to travel to China on 4 separate occasions within the span of 2 months. I actually became a top spender for Travel and Living expenses T&L. As a result, I proposed that GE move me to the Pacific and in January of 2003 I moved to Shanghai to be an expat in China.
GE Plastics Corporate Leadership Program Participant GE Plastics - Pittsfield, MA
June 1992 to June 1996
Performed in various roles from doing FEM analysis on components to developing a snap design guides for the field application development team. I also developed the second surface in mold decoration technology for the structured products team. This technology is still used today in automotive interior clusters and switches. Developing this technology made me a tooling expert, trimming expert, and forming expert in several forming technologies.
Engineering Co-op
General Electric Plastics - Pittsfield, MA
June 1990 to September 1991
Developed test protocols for various products and applications. Conducted application testing and failure analysis on applications and components. Of note,
• a squeeze test to evaluate chemical attack of oil on a refrigerator door and
• a method to simulate CPR on a stretcher
• a methodology to determine if a part had edge cracking. Education
Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering
University of Massachusetts-Amherst - Amherst, MA
September 1988 to May 1994
Skills
• OEM (10+ years)
• Plastics Injection Molding (10+ years)
• Mechanical Engineering (10+ years)
• Pricing (5 years)
• Lean Manufacturing (5 years)
• Quality Assurance (5 years)
• Product Development (10+ years)
• Product Management (10+ years)
• Research & Development (10+ years)
• Planograms (2 years)
• Process Development (10+ years)
• Sourcing (10+ years)
• Program Management (10+ years)
• Six Sigma (10+ years)
• Manufacturing (3 years)
• Project Leadership (10+ years)
• Technology management (10+ years)
• Sales (10+ years)
• Automotive service (10+ years)
• Service writing (10+ years)
• Automotive diagnostics (1 year)
• Automotive repair (10+ years)
• Team Management (10+ years)
• Plumbing (10+ years)
• Electrical experience (10+ years)
• Mechanical knowledge (10+ years)
• Programmable logic controllers (2 years)
• Schematics (10+ years)
• Industrial maintenance (8 years)
• Fabrication (10+ years)
• Lifeguard (5 years)
• AutoCAD (8 years)
• Blueprint Reading (10+ years)
Awards
Dan Fox Innovation Award
January 2015
The Dan Fox award for production innovation was awarded annually to a technologist at GE Plastics. I was the last recipient of the award prior to the transition of GE Plastics to SABIC. I received the award for my work, inventions, and sales generated in In Mold Decoration(IMD)/Film Insert Molding(FIM), my invention and sales generated of the freezer door film, and my inventions and work with thin glass laminates with Polycarbonate where we developed a 30% lighter weight solution to pass the London Underground test for the curved windows on the doors. Certifications and Licenses
fork truck operation
Six Sigma Green Belt
Driver's License
Forklift Certification
lifeguard certified
January 1985 to January 1990
Certified lifeguard and lifeguard instructor while in high school and part of college. Also first responder certified, and certified in both first aide and CPR.
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