Plant Manager

Kevin W. Herfurth

** ******** **., ***********, ** 39402 ********@*****.***

Summary

Accomplished manager with a diverse background in developing and executing plans that improve plant performance. Possesses strong strategic aptitude and vision with a clear sense of purpose and urgency. Conducts work activities with high levels of integrity and commitment. Experienced in RMP/PSM covered facilities. Seeks to leverage manufacturing background in operations, maintenance and reliability leadership with an organization that strives to be an industry leader.

Professional Strengths and Qualities

Performance and Productivity Improvement Change Management

Driver of Standardization Shutdown and Project Management

Long-Range and Strategic Planning Problem-Solving and Decision-Making

Tactical Planning and Execution Organizational Design and Optimization

Oral and Written Communications Leadership and Team Building

Budget & Cost Control Employee Coaching & Mentoring

Selecting and Developing Talent Employee Performance Improvement

Professional History

Georgia Pacific February 2017 to June 2020

VP & General Manager GP Monticello Containerboard Mill November 2017 to June 2020

Responsible for all Monticello operations and site P&L. Accountable to deliver plant operational results that support business objectives and priorities. 430 Employees, 1,050,000tpy, $275MM operation plan.

Delivered 2018 performance that was the lowest cost mill in the division, 1st quartile relative cost per ton with respect to RISI benchmarks, and most profitable mill in the GP packaging and cellulose 10-mill division.

Performance in 2019 was met with market headwinds that brought GP business requests for supply/demand slow back of 165kT and cost abatement during slow backs. Given these challenges, my team delivered several low cost per ton monthly performances and remained profitable in every month during 2019 closing the year as the most profitable mill in the division.

Performance in 2020 continued with market headwinds and lower market prices. Company transformation efforts challenged the division and mill to develop detailed plans to lower indirect, direct, and labor costs to improve performance by $184MM across all containerboard mills by YE 2021. Mill’s plan was the largest at $50MM above 2019 baseline. Plans were developed and organized into a system complete with initiative owners, business impacts, timeline of value impact, performance metrics, cadence of accountability, and incentives to connect employees. Achieved 28% of expected 2020 plan through April.

oMaintained operations with no impacts as a result of COVID19 pandemic. Established emergency response team to manage cases, contact tracing, disinfectant responses daily/weekly employee communications, and social distancing guidance with team. Established visitor and contractor entry protocols to ensure employee and visitor/contractor safety. Executed annual outage work and quarterly machine outages with large teams without incident.

oMill profitable YTD.

Drove focus and investment on environmental systems that had been past due for service and placed the mill at risk. Recovery boiler BLOX systems rebuild. Effluent discharge line replacement. No NOVs or Title V violations. Zero significant environmental events.

First GP mill to deploy new company safe work permit process to simplify and lessen employee administrative concerns. Focused on SIF prevention and failing safe “when” a mistake is made.

Operations Manager Leaf River Cellulose February 2017 to October 2017

Responsible for production of 1700tpd specialty and market pulp dryer operation at Leaf River Cellulose, New Augusta, Miss. Responsibilities also included operations in the woodyard, pulp mill, bleaching, recaustisizing, and utilities areas.

Pulled together an incentive plan for good day metrics to drive consistent plant performance. Plan centered on safety, environmental, quality, and volume performance - 5 days in a row with each indicator met funded the incentive pay percentage added to the “bank”. Effectively connected employees to key indicators.

Led a cross-functional team to review and strengthen the energy control policy and redeploy the new standard across the mill. Facilitated hourly and salary positions with key stake in the policy improvement.

INVISTA S.à.r.l. April 2008 to January 2017

Site Manager October 2015 to January 2017

Responsible for all Chattanooga plant operations and site P&L. Accountable to deliver plant operational results that support business objectives and priorities. Includes plant objectives associated with EHS, Product Quality, Selection and Development, Manufacturing Reliability and Efficiency, and Project Execution while ensuring alignment with Koch Industries MBM® Guiding Principles and the MBM® Framework.

Responsible for transition of the site from full operations to reduced operation associated with INVISTA’s consolidation of N. American polymer assets. Required communication to all site employees, employee retention, resetting and monitoring objectives for EHS, Quality, Yield, and Availability. Delivered performance as expected for revised measures.

Developed strategic and tactical plans for 2016 with leadership team. Developed metrics, performance pay outlook, and tactical plans.

OSHA site incident rate – 0.58, 2 reportable environmental incidents

Zero-base reviewed all site positions to identify and right size the organization for improved P&L.

Cost improvement plans on a run rate $750M/month lower than when taking over the site ~$9MM annualized improvement. June ’16 realized lowest polymer unit cost since being named site manger

Focused organization on controllable activates (EHS, Product Quality, Cost performance) during time of plant uncertainty associated with potential rationalization.

$3MM swing in NIAT associated with cost control and volume improvements to close out 2015.

Operations Manager Nov. 2012 to October 2015

Responsible for Chattanooga operations associated with 95kT nylon 6, 6 polymer manufacturing plant and 3.5kT CORDURA® spinning asset operations. Includes accountability for delivering plant utilities to all INVISTA assets and tenant companies – DuPont and KordSa. Accountable to deliver plant operational results that support business objectives and priorities. This role leads direct reports to meet plant objectives associated with EHS, Product Quality, Selection and Development, Manufacturing Reliability and Efficiency, and Project Execution while ensuring alignment with the MBM® Guiding Principles and the MBM® Framework.

Implemented governance drills associated with key plant risks to improve plant emergency response.

Accountable for setting expectations, aligning area resources in delivering record polymer area volumes in 2013, 2014, and 2015.

Implemented scaled turnaround processes for annual unit turnarounds in continuous polymer (CP) unit and nylon spinning asset. Resulted in 5 day improvement in the CP unit over historical events and 3 day improvement in the spinning unit.

Drove expectation change with batch polymer unit overhauls from 10 days to 5 days.

Transitioned culture towards “shift runs the shift” from day based model. Moved from 6 to 3 day based roles and adjusted RREs - $275M annualized savings

Restructured utilities organization to eliminate waste in utilities area – $365M annualized savings

Targeted footprint reductions in utilities area to improve cost positions - $150M annualized savings

Maintenance Manager July 2008 to November 2012

Responsible for leading routine and shutdown maintenance activities at the Orange site required to support production of nylon intermediates. Responsibilities also included stores warehouse operations and contract management. Responsible for leading a team of 21 exempt and 102 non-exempt employees. Also responsible for resident contractor workforce of 125.

Assessed maintenance opportunities and determined targets for improvements. Led to resident contractor headcount reductions (230 to 125) and a flattened organizational structure that eliminated silos within the maintenance department. Set challenging expectations for supervisors with accountability. Ultimately led to 5 new supervisors that are well aligned with plant objectives.

Implemented maintenance metrics to track performance and drive improvements

Initiated work process improvements to enhance the maintenance to operations interface. Elevated and placed a high value employee in position to champion improvements.

Centralized planning and scheduling team with dedicated leadership to improve standardization and consistency across the site.

Created Contract Maintenance team to provide oversight with resident and special needs contractors to generate improved performance and lower expenses.

Optimized resident contractor for improved service and support for day-to-day operations. Resulted in $3MM of annualized savings.

Established and staffed dedicated professional TA core team to focus on routine shutdown and large TA event preparation and execution.

Addressed maintenance department craft attrition (pending retirements) through pre-hire and training processes.

Worked with training team to establish relationship with local community college to create a training lab to develop a feeder pool for new technicians.

Led maintenance department resources that supported plant recovery from Hurricane Ike disaster.

Rotating Equipment Reliability Engineer April 2008 – June 2008

Responsible for reviewing existing rotating PM strategies at the Orange site to improve asset reliability.

Developed guiding document for site rotating equipment strategy that complied with OSHA 29CFR1910.119 (j) for process safety management of highly hazardous processes.

Temple Inland Inc. June 1989 to March 2008

Area Maintenance Superintendent November 2002 – March 2008

Responsible for supporting plant objectives and equipment reliability for both Orange Linerboard Mill paper machines and associated process equipment from the high-density storage tanks through the shipping docks. Responsibilities included maintenance support of a 200 tpd recycle fiber plant. Managed roll maintenance and readiness activities. Managed annual maintenance budget of $8MM. Responsible for routine shutdown and annual shutdown maintenance activities. Responsible for budgeting and implementation of maintenance capital. Coordinated backlog management, planning and scheduling, work execution, and preventative maintenance activities in responsible areas. Coordinated root cause analysis and associated action items in areas of responsibility. Worked closely with production counterparts to meet objectives. Direct reports included mechanical supervisor, E&I supervisor, two mechanical planners, E&I planner and maintenance crew of twenty-five.

2007 Plant safety performance 0.49 TIR. Crews finished 2007 at 0.0 TIR.

Supported production improvements to 2038 tpd (‘07) from 1998 tpd (’06), 1802 tpd (’05), 1893 tpd (’04), and 1696 tpd (’03).

Supported machine efficiencies improvements to 92% in 2007 from 90% (’06), 86% (’05).

Supported maintenance cost performance improvements to $34/ton (’07) from $36/ton (’06) and $37/ton (’05).

Reliability Superintendent March 2000 – October 2002

This position was newly created to drive plant reliability improvements and reliability performance. Charged with creating a team that previously did not exist in the organization. Implemented a structure that contained 3 reliability engineers, a planner, maintenance supervisor, and an hourly crew of 19. The crew consisted of 5 preventative maintenance specialists, 5 lubrication technicians, 5 machinists, and 4 rotating equipment rebuild specialists. Revamped the predictive maintenance component of reliability group to expand and improve vibration analysis and lube oil analysis. Also added infrared and motor current predictive technologies to the group. Responsible for plant HVAC service and insulation and painting contractors.

Activities supported improvements of unscheduled maintenance downtime from 2.6% to 1.4% on No. 1 machine and 3.3% to 2.3% on No. 2 machine.

Activities supported maintenance annual spending improvements from $32MM in 1999 to $24MM in 2000.

Annual Shutdown Coordinator in 2000. Developed overview management plans and objectives. Held overall responsibility for coordination of the annual shutdown. Met shutdown objectives for safety, productivity, and cost.

Maintenance representative on the plant’s quality management system (ISO9000) steering team.

Coordinated development of level three and four ISO9000 documents for rotating equipment alignment, vibration, balancing, and lubrication practices.

Renovated plant facility to house machine shop, rotating equipment rebuilds, predictive and preventative maintenance teams. Coordinated capital spending plans for machine shop equipment. Included equipment balancing machine, lathe, and milling machine.

Coordinated the development of critical equipment listings for operating segments of plant and provided the foundation for Preventative/Predictive Maintenance improvements.

Coordinated the creation of a plant Root Cause Failure Analysis process. Triggers were established, process roles and responsibilities were defined, and tracking and completion performance systems were developed.

Created preventative maintenance team to focus on critical equipment in paper machine area. Executed 87% completion rate for shutdown Preventative Maintenance jobs and 96% for routine Preventative Maintenance jobs. Generated over 400 saves since team inception.

Strategy and Development Coordinator January 1999 – February 2000

Responsible for coordinating the mill’s effort in supporting a corporate initiative targeted at maintenance work process improvements.

Coordinated completion of cross-functional plant team objectives that included documenting existing maintenance work process systems, redesigning maintenance work processes, identifying and addressing gaps, implementing and training plant employees on the new processes, development of maintenance performance indicators, and tracking and auditing adherence to the new processes.

No.1 Paper Machine Superintendent January 1998 - December 1998

Responsible for managing the operation of an 1125 tpd linerboard paper machine and its associated equipment from the high-density storage to shipping.

Achieved 1178 tpd average monthly production. A monthly production record at the time. A 24 tpd improvement. Achieved production speed records on liner grades L120 (54#) and 42#. Coordinated new high performance grade runs and established run targets.

Led the development of documented operator driven reliability equipment checks and rounds. Created check sheets for wet end, dry end, and winder area processes for both paper machines. Coordinated the development of a video to train operators to perform critical equipment checks for heat, noise, vibration, and lubrication.

Prioritized and coordinated activities with plant maintenance for daily, monthly and annual machine shutdowns.

Paper Machine Shift Supervisor January 1996 - December 1997

Responsible for the shift management of (2) linerboard paper machines with combined production of 1700 tons/day. Also responsible for shift management of monthly white top and mottled white top linerboard production runs that were produced on the mill’s 600 tons/day linerboard machine. Supervised crew of 16 operators.

Pulp Mill Shift Supervisor January 1994 - December 1995

Responsible for shift management of a 1400 ton/day pulp mill, limekiln, and woodyard production area. Twin Kamyr continuous digester pulp mill operation. Managed shift startup of the plant’s recaustisizing area capital modernization project which included new green and white liquor filtration systems, lime mud pre-coat filter system, dregs filter system, and kiln feed and scrubber systems. Supervised crew of 12 operators.

Project Engineer June 1989 - December 1993

Responsible for project management of capital projects ranging from $40M to $4.5MM. Responsibilities included the preparation of capital budget items, project justification, scope preparation, cost estimation, design management, contract administration, and construction management and project cost control. Project engineer over precipitator rebuilds, bark boiler dust collector repairs, recovery boiler tube repairs, digester annual shutdown repairs, recovery liquor heater installations, and air compressor installation. Responsible for providing technical support to production and maintenance departments.

Education & Training

MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY - Starkville, Mississippi - B.S. Mechanical Engineering

Koch Industries Inc. Market Based Management Skills Building Series Training/Workshops – Developing Meaningful RREs, Compensation, Mentoring for MBM®, Conducting Difficult Conversations, Meaningful Performance Reviews, Understanding Your Role as a Supervisor, Decision-Making Framework, MBM® Problem Solving Process, Operations Excellence for MBM®

University of South Alabama First Line Supervisor Training

National Safety Council Safety Training for Supervisors

Update International Vibration for Supervisors & Managers

Think Reliability Cause Mapping for Mangers

Leadership Development Associates Training Phase I&II

Babcock & Wilcox Recovery Boiler Training

N.C. State Introduction to Pulp and Paper Science Training

Tappi Recovery Boiler Operations

Ahlstrom Kamyr Digester Training

Tappi Wet End Operations Training

Tappi Pressing and Dryer Training

Skilled with Microsoft office software – Excel, Word, PowerPoint, MS Project

CMMS experience – Indus/TSW, SAP

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