Continuous Improvement Six Sigma

Manikandan Rajagopal Tel: +1-720-***-**** & E: *************@*****.***

Broomfield, CO-80020, USA. LinkedIn

Specialist Engineer in Design for Manufacturing & Quality Results-driven Technical Specialist with over 22 years of experience in Design for Manufacturing, Quality Assurance, and Continuous Improvement within the Wind Energy OEM and Automobile manufacturing sectors. A Certified Six Sigma Green Belt with a proven record of success in leading Design for Manufacturing projects, spearheading Lean Six Sigma, Quality Management, and Process Improvement initiatives. Highly skilled in solving complex technical problems, addressing critical business challenges, fostering team collaboration, and anticipating stakeholder needs effectively. Areas of Expertise

• Design concepts • Composite Manufacturing • Mechanical calculations

• Design for Manufacturing • Plastic & sheet metal design • Basic stress analysis

• Design & Product Quality • Tool design • GD&T and Stack-up analysis

• Product support (NC & CIM) • Reverse Engineering • Engineering standards

• Test & Validation • ECM and BOM • Project Management

• Composite Product Design • Value engineering • Leadership skills

• Composite Modeling & simulation • Six Sigma & Lean methods • Continuous Improvement, Audits & Quality tools

Accomplishments

• Developed and mentored the “Design for Manufacturing Team” in Vestas Technology R&D, Chennai.

• Successfully managed Six Sigma Design Projects to resolve the quality issues with the Wind Blade Manufacturing.

• Recognized for IPR filing for wind coned blade in 2011 (India, Denmark and USA).

• Recognized for “Reduced a lead time by 22%, increase responses rate and saved 13 million euro in year” on design for manufacturing functions.

• Initiated the “LEAN Implementation & Kaizen” and increased the productivity of the team.

• Recognized as “Best performer award 2012, 2013, 2018, 2022” at Vestas & recognized with Vestas Talented Program in 2021.

• Recognized as “Best performer on projects in 2007” in Caterpillar with Geometric.

• Served as an expert in Deploying Lean Tools such as Value Stream Mapping, Kaizen, and 8D, driving efficiency. improvements and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

• Specialized to manage the Non-conformance (NC) and Continuous Improvement Management (CIM)

• Experience in dealing with Ambiguous and Unstructured Problems, successfully delivering solutions.

• Experience to Coach and Train the team to delivering a technical solution (DFM and Critical to Quality). Career Experience

Vestas American Wind Technology Inc, Brighton, CO (Wind Energy) Dec 2014 to Till Date Lead Specialist Engineer – Blade Module Quality, R&D Responsible for design for manufacturing (composite wind blade), product safe launch & new project implementation with blade manufacturing, Quality Assurance and Technical support with production, responsible for the repair specification, decision making & problem solving for the non-conformance coming through factories, ISO & VDA auditing, PPAP, SPC, applying six sigma statistical approaches to resolving problems, root cause analysis, continuous improvement and lean manufacturing.

• Involving design for manufacturing along with the design & structural engineers on new projects.

• Involving new project safe launch and project implementation across the globe.

• Contributing to DFMEA and PFMEA relates to the new product design & introductions.

• Working together with process team to focus on continuous improvement to reduce quality defects.

• Working together with production quality and take accountability of monitoring and decision making on non-conformities & reoccurrence problems comes through manufacturing and service.

• Responsible for composite blade repair specification and instructions to perform a repair comes through the non-conformities.

• Supporting to CIM engineering team on the root cause analysis and repair solutions for CIM cases comes through service.

• Supporting manufacturing on lean manufacturing requirements and try to monitor consistent performances.

• Involving with problem solving by using statistical tools and root cause analysis.

• Involving with continues improvement tasks, RCA, and 8D together with manufacturing and service team.

• Responsible for composite blade repair specifications and solutions for manufacturing & service defects.

• Involving with continuous improvement activities to improve the product quality.

• Lead, mentoring and coaching team on DFM principles, repair solutions and continuous improvement. Vestas Technology R&D, Chennai (Wind Energy) April 2008 to Dec 2014 Specialist Engineer – Wind capturing systems.

Involved design, design for manufacturing, technical support for composite blade manufacturing and service needs. Also, responsible to provide direction to both engineering, manufacturing, and service functions. Involved in product design and manufacturing design of components with various levels (Components, module, and systems). Additionally, responsible for the technical documentation needs related to production and service.

• Involved new product development for composite blades with various projects. Mentoring people and train them with design for manufacturing and Quality.

• Work with the design team to understand the product design and development cycle to prepare a detailed project plan.

• Create and layout all phases of new product development from concept layout to production, interact with interdepartmental personnel such as the design engineering, structural design team, factory/manufacturing team and clarify product functional and manufacturing requirements. Used Pro-Engineer (Creo 2.0), FiberSIM, Catia V5 and CPD for conceptual and detailed design for NPD.

• Involved composite plug and mould (tooling) development for blade moulds.

• Using GD&T and Stack-up analysis to make sure the design specification, production specifications & quality of the product more accurate with in the cost limit.

• Involved in design for manufacturing of composite wind blade products.

• Involved in design activities DFMEA, PFMEA, DVPL, DVPR, DVRE, CTQ, QFD, DOE and risk assessment.

• Participated the production product approval process (PPAP) to confirm the new development, improvements, and cost out.

• Participated ISO & VDA audits to ensure the product and process requirements are followed by the blade manufacturing units.

• Creation of detailed product designs documentation, work instructions and supporting documentations for production and service.

• Involved business support functions like Engineering Change Management (ECM) and Non-Conformance (NC) to provide feasible repair solutions.

• Develop and maintain engineering and manufacturing BOM (SAP & Infor XA).

• Participating actively with the proto builds and makes sure the readiness for the 0-series production.

• Created test specification for the designed product to make sure the product life cycle and involved for the product certification.

• Created and Involved with the retrofit solutions with production and service-related product problems and created technical documentation to support for the same.

• Involved for continuous improvement tasks, RCA and 8D’s related to manufacturing and product service-related problems.

• Applied Six Sigma statistical methods for NPD, cost out and problem solving.

• Involved with the value engineering activities to reduce the cost of the products by creating an improvement with existing product without compromising Design and quality.

Caterpillar Engineering Design Centre, Chennai (Automobile) Sept 2006 to April 2008 Senior Design Engineer

• Design & development of components like engine assembly, Frame assembly, Cabin, buckets and Sheet metal components for Compactors, Paving machine, and off-highway dampers.

• Reverse engineering design.

• Stack up and Tolerance study.

• Creating drawing by studying various accepts like Manufacturability, Weight, and Cost.

• Creating Unit List and BOM.

• Generating specifications & Engineering design modification (EDN) documents for cost Out, improvements and retrofit solutions for customer complaints.

• Team Center maintenance.

Additional Experiences (Automobile)

• FCI Technology Service Limited, Chennai May 2006 to Sept 2006 Design Engineer (Automobile Connectors)

• A.G.E Solutions Ltd, Chennai Aug 2005 to May 2006 Design Engineer (Automotive Engine and Body Components)

• Madras Suspension Limited, Madurai Dec 2002 to Aug 2005 Design Engineer (Design & Tooling – Suspension Systems) Education

• 2009: M.B.A (Production), Madurai Kamarajar University, India.

• 2002: Bachelor of Engineering, (Mechanical), Anna University, India. Professional Certification

• Certified in Creo, SolidWorks & Catia V5 (Solid, Sheet Metal & Composite Modelling Specialist)

• Certified in Project Management & Business Strategy (Prince2- Foundation & MMA).

• Certified in Six Sigma Green Belt at Vestas.

• Certified in Lean Management at Vestas Lean Management board.

• Certified in GD&T and Stack-up Analysis.

• Completed training in Advance composite and manufacturing and Design for Manufacturing.

• Certified Lead Auditor ISO9001:2008/2015 from GL & Certified VDA auditor at Vestas.

• Certified in Value Engineering at Vestas.

• Certified in Hyper Mesh and Ansys work bench at Vestas.

• Training in Leadership Essential, Change Management and Strategic Leadership.

• Charted Engineer from IEI.

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