Manager Engineer

Alan Carl Gehring

** ********* *****, *********, ** 60030

Phone: 847-***-****

****.*******@***.***

http://www.linkedin.com/in/alangehring

SUMMARY

Strategic and imaginative business management professional with extensive industry experience in leading manufacturing operations and customer focused cross-functional teams. Background includes customer management, operational start-ups, quality compliance and personnel supervision. Skilled in clarifying issues, advocating solutions, mobilizing cross-functional support and facilitating decision making in complex situations. Expertise includes:

Operations Management Customer Management

Leadership and Mentoring Project Management

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Zebra Technologies, Inc., Vernon Hills, IL 2011 - Current

Zebra helps companies identify, locate and track assets, transactions and people with on-demand specialty digital printing and automatic identification solutions in more than 100 countries around the world.

Senior Manager of Manufacturing Engineering

Manage a staff of fifteen engineers responsible for the development of the manufacturing process for new printers, the transition of new printer designs to contract manufacturers, and the reconfiguration processes in our distribution centers. Staff is located in three engineering centers domestically and three distribution centers globally. Responsible for development of common product launch processes across all 5 major product platforms and design centers, formalization of design for manufacturing strategies, and contract review with respect to manufacturing deliverables. Work closely with distribution center management to insure processes are documented, insure capacity meets sales requirements, and customer needs are realized.

Plexus Corporation, Chicago, IL 2003 – 2010

Plexus is an Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS) provider to branded product companies in the Networking, Wireless Infrastructure, Medical, Industrial/Commercial and Defense/Security/Aerospace market sectors.

Manager of Program Management (2008 – 2010)

Reporting to the Site General Manager, directed the efforts of six program managers servicing 21 customers in the medical and telecommunications industries within the $200 million manufacturing site. Coordinated prospective customer visits, conducted site capability presentations and led factory tours. Reviewed customer contract proposals and new product quotations. Supported site strategic planning efforts with respect to revenue, customer transitions, human resource allocation, machine capacity, and facility utilization. Tracked site objectives on customer satisfaction and on-time delivery for site MBO bonus award.

• Led departmental staff through IPC Certified EMS Program Manager training; only site within the corporation to have entire staff certified.

• Achieved 100% conformance to on-time delivery and customer satisfaction for 14 consecutive months while adding six new customers to the site portfolio.

• Selected to represent North American Program Management group on corporate new product implementation initiative due to multi-disciplined background in engineering, operations, and customer management experience.

• Authored revision to corporate training curriculum for all levels of Program Management.

Focus Factory Manager (2007 – 2008)

Led the transition of a major new customer account from the west coast into the Chicago manufacturing facility. This transition involved the fit-up of a new manufacturing facility, complete assembly and test process documentation, establishment of configure-to-order and direct-order fulfillment processes, and establishment of customer occupied offices within the manufacturing area.

• Completed assembly, test, and order fulfillment process validation campaigns in support of customer closing their facilities.

• Reduced assembly work order cycle time from 10 days to an average of 6 days within the first quarter.

Senior Program Manager (2005 – 2007)

Directed the effort of the cross- functional customer focus team to ensure customer needs were met. Served as the primary contact for customer inquiries, visits and quarterly business reviews. Responsible for monitoring the customer P&L and driving profitability, quality, and customer satisfaction improvement initiatives.

• Managed the transition of one new medical start-up customer into the manufacturing site which included working closely with the customer to establish part numbers, bill of material structure, approved manufacturers list, and testing process.

• Coordinated the completion of test and process validation campaigns between local site, internal test development group, and customer engineering in order to meet PMA submission deadline.

• Received consistently high marks on “program management” and “communication” categories on semi-annual customer satisfaction surveys.

Focus Factory Manager (2003 – 2005)

Led the assembly, test, and quality functions producing printed circuit board assemblies and sub-assemblies for class II and class III medical products. Annualized revenue for the 3 main customers combined in this factory was approximately $40M.

• Reduced assembly work order cycle time from 30 days to an average of 15 days within six months resulting in an annual material savings of $2.5M through application of lean manufacturing concepts and visual controls.

• Improved on-time delivery from 83% to 98% to commit and from 75% to 90% to customer request by revising commit process and institution of daily order status meetings and customer reports.

• Mentored and developed 5 employees to promotional opportunities within the site.

Celestica Corporation, Raleigh, NC 2002 – 2003

Celestica is a global leader in the end-to-end delivery of product life cycle solutions for customers in the enterprise computing, aerospace, healthcare, alternative energy, defense, industrial and consumer sectors.

Program Manager

Solectron Technology, Morrisville, NC 2000 – 2001

Solectron Technology (now part of Flextronics) provided electronics manufacturing and supply chain management services to original equipment manufacturers in the electronics products and technology markets worldwide.

Program Manager, New Product Introduction

Embrex, Incorporated, Durham, NC 1998 – 2000

Embrex, Inc., a biotechnology company, engages in the development, sale, and lease of biological and mechanical products for the poultry industry in the United States and internationally.

Manager of Manufacturing Services, Durham, NC

Data General Corporation, Apex, NC 1997 – 1998

Data General, purchased by EMC in 1999, manufactured mass data storage devices and large scale computer servers.

PCBA Operations Manager

Borg-Warner Automotive, Cary, NC 1991 – 1997

Borg-Warner Automotive is a product leader in highly engineered components and systems for vehicle power-train applications worldwide.

Manufacturing Manager (1995 – 1997)

Senior Quality Engineer (1991 – 1995)

Robert Bosch GmbH, Anderson, SC 1988 – 1990

The world’s largest supplier of automotive components. In addition to the automotive sector, Bosch manufactures products for the security, industrial machinery, commercial hand tools, and consumer products.

Supplier Quality Assurance Engineer

CTS Corporation, Elkhart, IN 1985 – 1988

CTS Corporation is a designer and manufacturer of sensors and actuators, electronic components, and a leading provider of value-added electronics manufacturing services (EMS).

Quality Engineer/Supervisor (1986 – 1988)

Quality Engineer (1985 – 1986)

EDUCATION & TRAINING

MS in Management, Industrial Engineering emphasis, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC

BS in Mechanical Technology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN

IPC Certified Program Manager

Lean Sigma Leadership

Leadership Essentials

ISO Internal Auditing

Dynamic Control Planning and FMEA

SixSigma Green Belt

Contact this candidate