Andy Schulz Email & Phone Number

Sugar Grove, Il, Us

Palatine, Illinois, United States

Lab process and staff management for the Quality Assurance Lab at the Huntley manufacturing facility and the Product R&D Lab. Managing a fulltime staff of 15 people in two locations. In the R&D lab, we are responsible for Research, Product Development Testing and Regulatory Certification Testing to bring new ideas from conception to design readiness. At the Quality Assurance Lab, we are responsible for PPAPs, incoming inspection, and testing of critical components for our manufacturing facility. We are also responsible for monthly compliance testing in accordance with regulatory requirements.In the past year, we have implemented a Lab Request system to manage the flow of work through the lab as well as a time tracking system understand resource loading for test requests and to forecast future resource demands. These systems are improving the flow of work in to and out of lab and developing our credibility in the planning of future resources.The Quality Assurance Lab has taken on a new role in the Weber organization - Software Testing. Manual Regression Testing was formerly outsourced at great cost to the company. We have successfully insourced that role in the QA lab. We are training and using members of the plant operations team to support software testing. We are saving money and improving worker productivity by flexing with the needs of production.

Willowbrook, Illinois, United States

Developed and implemented APQP initiatives with a heavy focus on end user experience. Introduced accelerated life testing and reliability principles into the product development process.

Oshkosh, Wisconsin, United States

Contract Engineer supporting a large Defense manufacturing enterprise. Facilitating the timely completion and documentation of DFMEAs including Interface analyses and functional decomposition. Supporting other APQP activities as needed to keep major vehicle variants on track.

Brookfield, Wisconsin, United States

Built and managed a team of project engineers to ideate, investigate and execute value engineering projects. The projects included design and material changes, sourcing qualifications, and capital equipment and automation. Year over year doubling of savings for 2 years reaching $4M in annual savings. Managed Departmental activities including: budgeting, hiring, capital requests, and performance management.Created a system to funnel and evaluate potential projects quickly to feed projects to execution and balance resources. Led the development of Operations Strategies for key products.Combining Sourcing, Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply & Demand, and Value Engineering needs into a cohesive strategy Managed and led ideation sessions; bringing together people from different groups to develop new ideas to improve products and reduce costs. Recently developed and executed the first virtual session with a team.

Brookfield, Wi

Led continuous improvement projects to improve operational KPIs. Projects included scrap reduction and OEE improvements in Heat Treat. Led a massive field failure recovery including root cause, recall, sorting, and corrective actions. Developed and implemented CAPA to prevent recurrence. Post mortem investigation to improve NPI process. Led a Pre-production failure investigation on a new manufacturing line. Developed new in-process fracture tests using boundary analysis to reduce scrap and downtime. Developed and implemented operations deliverables into the NPD phase gate process. Working with all parts of operations, I compiled the value streams of each group and distilled them into deliverables aligned to the phase gates of the NPD process. The result ensured that operations groups were gaining readiness during the product development process.

Brookfield Wi

Responsible for all aspects of product quality and reliability (R&M) during the NPD process. Planned reliability through QFD, developed test methods based on customer needs, and ensured that products meet those expectations in service. Analyzed test data for reliability metrics and failure trends. Responsible for developing plant and supplier quality plans (SQP, PCP) during product development (APQP) to ensure that critical findings (FMEA) are communicated to the factory floor maximizing product performance and quality.Managed and Mentored new engineers during their first year with the company. Improved the company’s knowledge and handling of accessory field issues. Created a field reporting system to gather, track, analyze and resolve field issues. Implemented and ran quarterly field issue reviews.Advanced the company’s understanding and use of reliability statistics and experimental design. After my successes with DOE, Milwaukee instituted a company wide training program for engineers. Developed a new analysis method pairing non-inferiority tests with reliability statistics. This has become the standard for all value engineering (cost reduction) statistical analyses.

Fond Du Lac, Wi

Planned, Conducted and Reported tests on materials, components and systems. Tests included static loading, impact, vibratory fatigue mechanical fatigue and modal analysis. Proficient in data acquisition methods and transducers. Typically involved in testing/data acquisition projects requiring advanced techniques, new equipment, or the extension and development of new methods. Provided technical leadership to engineering and management. Taught seminars in reliability, statistics, accelerated testing, and ideation methods. Published internal and external technical reportsManaged ED Shaker Lab: including workflow, prioritization, maintenance, calibration, budget, and employee performance.Successfully lead small teams in lean six sigma projects and engineering development projects involving design, analysis, and testing with savings exceeding $1M annually.

Master Of Engineering (M.Eng.), Engineering Mechanics

Bachelor Of Science (Bs), Metallurgical Engineering

Education record