Benjamin Simmons Email & Phone Number

Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States

Austin, Texas Metropolitan Area

El Segundo, California, United States

Starting a new role at Beyond Meat working in the commercialization team to bring products to market

Greater Chicago Area

Global process deployment responsibility for agile development of chocolate products including Filled Bars, Molding, and Bitesize development from pilot Scale to production. Project Management, mentoring of regional associates, and strategy development for new capacity design and install. Subject matter expert for thermal process microbiological validation for baking process. Project lead to support Engineering development through installation on major product launches utilizing Design for Vertical Startup applied Six Sigma approach. Leadership from R&D for integrated supply and engineering projects including US TWIX® line relocation, TWIX® Cookies & Crème development and launch, Goodness Knows® development and launch, and support of TWIX® Global Standard Development and M&Ms® Caramel development and launch.

Cleveland, Tn

Management of the Pilot Scale Facilities and Process Development / Scale up Team for Baked and Bite Size processes for North America. Scope includes: scale up of technologies and process from benchtop to production lines, partnership with global R&D for baked and filled bar processes, partnership with Global M&M team to develop and launch Caramel M&Ms, Bounty Coconut M&Ms, and scale chocolate spray processes, Line Manager for operators, technicians, and process development engineers to develop and author specifications, Six Sigma project management and execution.

Cleveland, Tennessee

Leader in R&D Process Development Team. This group provides support of Caramel Twix, Limited Edition Twix Pantry Items, and Innovation Twix formats. Manager of Pilot Plant Facilities and 8 Associates. Technical liason from R&D to increased capacity Twix Projects within North America, Global Blue Print for TWIX technology, equipment, and controls. Six Sigma Green Belt. Active Six Sigma Projects relating to the Twix lines in Cleveland. Process Specification Document authority for baked, caramel, and enrobed items in North America. Wiki page development. Product and Process capability development and enhancement role within R&D.Promotion to Senior Process Development Engineer Aug 2012. Starting role of Process Development Engineer March 2011.

Developed new ideas for scientific and engineering research, proposed ideas through grants and SBIR proposals for competitive award, led development teams for projects lasting up to 2 years and funded for up to $1M. * Awarded Quick Reaction Fund award from DoD to develop a Unmanned Surface Vessel Kit for quick installation in theater to an Indigenous vessel. Completed effort reducing installation time from weeks of engineers to less than 10 hours of technician level persons. Reduced cost of Unmanned Surface Vessel from >$2M to < $500k.* Multitasking is required to balance multiple projects with similar deadlines, development of new ideas, new proposals, customer reports, face to face meetings, and mentoring other engineers and software developers in taking ownership of similar processes.* Automation of the testing and evaluation processes over a period of 6 months with ~$1k investment in hardware led to a system that can operate autonomously for weeks with the ability to provide status updates texted to the phone of the principal operator saving hundreds of man hours per week.

Objective: Instructor for Advanced Viscous Flow (Graduate Level) course including remote lectures to explore video conference capabilities with students and teachers both remote-site from main campus.Duties: Instructor for Advanced Viscous Flow (Graduate - Masters / Doctorate Level 7000/8000 Mechanical Engineering Course). Course content included Inviscid Flow, application and derivation of basic fluid flow equations and understanding of assumptions to reduce general theory to equations familiar from undergraduate courses (Bernoulli, Euler, Navier Stokes, etc.). Course was taught with minimal classes meeting face to face in Memphis. Often students and instructor were both at remote locations (home, work, or travel). Course was performed using free and/or paid video conferencing services as an effort for the University of Memphis to assess the possibility of an instructor to convey information and effectively teach a mathematically intensive course without classroom presence.

Realized cost savings, enhanced throughput, and increased morale as measurable benefits to production facilities by interfacing between production personnel and management.* Specified upgrades to powder paint process including closed loop feedback of line speed and part temperature throughout the infrared oven. Updates reduced re-work, increased appearance for marketing appeal, and increased overall product flow saving time and money.* Development of new capital equipment was required to significantly advance some product manufacturing capabilities for increased throughput and enhanced quality metrics. Development required: specification of all components, wiring diagrams, schematics, PLC software development, HMI development, and hands-on fabrication.

Supported faculty desktop computers, student computer labs, graduate research computers, and High Performance Computing Assets for the Herff College of Engineering. Taught 9 different undergraduate engineering courses over 8 semesters. Developed 100+ Node ROCKS x86 HPC for College and integrated 5 HPCs and student computer laboratories across campus for over 1000 Nodes in a widely distributed HPC.

Lead Engineer for interface to customers for quotation of custom industrial automation system that would best fit their needs. Principal designer of PLC and HMI using Automation Direct and Allen Bradley for food grade applications.* Designed, oversaw fabrication, completed electrical wiring and PLC software, customer verification, installation, and training / support for systems used in washdown industrial food manufacturing plants.* Industrial wiring, schematic knowledge, relay logic, PLC, HMI, Autocad, PRO/E, Mechanical Design, and component selection were all critical aspects of the design process for custom equipment.* Enhanced production capability and throughput with installation and support of CNC machines.

Ph.D, Engineering

Dissertation: Applications of Magnetic Fields to the Control of Fluids in Reduced Gravity Performed research into storage applications.

M.S, Mechanical Engineering

: Reduced Gravity Minimum Energy Configurations of LOX in a Magnetic Field Performed axisymmetric 2-D research into storage applications.

B.S, Mechanical Engineering