Benjamin Schneider Email & Phone Number

Waukesha, Wisconsin, United States

Provide technical guidance on engines and generators for customers, sales team, and product management. Develop concepts for and quote non-standard products. Identify opportunities for new product offerings.• Performed market analysis to determine lack of sales of 2.4-3.6 MW generator. Result: Identified $112,000 per unit cost reduction opportunity to improve unit price competitiveness.• Initiated market research to identify past sales of low heating value fuel system on 3,750 hp engine. Result: Spurred inclusion of subject fuel system in product plan estimated at $650,000 incremental revenue per year.• Developed concept for 1 MW containerized standby genset. Result: Created attractive business case for new market estimated at $5m incremental revenue per year. • Managed development of governor, generator, and exciter models used to simulate performance of 1.8 MW generator when connected to power grid. Result: Attained sales award of $8+m order upon customer approval of PSSE simulation.

Waukesha, Wisconsin, United States

Responsible for all engineering team leadership activities on a $40m 3,750-5,000 hp platform of engines. This included project/resource planning, creating/tracking project timelines, and identification/communication of platform risks and mitigation plans.• Led $2.8m introduction of Miller cycle with new control system on engine family. Result: Increased power output up to 10% on certain fuels, 40% reduction in NOx emissions, and mitigated risk of control system supplier exiting business.• Drove platform quality initiative by identifying 15+ key engine components for improvement and executed DMAIC process on them. Result: Engine platform mean time between forced outage tripled under customer use conditions.

Germantown Wisconsin

Developed concepts and quoted automated welding equipment. Responsible for leading project through new product development process once business was awarded. Led weekly team meetings and monitored action item completion. Communicated project status with senior management and external customers.• Identified risk of insufficient resources to deliver Jeep truck fender welding machine on time per original project scope. Result: Facilitated delivery of $2m project by locating, selecting, and leading external robot programming and controls resources.• Navigated mid project scope change to accommodate projected Acura RDX volume increase. Result: Increased customer demand met with 10% reduction in door ring welding machine cycle time.• Negotiated, on customer’s production floor, terms for final payment of RDX door ring welding machine. Result: $600,000 payment received after reaching agreement that project deliverables had been met.• Developed resource plan, budget, and timeline to deliver Jeep truck box welding machine according to updated customer installation requirements. Result: Delivered production ready machine per revised project plan at 20% below machine installation budget.• Documented and updated Banner New Product Development Process. Result: Process used to meet customer requirements and receive on time delivery of $570,000 progress payment for multiple Jeep truck projects.

Greater Milwaukee Area

Responsible for leading cross functional teams in new product development, cost reduction, and product improvement projects through phase gated NPD process. Managed market/technical specification documents, program timelines, capital and expense budgets, risk mitigation, and financial performance. • Redesigned $50,000,000 mature product line by standardizing components and introducing new features. Result: Refreshed product line, guaranteed marketability of product line, and realized $1,700,000 improvement in annual gross margin.• Analyzed sales data and drove elimination of over 80 unused/undersold options for existing product line of over 100 SKUs. Result: Increased margin of product lines by reducing tooling and inventory carrying costs by $200,000.• Introduced market leading automated starting feature for consumer grade walk behind lawnmower engines. Result: New system with fewer moving parts implemented at a cost savings of $1.37 per engine when compared to commercial grade system.• Resourced Lithium Ion battery pack for B&S’ exclusive integrated engine/battery package. Result: Leadtime cut in half with a cost reduction of $3.65 per pack for total annual savings of $110,000 per year.

Greater Milwaukee Area

Responsible for serving as link for technical information between company and OEM customers. Worked with sales team to generate new engine business and support existing sales by engineering and testing prototypes. • Mandated need for main bearing surface finish harmonic measurement system with statistical process control on consumer v-twin engines. Result: Reduced warranty cost by 25% on Simplicity’s premium tractor through elimination of main bearing seizures.• Optimized customer’s water pump pressure and flow performance with new lower cost engine offering. Result: Saved Pacer Pumps $64,000 per year in engine cost with improved pump performance.• Used B&K hardware/software to collect hand/arm vibration data in the time domain and compare to ISO standards. Analyzed data in the frequency domain using waterfall plots. Result: Designed and tested components to provide a 17% reduction in vibration to eliminate customer complaint.• Used modal analysis to design and test a modification to Giant Vac’s leaf vacuum impeller. Result: Eliminated crankshaft failures seen in DVP&R testing. • Designed solution to fix an inoperable charging system on 2,000 engines already delivered to an OEM’s assembly line. Result: Reduced rework cost by $20,000.• Designed fixture to verify axial crankshaft load on 36HP v-twin powered water pump and measured bearing surface finish. Result: Achieved cost avoidance of $30,000 per year by eliminating bearing failure with improved surface finish callout per GD&T standards. • Collaborated testing with Simplicity to achieve market differentiation. Result: New tractor offering with 15% more power and only a 4% increase in engine cost.

Greater Milwaukee Area

Responsible for overseeing validation testing of internal combustion engines and engine components under lab and field test conditions. Trained and supervised union technicians in test setup and execution. Analyzed test data, reported results, and made recommendations. Participated in the creation of dFMEAs and DVP&Rs. • Led DVP&R execution for multiple new engine platforms. Result: Production ready target met for new garden tractor engines including 20HP 33 in3 single, 30HP 49 in3 twin, and 36HP 61 in3 twin, with total EAU of over 100,000 pieces.• Implemented use of Weibull statistical analysis for engine durability lab test data to improve reporting of test results. Result: Reduced lab fixed costs by 33% by reducing number of engines tested. • Developed and installed a LabView/National Instruments data acquisition system for endurance lab testing. Result: Improved test data quality by upgrading from manual entry to automated system allowing immediate data availability and 400% increase in sample rate.• Analyzed temperature and load data collected from Somat during lawn mower engine field test and created lab duty cycle to simulate field use. Result: Reduced required field test hours yielding annual savings of $30,000.• Eliminated dust ingestion complaint on new single-cylinder tractor engine.Result: Wrote test standard for dust testing plastic air-cleaner components from multi-cavity tools. Test standard eliminated dust ingestion from air-cleaner component misalignment/incompatibility on subsequent programs. • Updated generator test equipment from fixed loading to variable loading capability using in house design and assembly. Result: Upgraded test equipment capable of running required customer usage duty cycle for 10% of the cost of original vendor proposal.• Designed and implemented multi-function hydraulic test stands to replace single-function electrical stands. Result: Doubled test stand functionality, reducing cost by 33%.

Ms, Engineering Management

Lean manufacturing Project management Reliability, failure analysis, and risk assessment Supply chain management System modeling.

Bs, Mechanical Engineering

Five year member of the Formula SAE team, chapter vice-president