Christopher Vatter Email & Phone Number

Stoughton, Wisconsin, US

• Led a twenty-two-person workforce of professionals and craftsmen in the Fabrication, Graphics, Paint, Assembly and Supply Chain departments.Achievements:
• Increased on-time shipments by 60% from May 2022 to October 2022 by implementing a capacity production schedule.
• Created a Lean Manufacturing Implementation plan to develop and improve all performance metrics by the end of 2024.
• Implemented a formal personnel development and review process based on monthly coaching sessions for all supervisors, team leads, production and office personnel.
• Conducted first wall to wall physical inventory in over a decade resulting in a total variance of less than $14,000 on a total inventory of $890,000 over 1998 sku resulting in an inventory accuracy of 98.5%.

• Directed three managers, four supervisors, one material analyst and thirty-eight associates in the Purchasing, Production Planning, Material Control and Cycle Counting departments.Achievements:
• Created the Material Analyst position responsible for the creation and maintenance of the Plan for Every Part (PFEP) Database for use by the entire Supply Chain Group.
• Met annual target for Days on Hand metric to 75 days in April of 2021 then exceeded the new the Days On Hand metric of 60 days by July of 2021.
• Improved large-spend approval process by reducing required steps from five steps to two steps.
• Led a kaizen event that resulted in a 66% reduction in Material Control personnel required to support the High Volume Light Tower production assembly line.

• Led six Supervisors and 270 associates in the Receiving, Kitting, Material Control, Packing, Returns, and Shipping departments.Achievements:
• Directed all operations in support 8000 to 12,000 parcel shipments per day.
• Secured multiple sources of rental vehicles to support daily shipments when contracted carriers would not meet their contracted vehicle commitments.
• Improved material flow in the Receiving Department by changing department layout resulting in reduction of incoming inventory from two days on hand to 8 hours on hand to support daily shipment targets.
• Supported dock to shelf receiving operations during 150,000 square foot warehouse expansion by creating and maintaining PFEP accuracy.

• Managed a team of six Leads and 70 team members in the Receiving, Finishing, Warehouse, Picking, Assembly, Quality Control, and Shipping departments.Achievements:
• Eliminated part shortages in the Assembly departments by instituting a “by cabinet / by order” control system for components produced in the Finishing department.
• Developed, implemented, and maintained a production / quality standard program for the Finishing department to ensure compliance with industry color finishing standards.
• Created an attendance tracking program to insure adherence to company attendance policy, delivery of prompt feedback, and corrective action, as necessary.
• Raised the Assembly department’s first pass quality metric from 69% to 96.4 % in less than six months by standardizing assembly tools and settings.
• Revised and combined two existing employee incentive programs into one standard incentive program to insure accurate data collection of production performance, bonus calculation and timely payments.

• Led a workforce of 270 Supervisors, Leads, and Associates in 13 departments supporting all second and third shift production operations.Achievements:
• Managed thirteen direct reports responsible for all production activities in a 660,000 square foot facility supporting over $1 billion in annual sales.
• Improved department performance metric tracking by creating a new second shift reporting format to deliver enhanced decision making data.
• Improved 97 SOPs to reduce and then eliminate production shortages between three assembly lines and ten subassembly departments.

• After Dow DuPont merger was announced, led a seven-member team responsible for Quality, Scheduling, Material Control, Logistics and Training departments in a 24/7 production plant.Achievements:
• Created and maintained SAP based training records for sixty-two full-time and 24 contract employees in the DuPont Quality Management System.
• Maintained contracts with twenty seed transport providers and twenty-eight local service providers.
• Chaired the Process Safety Management team.
• Earned Six Sigma Green Belt certification, Lean Practitioner Certificate, Lean Practitioner Certificate of Champions, and Contract Administration Certificate.

• Prior to Dow DuPont merger, led an eleven-member production team consisting of the Receiving, Conditioning, Treating, Packaging, Warehousing, Shipping, and Logistics departments.Achievements:
• Tracked Safety, Quality, and Productivity metrics to provide progress reports to executive management and department leadership.
• Met and exceeded corporate annual production goals of 2.5 million units of Soybeans and 300,000 units of wheat.
• Developed 193 SOPs and 57 Job Safety Analysis records to standardize and improve the production process.
• Created a new shift report that tracked production progress and improved communication between departments.
• Instituted a two-hour rotation schedule to eliminate repetitive motion injuries at a six-station box wash department.

• Led a ten-person Distribution Center team supporting Receiving, Packaging, Picking, and Shipping functions supporting $41 million in aftermarket sales annually.Achievements:
• Reduced headcount from twenty personnel to ten personnel while meeting or exceeding all performance metrics.
• Optimized daily operations by improved scheduling to reduce monthly overtime from 208 hours to 13 hours a month, saving $6000 a month or $72,000 annually.
• Performed root cause analysis on returned materials to identify and eliminate errors by tightening picking and packaging procedures to reduce quality defect returns from 437 parts per million to 135 parts per million.
• Increased productivity from 35.7 lines per hour to 52.6 lines per hour, saving $400,000 annually through headcount reduction, process improvements, improved scheduling, and cross-training.

• Supervised forty material control associates and three cycle count personnel supporting three assembly lines, two paint lines, five weld lines, as well as the Fabrication and Receiving departments.Achievements:
• Utilized Lean Manufacturing methods of the Nissan Way to support sequenced production of fifty-two vehicles per day, while maintaining an eight-minute TAKT time.
• Implemented the Nissan Way production system to create eighty new Standard Operation Sheets for the Material Control department.
• Eliminated 103 mast chain sku by implementing an automated chain cutter to support the Mast Assembly department.
• Reconfigured two warehouses to support the Nissan, Mast, and Barret Assembly lines and reduce quality defects by 30% overall.
• Implemented a new RF hardware & software system that increased warehouse picking accuracy from 92% to 100%. Project was delivered under budget, early and while I was out of the country.

• Developed clients and provided Financial Planning & Wealth Management Services using an array of financial and insurance products.Achievements:
• Expanded into the undeveloped western counties of the Chicago suburbs.
• Achieved and maintained the highest appointment rate in the Chicago office.

• Led a staff of four purchasing and planning personnel to achieve corporate cost reduction goals while maintaining $2.5 million in annual sales for a production plant and four regional distribution centers.Achievements:
• Eliminated production disruptions by negotiating annual blanket purchases of key raw materials, delivering $300,000 savings and lowering inventory by 45% over a three-month period.
• Increased production from 500,000 linear feet to 1.2 million linear feet per day.

• Directed production operations for the subassembly, final assembly, testing, packaging, aftermarket and material control departments.Achievements:
• Maintained effective and productive business relationships with twenty-seven domestic suppliers and subcontractors during a three-year manufacturing expansion that included two production facility relocations.
• Managed a three-year cellular manufacturing expansion supporting a $75 million in sales with a total inventory of less than $2.24 million.
• Saved in excess of $300,000 annually by sourcing a new supplier of a critical component that incorporated significant design modifications.
• Created a simplified assembly method for a three-piece barrel to meet an extremely aggressive new product launch timetable while also saving $30,000 of component inventory.
• Spearheaded major growth initiative expanding from 30,000 units and three models to 260,000 units and 32 models, from three production personnel to twenty-three production personnel, and from 2500 square feet.

Master'S Degree, Industrial Management

Bachelors Of Science, Operations Management

Industrial Engineering