David Pless Email & Phone Number

Lagrange, Ga, Us

Lagrange, Ga, Us

Adient specializes in custom automotive seating, 90 minutes from order to delivery. Sr. Quality Engineer responsible for process quality and customer problem resolution.

Cypress, Ca, Us

Yamaha is an OEM supplier specializing in Power Sports vehicle manufacturing including ATV, golf cart, ROV utility vehicles, and water vehicles. Manage Supplier Quality Assurance function comprised of 147 domestic and international suppliers and incoming part inspection. Supplier components include injection and blow molding, stampings, weldments, complex tubing, engines, and other mechanical and electrical components. Key Impact:· Led team in achieving a PPM (w/o Rework) performance improvement of 18% and PPM (w/ Rework) improvement of 50%. · Implemented standardized work methods, Hyoujun Soubi, for all incoming inspection areas to ensure best practice, waste and defect reduction, and easier and faster process improvement. · Develop “Lessons Learned” matrices documenting past issues including corrective and preventative actions for model launch and new suppliers to ensure recurrence prevention. · Implemented internal Quality Principles at Top 10 “at risk” suppliers. Quality Principles are a set of human behaviors that reduce mistakes made by a human in manufacturing.

Altrincham, Cheshire, Gb

Wheelabrator is the world’s largest provider of surface preparation technology to the automotive, aerospace, medical, rail, and shipyard industries. They are a subsidiary of the Norican Group, which has operations in 21 countries.Managed North American Quality system including Mexico operation. Redesigned Quality as strategic pillar and defined best practices for deployment across functions and sites. Empowered teams to improve quality from the bottom up.Key Impact: · Implemented Lean Manufacturing at three locations in North America including problem solving skills, visual management, and waste elimination. Project was completed ahead of schedule while maintaining quality deliverables. · Designed and managed Continuous Improvement Center (CIC). Led daily review of key departmental metrics and project schedule performance. Enhanced communication and timely resolution of issues resulted in improved project on time delivery by 20%. · Implemented Performance “leading” metrics to drive proactive improvement in all manufacturing and support operations. The leading metrics targeted daily and weekly activities to achieve goals. Safety was key area for leading metrics. · Upgraded management system to ISO 9001:2015 in first year of release ahead of the three-year requirement.

Altrincham, Cheshire, Gb

Designed and implemented organizational metrics to drive margin expansion and process improvements in Manufacturing Services/Planning, Project Management, Purchasing, Quality, and Manufacturing Engineering.Key Impact:· Developed strategic sourcing and supply channels for North America. Achieved sourcing and project-related savings of more than $1.2M in 3 years.· Reduced working capital by $1.5M via re-alignment of inventory requirements.· Implemented vending system for manufacturing MRO items that reduced usage by 25% and administrative time for purchase orders and invoicing by 10%.· Improved freight scheduling achieving 20% reduction of costs.

Auburn Hills, Michigan, Us

Takata was a Japanese-owned company that manufactured seatbelt and restraint systems for the automotive industry.Key Impact:· Led product transition and consolidation of US Manufacturing Operations to Mexico location with planned schedules and quality deliverables achieved.• Served as primary customer interface for product engineering changes, new product launches, and process improvements to ensure optimized communication and feedback with a global customer base. • Developed Validation Test Plans in conjunction with Executive Directive of Engineering to ensure proposed changes did not impact product performance.Senior Quality Engineer Key Impact: · Led team in achieving PPM of 10 or less and zero “A-level” customer defects. · Quality Engineer for first generation programmable driver inflator. Product line process verification/audit by customer (BMW) approved with zero findings eliminating production startup delay due to follow up actions. · Reduced production line manpower from 16 to 13 using Toyota Production System to eliminate waste and improve line balance, and improve first time pass quality from 85% to 98%.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Us

Hughes Aircraft was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded in 1932 by Howard Hughes. In 1997 the company was sold to Raytheon, a leader in defense, security, and civil markets throughout the world.Managed a business unit including manufacturing, quality, scheduling, and business activities that effectively collaborated with other departments. Coordinated new business proposals and customer requirements generating $ 25M in sales annually. Key Impact:· Developed a single unit test plan and acceptance certification which was approved by all flight test ranges. This eliminated 75% of test procedures and setup requirements. · Planned and controlled costs and schedules to reduce expenses and improve margins.· Reduced annual cost by 50% while improving plant site security by modernizing facility infrastructure. Earned Raytheon Company Summit Award (Performance Excellence) as Facility Security Officer.