Gregory D. Kerr Email and Phone Number

Oversee multiple manufacturing locations and nationwide logistics.

Driving a strategic vision for the largest OEM paint manufacturing facility in the US and Canada. Concentrating on ownership and extreme clarity of the entire value stream while improving overall customer satisfaction and employee morale.

Since 2016, I've been unfolding 5-fold strategy (safety, quality, cost, delivery, employee engagement) in the United States' largest truck and bus tire-producing plant. My facility has >2K employees and $400M in internal recoveries and is the largest bias/radial aircraft tire-producing plant in the world. With operations this large, I'm constantly identifying current and future needs and improvement opportunities-and I'm loving every moment as I support Goodyear's quest for excellence. My key contributions include:→Revamping facility and skyrocketing employee satisfaction-I ended Danville's history of management turn-over by exhibiting long-term personal investment in plant, employees, and community.→Facilitating new safety standards and overcoming 11-month period that saw 4 manufacturing-related fatalities-I brought the plant to record safety performance in 2017 and earned OSHA's respect. →Driving cost-performance improvement, which increased radial aero tire production 8.2% YOY and decreased cost-per-tire overtime 6%.→Maximizing employee relations, which realized 59% YOY union grievances drop and 34% YOY employee hot-line decline.

After being handpicked for the Manufacturing Director position, I led cross-cultural change in the Social Circle facility by personally making connections with stakeholders at all organizational levels. A main area of my focus during this time was aligning daily labor and machine utilization to supply-chain requirements. My key contributions included:→Securing funding to clean and remodel all facility restrooms and locker rooms within 90 days of assignment. →Meeting production goals for 14-consecutive months by instilling sense of ownership through entire workforce. →Elevating machine uptime 11% by targeting preventative maintenance. →Stabilizing operations and solidifying Social Circle's place as a consistent supplier to Goodyear's re-tread business needs.

With a 'TPM expert' reputation under my belt, I responded to the call to this position. I was recruited for my in-depth understanding of plant optimization processes. Over the next 2 years, I implemented TPM into 11 North American facilities. My key contributions included:→Expanding TPM understanding by broadening program scope beyond initial 5S processes. The program was subsequently adopted into what is now known as Operation Excellence. →Including preventative maintenance, operator machine inspection checks, operator maintenance training, and operator education into the program.→Adding 258 pieces of equipment to process (59 into level 1 and 23 into level 2).→Working alongside Gadsden Plant to flesh-out robust TPM program-I concentrated on AM, PM, quality, safety, and training.

After successfully closing down our Union City plant with zero issues, I set my focus on the ICM facility (our batch operations produced >1K tires per day and we were the sole supplier for NASCAR and NHRA). We saw immediate hourly-labor and overtime reduction. I energized my workforce of 75 salary/350 hourly employees through open dialogue, showing them they had a place and voice. I also participated in sales and operations planning (S&OP) and charted requirements versus committed capacity (R vs. CC) processes. My key contributions included:→Catapulting mix-center production 20M pounds by supplying compound for Virginia sister facility. →Forging strong, collaborative relationships with union representatives-I obtained union buy-in and achieved 7% daily overtime reduction. →Appointing a cross-functional team to review change-overs, which were needed to supply change concurrency. This reduced waste, which delivered 35% YOY overtime improvement, 11% YOY operating expense improvement, and $0.23/tire-labor cost-reduction.

As Production Manager, I blended authority and influence to remove barriers that prevented interdepartmental collaboration. Under my supervision, our facility delivered top-notch product while I drove improvements in employee safety and internal recoveries.My key contributions included:→Guiding Union City facility through shutdown and protecting company interests while ensuring employee safety-I stepped in as acting plant manager and closed this 2K-person plant with zero customer-quality, employee-safety, or union-related issues (and received Chairman's Leadership award for outstanding management of assignment). →Improving cost-per-tire 21% within single year by focusing on related reductions. →Eliminating 2 days in transition mixing department process, which saved $0.59/tire-cost.→Overrunning production for significant cost-savings-I added a day to manufacturing operations to meet market demand and provide additional 500K tires above 2009 AOP.

My accomplishments in the tire room were noticed and it wasn't long before I was running operations for the final finish business center. I employed Japanese-style production management to streamline accuracy and coordinate inspection process and also improved equipment reliability to ensure continuous product flow. My key contributions included:→Lowering indirect labor 6% through job-combination techniques and reducing direct labor 9% by focusing on standards and job requirements. →Participating as key player in the development of a pull-system model marked for implementation throughout entire UC facility. →Reducing electrical consumption by focusing energy-management on compressed-air-leak repairs. →Investigating machine fires-I identified and eliminated the issue to reduce instances >90%.

In my first year with Goodyear, I overhauled the tire room business center. By introducing performance management standards and TPM (5S) processes, we saw immediate improvement in this facility that produced 35K tires per day (with concurrency of >100). I improved employee engagement, ensured balance-off and change-over schedule adherence, and helmed review, machine allocation, and forward-view scheduling.My key contributions included:→Slashing salary headcount 50% by total floor supervision restructure. →Leveraging Kaizen methods to reduce waste generation. →Producing tread-splice detection system prototype by collaborating with quality department on design and development and utilizing components purchased from Radio Shack.

Mastering Toyota's TPS philosophy, I set to work streamlining operations and improving EBIT for this 600-person JIT automotive supplier. As acting GM, it was my job to lead product launches, train teams, and develop process plans and production trials. My changes improved direct and indirect labor costs, inventory turns, and scrap and purchase burdens. My key contributions included:→Reducing internal/external defects through quality planning methodology process. →Creating training program centered on Toyota Production Process, teaching team 5S, standardized work, Kanban, one-piece flow, level production (Hejunka), and built-in quality (Jidoka). →Achieving best labor cost by directing 20-member kaizen task force, which focused on manufacturing efficiency improvements and headcount control.