Ian Nickerson Email & Phone Number

Seattle, Washington, United States

Greater Seattle Area

Division of Heico Corp, manufacturing raw materials and finished goods for Agricultural, Construction and Industrial Markets with total revenue of $110 million per year between two facilities, employing 300 people.Reporting to Vice President, responsible for day to day operations of 125,000 ton per year wire manufacturing plant with 15 distinct operating departments and four production support departments in a 24/7 365-days-a-year operation. Oversaw 110 union employees and 18 management employees in production, maintenance, scheduling, shipping and quality departments; responsible for meeting production and profitability targets, improving safety performance, setting and managing budget and all production-related staffing and training needs. Developed yearly and monthly forecasts and budgets in coordination with sales and accounting. Responsible for all personnel hiring and termination decisions. Annual budget of $17 million (M).• Responsible for first two profitable years since 2010.• Improved safety performance from an OSHA recordable injury rate of 13.47 to 4.93.• Saved $1.5 per year through process improvements to reduce quality downgrades and rejects by 85% • Improved on time delivery rate by 20%. • Maintained compliance with all required certifications including a successful transition from ISO-9001 2009 to ISO-9001 2015 and implementation of NTPEP certification.• Reduced plant inventory losses by over 75% saving over $750,000 a year through implementation of improved inventory management processes.• Implemented new plant visual factory screens to display plant KPI’s to drive employee engagement and continuous improvement• Took on additional responsibilities as acting HR Manager and acting Quality Manager on top of existing duties during two separate six-month vacancies.

Publicly traded integrated steel producer, manufacturing raw materials for automotive, pipe and tubular and food processing industry in United States and Europe, with yearly revenue of $12.9 billion across nine facilities worldwide with 29,000 total employees.Led the team responsible for centralizing and standardizing processes across all USS domestic facilities. Key areas of responsibility included standardizing procedures and ISO documentation as well as leading the teams responsible for maintaining ISO certification across all USS domestic flat roll mills, standardizing and verifying proper order entry and leading the team responsible for developing, trailing and tracking all new developmental high strength products for USS.

Reporting to General Manager, led a team of 10 managers in the creation of Lean/6 Sigma processes to be rolled out across all six domestic manufacturing sites, while implementing improvement projects to lower overall cost structure of the facility using lean manufacturing methods. Created structure for DMAIC problem-solving processes unique to US Steel to drive cost savings and oversaw training activities in Lean/6 Sigma for over 500 managers and 1000+ union employees.• Developed, managed and executed a pipeline of over 400 process improvement projects across operations, procurement, maintenance, engineering, commercial and sales that created savings of $150M over two years and lowered overall product cost by over 20%, while improving safety, quality, and productivity across the organization.• Implemented visual factory boards and 5S areas across entire primary operation to improve KPI’s and employee engagement, driving $10M in yearly yield savings in one area alone.• Coordinated with accounting on all projects to verify project savings, adjusted forecasts and ensured all savings were delivered to bottom line.

#1 Bop Shop

Reporting to Division Manager, responsible for day-to-day operations of steel manufacturing facility that included meeting production targets, executing required maintenance, ensuring safety performance, and managing budget priorities. Managed staff of 21 managers and over 250 union employees in a 24/7 365 days a year operation. Annual budget of $84M.• Achieved a record of over one year OSHA recordable injury-free amongst all employees. • Reduced year over year spending by over $4.2M annually.• Created and executed daily plans for production and maintenance. Achieved a 10-year high in productivity while improving overall maintenance reliability

Us Steel Gary Works

Reporting to Director of Quality Assurance, oversaw QA for flagship plant producing a variety of surface and internal critical applications including automotive, energy, food processing container, and appliance markets.• Developed new casting practices that reduced rework on critical pipe and tubular grades by 90% lowering production costs by 20%.Worked with vendors to develop and trial new higher viscosity mold fluxes that reduced downstream diversions and customer claims by 50%.• Implemented continuous improvement process that reduced chemistry misses by 20% to all-time record levels.• Established new alloy models in steel-making shops that reduced costs by over $10M per year.• Developed practices that successfully produced new high-strength grades including TRIP steels, only produced by six to ten mills worldwide.

Us Steel Gary Works

Responsible for liquid steel and slab quality performance at three different production facilities. Accountable for auditing of process and product produced and ensuring compliance to ISO/TS standards. Responsible for day-to-day maintenance of production processes and recipes.• Developed and designed new practices for automotive high strength development grades allowing expansion of automotive market share.• Worked with operations management to implement continuous improvement projects for cost and quality improvement.