Exploring new challenges and opportunities

Responsible for 75 Quality professionals spread across seven facilities in North and South America.

• Transitioning to new role. Responsible for resolving supplier quality issues for a global division. Currently addressing quality issues involving PCBAs, injection molding, die casting, and metal stamping vendors. • Special project to reduce scrap charges by 50% in 2020 at a major production site. Utilizing Kaizen, Poka-Yoke, Kata, and Gemba concepts to focus on process responsible for generating 90% of scrap at site.• Special project to resolve capacity issues at underperforming site. Result was an increase in daily rolling throughput yield from 38% to 71% and a 50% reduction in RMA backlog. Also addressed QMS shortfalls at site.• Key contributor on $250 million NPI project for new flagship electricity meter. Successfully met all contractual deadlines for certifications and FAT samples avoiding liquidated damages.• Responsible for ensuring electricity products are certified to ANSI standards and UL Listed.• Responsible for writing all quality responses to customer complaints. Routinely collaborated with Legal for approval to externally publish responses.• After deposition in customer litigation, leveraged lessons learned to facilitate Engineering and Quality culture changes regarding use of non-precise language in communications.• Developed mitigation plans in conjunction with Sourcing and Engineering for several significant supply chain interruptions due to vendor actions and failures. • Managed 14-person team consisting of Product Engineering, Test Engineering, and Quality personnel. Team supported NPI projects, external production issues, field failures, CE/VE efforts, product quality, ISO-9001 compliance, and customer complaints.• Responsible for the quality of all PCBAs and assemblies purchased from North America vendors. Performed numerous onsite audits, oversaw new product introductions, and drove root cause analysis on production issues at vendor sites.• Quality management representative to Canadian and Mexican regulatory agencies.

•Managed 9-person team consisting of Product Engineering and Quality personnel. •Responsible for the quality of all PCBAs and assemblies purchased from N.A. vendors. Performed numerous onsite audits, oversaw new product introductions, and drove root cause analysis on production issues at vendor sites.•Quality POC for key customers addressing quality concerns. Drove root cause analysis, corrective actions, and failure reports including legacy field issue involving 1.9 million units.•Key contributor in the selection of new vendors to resolve quality issues and achieve required cost reductions.•SPOC for transitioning production of a metering product from US to Romania. Consulted on European PCBA vendor selection.•Led cross-functional teams to address nonconforming material issues from various vendors. Developed risk assessments and mitigation plans to limit production downtime, field exposure, and liability.•Introduced procedures at Elster N.A. manufacturing sites and vendors to minimize inventory and scrap charges. Reclamation procedures avoided of $875,000 in scrap charges in 2014.•Drove quality and yield improvements at Elster N.A. manufacturing sites. Primary example was implementation of series of projects to reduce PCBA damage from ESD. Reduced PCBA scrap costs by $20,000 in first month.•Assured all NP projects meet DfX requirements and coordinated the delivery of test hardware and software required for mass production. •Escalated field issues and quality related stop production orders to senior management team.•Key stakeholder in cross-functional team responsible for acquiring UL Listing for Elster electricity meters.•Supported Sourcing initiatives to eliminate sole-source components or to realize cost savings. Responsible for providing guidance on quality risks associated with proposals.•Approver for all ISO-9001 documentation changes and Engineering Change Notices for intrinsically safe and UL-listed products and components.

•Managed 7-person Drafting team. Drove initiatives to modernize ECN management, BOM maintenance, and drawing systems, resulting in wider interdepartmental access and reduced labor requirements. Transitioned to management of 6-person Product Engineering in 2013.•Led project to implement Build-To-Box capability for two product lines. Result was increased capacity, reduced lead times and product cost due to direct shipment.•Architected an Elster-owned, real-time product test system. Was working leader of software development team that implemented the system. Resulted in replacement of single-source vendor using proprietary test systems with multiple PCBA vendors using the Elster system. Ability to rapidly replace vendors resulted in expedited realization of cost savings and higher quality material. •Utilized data analytics to generate and present trend and in-depth analysis on product quality and field performance reports to senior management. Additionally supported Marketing and Sales personnel by providing customer-specific quality metrics related to product quality.•Worked closely with Design Engineering and Sourcing on all NPI projects to assure successful production transitions.•Designed and implemented an automated reporting system to monitor production yields of vendors on a daily basis. Escalated all reported issues to vendor and Product Engineers for resolution.•Subject Matter Expert for Engineering and Quality departments during conversion from previous ERP system to SAP. Led conversion from fixed BOM to Variant Configuration in SAP for primary product lines.•Database administrator for SQL Servers deployed within Elster and five remote vendor sites in the US and Mexico.

•Designed and developed real-time monitoring system of a Mexican PCBA vendor’s production line. Provided ability to reject PCBA lots before shipment that did failed to meet requirements.•Led conversion project to port a legacy, custom production system to a Windows-based solution and was database architect for the project. Result of project was reduction in system downtime and a 10% increase in capacity due to accelerated database performance.•Installed electricity meter production systems at joint venture sites in Russia and Canada.•Trained production support teams from six countries on electricity meter manufacturing systems. Result was penetration of ABB electricity products into Central and Eastern Europe, India, and Asia.•Selected to participate in the Developing ABB Leaders program.

•Technical implementer for a continuous improvement project for an electronics firm to reduce order errors and increase operational efficiencies. Project netted $3.8 million in cost savings in first year.•Designed and developed a production system for a large tobacco processing firm. The system was deployed at the client's three main production facilities. The result was the elimination of $250,000 in lost material per year.•Developed a commercial application for a client to measure and display power quality data. Application release date was extremely aggressive to coincide with introduction of new flagship electricity meter at industry trade show. •Developed inventory tracking and shipping system for a large tobacco firm. System tracked the location of more than 120,000 finished good packages across warehouse network. System also verified CONEX contents before generating required shipping documents. Resulted in elimination of annual physical inventory which saved three weeks of warehouse shutdown each year.•Developed a commodity market simulation tool to maximize client’s profits in an international marketplace by calculating daily pricing guidance for their buyers. Result was a doubling of profits.•Developed an inventory system for a government agency regulating tobacco price support. System reconciled received shipments against invoices, validated container weights, and provided location tracking throughout the warehouse network. System reduced overpayments by 5% in the first year.•Managed a decision support system to predict future HMO costs for a hospital chain. Performed data analytics to assist in HMO contract bidding and respond to CMS billing inquiries.

•Developed a commercial software package for an electronics firm to control and configure power line carrier devices. •Designed and developed a packaging system for a tobacco firm to label processed material.•Sole supporter for electronics production system in a 20x6 scenario. Troubleshot hardware and software failures. Also supported order processing, product labeling, device testing, and custom reporting.•Reverse engineered communications protocols for a firm and enhanced client’s proprietary communications software.•Received Outstanding Excellence Awards in both 1991 and 1992 as a top consulting revenue generator.

•Developed embedded software systems for naval airframes as part of large development team. Adhered to formal software engineering practices and military standards.•Sole developer of SCO Xenix device driver to interface with naval equipment for analysis of misson data.