Laura Zuleger Email & Phone Number

Madison, Wi, Us

Responsible for:* Development of an Annual Plant strategic plan that supports the Aprilaire Strategic Plan. * Establishing a culture of continuous improvement in all levels of the Plant, and for developing and executing plans that achieve continuous improvement in all Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). This includes the deployment of methodologies, such as, Lean principles, 6 Sigma skills, OEE metrics, Line Management Teams, and problem solving skills. * Developing, monitoring, and achieving the financial plans for the Plant. * Development and deployment of the total Plant quality system that pertains to suppliers, inputs, processes, outputs, and customers. * All aspects of safety performance in the Plant. Works with the Safety Leader to develop KPI’s, assess risks, develop and implement improvement plans, and maintain compliance with all safety rules and regulations* Development of the Plant annual and 5 year capital plans that support the Aprilaire Strategic Plan.* Effective control of inventory, including the storage and movement systems, cycle count program, and inventory accuracy metrics.

Madison, Wi, Us

In my role as Plant Manager, I have delivered consistent results over the past 5 years, driving robust financial, operational and strategic performance, enabling double digit growth for Research Products/AprilAire. Accomplishments include: * Responsible for approximately $175M CoGM and nearly 200 union employees across 3 shifts. * Realized nearly $6.5M in cost savings through automation and process improvements. * Realized 10% reduction in standard cost of our main product line.* Achieved >100% volume growth in our media capacity.* Landed $18M in capital equipment.* Realized 90% reduction in work comp costs over past 2 years, halving safety incident rates across multiple consecutive years.* Demonstrated significant improvement in financial results, reducing plant variances to standard against strong headwinds of unforecasted double-digit growth and pandemic labor shortages. * 50% reduction in customer complaints across multiple consecutive years* Developed and implemented automation strategic roadmap with the long term target of 2X output with half the labor on most critical pieces of equipment.* Implemented creative staffing solutions including weekend crews to accommodate unforecasted double-digit growth during the pandemic. * Developed and maintained 5-yr capacity and capex planning models* Consistently delivered 100% production to targets across multiple years* Built and mentored a cohesive team of high performing young leaders* Realized voluntary turnover rate a fraction of industry average* Bargained 2 union contracts* Developed and executed annual strategic plants for the Madison plant. * Established a culture of continuous improvement in all levels of the Plant. Developed and executed continuous improvement initiatives including deployment of methodologies, such as, Lean principles, 6 Sigma skills, OEE metrics, Line Management Teams, and root cause problem solving skills.

Fort Atkinson, Wi, Us

Direct all manufacturing, engineering, quality, production control and supply chain processes for ETI, a multi-site electronics contract manufacturer. Responsible for delivering financial results through unparalleled customer satisfaction driven by world class quality, on-time delivery, and cost effective products. Develop and implement strategies for assuring overall site safety for our employees. Implement Lean strategies and visual management systems to drive process awareness, accountability and a competitive cost structure.

Milwaukee, Wi, Us

Managing the Engineering Dept’s tactical and strategic project responsibilities as well as driving the Continuous Improvement program in the Columbus manufacturing facility. Executing company’s Continuous Improvement objectives. Utilizing metrics, Lean manufacturing tools and facilitate kaizen events in both the manufacturing and office environments to drive improvements in safety, quality, delivery and cost. Responsible for the on-going strategy and direction of Lean program to continually add value to our customers and to aggressively drive Lean principles and processes throughout the facility. Responsible for CapEx investment in the manufacturing process. Resolve production and customer problems utilizing an 8D methodology or A3 techniques. Provide training and coaching on Lean tools and principles.

Providing Lean manufacturing and project management consulting work with a local manufacturing partner relocating their manufacturing facility. ● Contributed to new Lean shop floor and warehouse layout consistent with customer value streams● Developing warehouse plan to consolidate all off-site storage into point-of-use storage in new building● Compiled electrical, compressed air, plumbing, security, and IT bid packages for RFQ process● Compiling and managing the detailed project move plan

Waterloo, Wi, Us

Accountable for the entire custom Project One manufacturing process beginning with molding raw carbon into bike frames, through our custom paint shop and ultimately building it into an amazing bike in the shortest lead-time possible! • Assembled a team of great managers and SME's to drive world class performance manufacturing at the lowest cost. • Implemented a plant-wide manufacturing performance scorecard system that drove departmental accountability, improved lead-time and lowered cost. Utilized wildly successful employee recognition boards. • Developed comprehensive employee communication processes that started with daily scorecard meetings (did we "win or lose" today), included monthly Dept meetings, and Quarterly Town Hall business update meetings and intermittent communication points in between helped drive our success.

Waterloo, Wi, Us

Directed the multi-national global QA functions for Trek Bicycles including both overseas contract manufacturing as well as Trek's own manufacturing facilities. Functional areas of responsibility include manufacturing operational quality, Asia supplier quality team, and product development quality engineers. Our goal was to reduce the total cost of quality by decreasing risk throughout the life cycle of our product, assuring designed in quality, early detection of field issues, and elimination of warranty issues. • Restructured the Global QA team including creation of Product Quality Engineers role responsible for owning all aspects of a product line’s life cycle from concept initiation through end-of-life• Created QA Scorecard to drive operational improvement and accountability throughout the QA organization • Created a Supplier Scorecard calculated with on-time/on-quality deliveries and quality holds

North Shields Uk / Broken Arrow Usa, Oo

Managed all manufacturing operations for OSECO, a growing manufacturer of rupture disks and pressure intelligence. Employing my passion for Lean/CI, ran many high impact manufacturing and business process kaizen events. • Assisted in developing our own in-house CI/Kaizen facilitator training. • Developed both a formal 2-tired Stage-Gate product development process • Implemented formal Project Management Office. Our PMO included personnel selection, training, process development and documentation.

Vancouver, Washington, Us

Created, implemented and maintained corporate wide corrective action, product containment, and warranty reduction processes. ● Created a cross-functional team and developed an 18 month roadmap to get the team and auditors trained and the organization ISO certified, providing the building blocks and accountability to achieve zero major non-conformances ● Defined warranty metrics for tracking quality improvement for commercial equipment ● Directed the design upgrade of over 5000 pieces of commercial equipment in the customer base● Eliminated 100 customer issues in 12 months

Vancouver, Washington, Us

Responsible for establishing and maintaining operational activities for $6 million of material including movement from receiving through whole goods shipping, inventory accuracy and scheduling to maintain raw and finished goods inventory targets and meet customer requirements. Department included 1 supervisor, 1 cycle count analyst and 15 hourly material handlers and receiving clerks

Vancouver, Washington, Us

Assumed a new role in the company to manage a strategic corporate initiative to establish and maintain operational activities for $6M of material including movement from receiving through whole goods shipping, inventory accuracy and scheduling. ● Utilized Lean concepts such as pull systems, Kanbans, tugger material delivery system, and Plan For Every Part (PFEP) to maintain raw and finished goods inventory targets while meeting customer requirements ● Increased inventory accuracy from 60% to 85% & implemented supply chain Kanbans

Vancouver, Washington, Us

Responsible for plant QA functions including PPAP, vendor certification, corrective/preventive actions, receiving inspection, MRB, calibration, inspection and audit processes, field warranty tracking and internal audit/ISO activities. Department included 1 Quality Engineer, 4 Engineering Technicians and 3 Inspectors.

Vancouver, Washington, Us

Responsible for establishing and maintaining high quality, safe and effective work practices within assigned areas. Department included 65 hourly employees.

Vancouver, Washington, Us

Responsible for all facets of manufacturing engineering including developing processes, methods, tooling, and production controls

Detroit, Michigan, Us

Responsible for the Manufacturing Engineering portion of the medium duty truck joint venture with Isuzu from prototype through start of production in the assembly plant. Included future product designs from prototype through start of production in the assembly plant. Focused on design-for-assembly, defining assembly process, tooling and manpower requirements.

Detroit, Michigan, Us

Responsible for determining root cause and resolution of any build related issues on the vehicle assembly line. Included verification of vehicle build to print, part to print, resolution of supplier quality and design related issues.

Detroit, Michigan, Us

Supervised 50 union hourly employees. Responsible for schedule attainment, quality, safety and budget compliance.

Detroit, Michigan, Us

Basic IE work including time studies, down time analysis, routing and BOM maintenance, Lean and other continuous improvement projects.

Ms, Engineering & Technology Management

Bs, Industrial Engineering