Ricardo Apaez Email & Phone Number

Monterrey Y Alrededores, México

As innovation director of the Automotive Cluster - CLAUT, I encourage the member organizations to act as a team, think out of the box and execute challenging projects that will move their capabilities towards a more global and competitive source of automotive technology and innovation.We follow step by step a plan documented on a Technology Roadmap 2020-2025 and a Projects Roadmap.My daily activities and responsibilites are:Coordinator of the innovation council: This working group is integrated by 25 industry leaders and academic researchers. Here's where things are planned and happen. The key performance indicator is % of sales of new products / total sales. All the efforts/inititavies/projects, must impact this KPI.DRIVEN / CLAUT Innovation Center Director: CLAUT invested 2 million USD in software and hardware for design and simulation. All is installed and operating at the Research and Technology Innovation Park. The center operates with 17 people, 10 full time researchers, 4 master students and 3 engineering students. We develop mobility techonolgies to enable Connected, Autononomous, Shared and Electric modes of transportation.Director of the MAINFORUM: Mexico's Automotive Innovation Network Forum www.mainforum.org is the most important event in Mexico covering innovation and technology trends. The first edition was held in 2014 and a 2nd and 3rd ed. in 2016 and 2018 respectively. I coordinate the advisory board of the event for content definition, speakers recruitment and logistics.Support of the Master program in Automotive Engineering: This project started in 2012 in the innovation council and now it has +100 students in the pipeline and the 1st generation graduated. I support the universities, students and automotive companies on the succesfull operation of the academic program.

As the associate director, Im responsible of the Innovation, Operations, Sustainability and Supply Chain working groups. My team is integrated by 4 engineers + me. The Innovation and Operations groups are directly coordinated by me. Sustainability and Supply Chain are coordinated by members of my team.The Innovation group is focused on increasing the percentage of sales of products developed in the last 3 years out of total sales. To achieve this we work on funding procurement, technology management strategies implementation, infrastructure acquisition, specialized human resources development and networking. 3 examples of succesfull inititatives I have driven with this group are the organization of the first automotive technology forum ever organized in Mexico called the MAINFORUM2025, the launching of a Master of Science in Automotive Engineering program and the procurement of +30M USD dollars for the development of new product and process technologies.The operations group mainly works on Lean Manufacturing and the Toyota Production System (TPS) has been our flag. Methodologies such as 6Sigma or the model for excellence in manufacturing Shingo Prize have also been topics of hard work. This group is integrated by the COOs of the different companies associated to CLAUT and high level strategies are also discussed in this group. The objective is to increase the added value per payroll spent and the inventory turnover.As associate director, Im currently leading 2 strategic projects for the organization.Red AVANZA: Training platform to develop skilled technicians on critical specialties for the automotive industry. The first phase of the project consists of enabling training centers for tool and die maintenance, electromechanic maintenance, CNC machining, welding and assembly.Automotive Technology Center: Build the first Automotive Technology Development Center in Mexico open for any companiy willing to invest on R+D+i. It will start with a Simulation Lab.

The Automotive Cluster (CLAUT) is a nonprofit industrial association located in the Mexican northeastern city of Monterrey. It groups +90 organizations related to the automotive industry. Within this organizations there are 4 OEMs, 25 Tier 1 suppliers, 50 Tier 2 suppliers, Universities, R+D centers and the government.My entry position was as a Jr. Coordinator in charge of the Energy Efficiency and Tooling working groups.The objective of the Energy Efficiency group was to develop and implement best practices on the efficient use of energy in a manufacturing facility. I was in charge of this group from November 2009 until December 2011, achieving savings for $25M USD.The objective of the Tooling group was to identify the main obstacles that the Tool and Die manufacturing industry has in Mexico to grow. Year by year, +3 billion USD are imported to Mexico of stamping dies, plastic injection molds, forging dies and foundry molds. The conclusions were that the most critical issue is the skilled labor force at a technician level on this skilled trades, then the supply chain and finally the technology.On January 2011 I became a Sr. Coordinator. I started coordinating the sustainability working group and the consolidated purchasing.I drove the strategic planning from zero for the sustanability group and achieved to create sustainability policies, strategic plans, reports and multiple projects with possitive impact on an area under the umbrella of sustainability.On the consolidated purchasing group I managed 3 different processes of bidding, achieving negotiations with a 10-15% of savings on the cost of goods.

México

Arnecom Industrias was a joint venture of the Mexican Holding Group Xignux and the Japanese company Yazaki. Now the company is 100% Yazaki.The main products manufactured in Monterrey are wire harnesses, cable and instrument panel clusters.I was in the engineering area of the instrument panel cluster plant and responsible of launching the SMT production line for the first product that this business unit supplied to Ford. It was a warning heads up display. Among my responsibilities I had to manage the compliance of all the automotive core tools (APQP, FMEA, PPP/QCP, PPAP, DRBFM, etc.), develop the engineering of the production line, specification, purchasing and installation of the machines and equipment and the pre-production runs until the start of production.After this project, Ford continued assigning new projects to the company.Once this product was launched, I also took responsibility of the Toyota products (Tundra and Tacoma).

Master Of Engineering - Meng, Innovation And Technology Management

Research Topic: Circular Economy of Autoparts as a Strategy to Achieve Carbon Neutrality

Management Skills Diploma, Management

Product Development Engineer, New Automotive Products

Material Selection, Product Development Cycle, CAD/CAE Design

Certified Energy Manager, Electric And Thermal Energy

Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energies Champion

Energy Leader, Energy Management

Energy Management/Energy Efficiency Policy Maker and Organizational Strategy

B.S. Mechatronics Engineering

Student Development Certificate

Minor In Automotive Engineering

Main Courses: Vehicle Dynamics, electronics, powersystems and design