Ryan Nielsen Email & Phone Number

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

River Falls, WI

• Managed three shift supervisors with a total team of 60+ employees for assembly, molding and support. Responsible for facility metrics around Safety, Quality, Delivery and Cost. Customer-facing point-of-contact for.
• Led a team through critical problem solving and root cause analysis to reintroduce production for a top-tier customer
• Integrated second-generation medical device and drove improvements to reduce rolled throughput scrap from 42% to 11%
• Designed and communicated a strategic production plan for new customer

Hudson, WI

• Oversaw Manufacturing Engineers, Electronics Integration and Purchasing employees, along with responsibility for facility management and site expansion.
• Increased staff of engineers and technicians from 8 to 21 to support business growth
• Provided work direction to staff supporting multi-million dollar global medical device manufacturing for new product introduction, process development and automation per corporate, FDA, ITAR and ISO standards
• Planned and executed space reallocation for two facilities to support increased customer demand, including additional internal seating, re-layout of cleanrooms and added off-site test engineering facility. Worked.

Hudson, WI

• Supported day-to-day operations of Purchasing, Customer Service, Scheduling, Shipping, Receiving, Process Engineering and Technical Support for molding and assembly. Served as interim Quality Manager for six (6) months.
• Allocated resources to support multiple global program management teams
• Forecasted capital expenditures for improvement, replacement, or modification to production equipment and facilities
• Added multiple Quality Engineers to support increased global development teams

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

• Managed a team of engineers, technicians and support staff for integration of new product introduction and acquisitions. Reviewed project status and communicated progress to multiple management levels.
• Ran a team to successfully transfer and integrate a takeover medical device line, including sourcing and validation of materials and equipment, execution of validation protocols and sterilization qualification.
• Developed engineers and technicians to ensure technical knowledge base is aligned with business requirements
• Drove a culture to reduce process variation and improve quality through tooling improvements and process automation

St. Paul, MN

• Implemented continuous improvement projects utilizing Lean 6-Sigma methodology.
• Eliminated returned material backlog in Receiving and Failure Analysis in one (1) month
• Completed training plan, through-put efficiency and metrics for facility ramp-up
• Redesigned corporate Orange Belt Lean 6-Sigma curriculum and executed training and certification to all levels of employees

Plymouth, MN

• Created and implemented a plant wide data driven continuous improvement strategy. Developed, trained and mentored facility Green Belts, Kaizen leaders and upper management / sponsors through the use of Lean 6-Sigma.
• Managed projects totaling over $1,000,000 in annual savings
• Implemented strategic plans for 25 Kaizen projects of $650,000 in annual savings
• Streamlined Service process saving $380,000 and realized a 50% increase in thru-put

Plymouth, MN

• Mentored and managed staff of eight Manufacturing Engineers and Technicians with responsibility for Production, Service and Repair.
• Led the design, development, integration and validation of an innovative shop floor traceability software creating a fully-electronic biometric system per 21 CFR Part 11
• Eliminated all hardcopy traceability and quality verification with overall estimated annual saving of over $750,000
• Achieved cost savings over $500,000 through 30 process improvement projects

Plymouth, MN

• Implemented a culture shift throughout the Production organization. Improved training and compliance to meet regulatory standards. Directed and developed Production employees in process and system improvement, as well.
• Created shop floor tracking metrics to evaluate assembly processes and drove changes to realize improvements in compliance by 60% and reduced sub-assembly production errors by over 50%
• Coordinated an accelerated production increase of 350% and increased staff from 30 to 78 employees to meet key customer contract requirements
• Developed a DMAIC improvement program that decreased manual documentation errors by 70% and defects pre million Reduced by 40% across the Production floor

New Richmond, WI

• Functioned as customer-facing technical resource for Marketing and Sales organization to develop and expand contract manufacturing for the production facility.
• Identified need to create new position and justified for management approval
• Created start-up strategy for Puerto Rican facility, including site selection, staffing, finance, engineering and production transfer and educated upper management on the island’s culture
• Led and completed an accelerated timeline to transfer supplier business, including detailed strategic plans resulting in zero production downtime to customer, full re-validation of equipment, system technology and.

New Richmond, WI

• Managed the development, improvement and integration of key suppliers and subcontractors.
• Created supplier quality scorecard systems for two business units
• Improved defect rates in key subcontractor programs, including return dollars by 90%, corrective actions by 43%, first pass yield by 45%, MRB by 50% and scrap by 80%
• Communicated results and improvement opportunities to internal management and subcontractors on a quarterly basis

Minneapolis, MN

• Planned and executed eight production line transfer strategies to Puerto Rican facility. Created schedules to manage resources, procure tooling, equipment and materials, and defined validation requirements. Managed.
• Owned planning and control for annual transfer operating budget of $3,500,000
• Reduced cycle time by 40% and achieved labor/burden savings of over $9,000,000
• Justified and coordinated a $1,460,000 manufacturing facility expansion in Puerto Rico

Minneapolis, MN

• Guided multiple corporate global projects and managed resources in conjunction with offshore facilities in Switzerland and Holland.
• Created system to ship sub-assembled devices to international distribution location allowing for site-specific packaging
• Reduced labor costs by $390,000, cycle time by 50%, and WIP inventory by 75%
• Improved product quality, decreased indirect labor and produced annual savings of over $1,000,000

Minneapolis, MN

• Led adaptive redesign, development, integration and validation of next-generation label printing software and technology. Designed and documented $500,000 facility for in-house 100% EtO sterilization. Supervised three.
• Improved cycle time by 30%, labor costs by 40% and material costs by 75%
• Eliminated 80% of down-time and lowered process-related scrap by 90%
• Shortened printing time by 30-60%, reduced labor by 40% and eliminated 90% of operator errors due to data entry

St. Paul, MN

Masters Of Science, Manufacturing Systems

Bachelor Of Science, Industrial Technology