Leveraging the CDI continuous improvement system in two large multi-national companies led to significant performance improvement and positive job/career opportunities for those that engaged in the process. The passion for this system has driven Robert to join the CDI team and assist other organizations in the pursuit of Operational Excellence.A world-class organization should engage everyone in continuous improvement toward a vision of excellence. The CDI system develops internal leaders to become capable to develop committed, competent and confident team members, continuously seeking to improve Safety, Quality, Speed, Cost and People performance. The system is a hands-on approach that transforms front line leaders into improvement specialists where lean practices become part of their DNA and results are sustained through a unique coaching review process. This ensures a culture of never-ending improvement and sustainability through management changes.

Rejoined Haskell upon returning to Florida.

Responsible for strategy development and deployment of Lean tools and systems for Global Operations and Central functions. Recognized company expert for implementing Lean in 31 factories with over 21k employees. Partnered with CDI Connect to deploy this world class employee engagement system.

Board member responsible for the world's largest factory producing fine cut tobacco. Implemented an employee engagement continuous improvement program which leveraged Lean tools for all employees to identify and resolve root cause issues. The success of this program was recognized globally as a best practice and subsequently lead to promotion to our head office in Hamburg, Germany.

Accountable for two large manufacturing facilities in Russia with 1,000 employees each. Based at the Volgograd (Stalingrad) factory and with the Yaroslavl factory (near Moscow) as a direct report. The Volgograd factory is the East Europe Centre of Excellence for Imperial Tobacco with all new formats and machinery implemented at this location. Both facilities produce cigarettes with exports throughout Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Haskell is a Architecture, Engineering, Construction (AEC) company that is well known for their Design/Build capabilities. My primary focus was in facility design and construction for the Food & Beverage industry. With the USA in a significant recession in 2009/2010, Haskell wanted to leverage my 28 years of Food & Beverage Operations experience to develop a broader customer base.

North American Manufacturing encompassed 5 manufacturing facilities in the US and Canada along with engineering, process, technical, quality and capital investment. Nine direct reports included 5 site managers, regional technical support, engineering and quality managers.

Responsible for technical oversight of a full division of Frito-Lay manufacturing (14 facilities), including capital execution and management of over $130M in projects. Facilitated site productivity planning to ensure overall corporate financial plan was achieved. Developed maintenance and project skills for plant professionals. Directed corporate initiatives for the site expansions and major projects. Coordinated division asset care strategies and facility condition assessments. Developed multi-year divisional capex plan.

Managed supply chain operations through a multi-tiered distribution network to Frito-Lay sales. Responsible for 160 operations associates and eight managers with an operating budget of $10 M. Instrumental in implementing a $7M automation project that increased warehouse capacity by 38% and reduced operating costs by $1.4M annually. Overall, this asignment was used as a transition back to the USA to gain supply chain knowledge to complement my manufacturing and head office assignments.

Selected by the Sr VP of Operations for this international developmental assignment. Responsible for the turnaround for a recently purchased 300 employee unionized site that produced 40% of the total business volume for Australia and had an operating budget of $35M. Reorganized plant management team, spent extensive time on the production floor to gain understanding of site issues and gain committment of team members in building an overall site improvement plan. Successfully implemented an employee engagement program as a key to improving site performance from the worst in the country to the top performing plant by 2002. Assisted in the rollout of Frito-Lay USA plant systems to the other sites as a member of the Australia Leadership Team. Served as the national enabler for potato chip which ultimately enabled export of this product into the Asian market.

Oversaw all aspects of the installation and start-up of this new 420,000 sf, $120M manufacturing site with 350 employees. Defined and staffed manager roles, hired site employees, deevloped site policies and implemented all company systems as a member of the plant leadership team. Responsible for all site construction coordination and was the operational technical point with corporate R&D and Engineering on all new process equipment and facility design decisions. Coordinated all plant commisioning activities and designed plant systems to optimize on-going production. Managed plant technical staff of 28 employees and 6 professionals with an operating budget of $7M. Provided legacy of hiring and retaining highly technically competent employees.

Combined role responsible for all factory finance and technical (maintenance and capex). planning responsibility for all site financial plans, including all manufacturing costs. The total operating budget was $18M. Total plant employment of 130 associates.

12 years of experience within the headquarters engineering department. Project Management, Packaging and Processing design, Mechanical Systems (HVAC, Boilers,...)