Roger Smith Email & Phone Number

Managed a development staff consisting of 5 development engineers and 2 technicians; and managed a technical staff consisting of 3 engineers and 3 technicians including lab operation and testing. Responsible for budget forecast and control for the business unit. •Responsible for planning, coordination, testing, and implementation of new product developments. •Facilitated vendor selection and communication as required for new and improved chemicals and materials. •Maintained partnerships with manufacturing teams, technical teams, development teams, and customers regarding existing product improvements and new development efforts. •Wrote the technical, coating, print, and incising sections of the 2006 military camouflage proposal, resulting in the company receiving a joint award that could reach $1 billion dollars over 10 years.

Managed 4 salaried supervisors, 1 hourly manager and 52 hourly associates. Responsible for the design, installation and startup of Coating and Lamination lines; and product evaluations for Quality Improvement, Cost Reductions, and Research and Development. •Manufacturing included the foam finishing, DMF solvent coating line, laminators, foam finish application, heat set ranges, and pad finish applications. Finishes included FR, soil and water repellency, and fabric modifiers. •Products were woven, knit, and non-woven for apparel, military, medical, and home furnishing markets. •Led a team that designed and developed unique lamination and coating lines for high-performance active wear. •Led the team that redesigned coagulation coating line and chemical system. •Developed surgical medical fabric using plasma-treated fabrics to improve coating adhesion, soil resistance, and FR performance.

Managed 3 supervisors, 1 technical manager, 1 inventory manager, 1 chemist, and 65 hourly associates. Responsible for coating and finishing machine design, installation & startup. Conducted product evaluations for Quality Improvement, Cost Reductions, & Research & Development efforts. •Manufacturing included foam coating lines, transfer print machines, heat set ranges, finishing pads, laminator, nappers, shearing, emboss roll calender, finishing calenders, fabric inspection machines, & gravure roll finish application machines. •Products were knit, woven, and stitch bonded for technical, home furnishing, apparel, automotive, & industrial markets. •Led efforts to develop a vacuum cleaner material to eliminate the need for a paper bag liner. Resulted in market exclusive for 3 years, sales over $20 million. •Led efforts to develop a coated, dye-able material for vertical blinds. Resuled in over $15 million per year in sales.

Senior Process Improvement Manager, Department Manager, Corporate Junior Development Engineer Responsible for coating, finishing machine designs, installations, and startups. Designed woven and knit fabrics for industrial, automotive, technical, and apparel markets. Finishing processes included foam coating line, nappers, fabric sanders, knit slitters, heat set ranges, finishing ranges, dye jets, dye becks, tubular dyers and finishing pads. •Addressed slow coating line production speed of 8-10 ypm, adjusted coating chemical chemistry and machine set-up, and increased production speed by 500% to 55-60 ypm. •Addressed manufacturing and raw material cost of the main tufted fabric in the Industrial Fabrics Division. Replaced yarn with a company proprietary textured polyester yarn, thus reducing picks and fabric weight while increasing cover facto. Improved the strength and durability, resulting in an annual savings of $20 million.