Lead Engineer, Continuous Improvement Team
Columbia, Maryland, Us
Built, trained, and managed a Continuous Improvement Engineering Team of 7 responsible for CI project identification, definition, prioritization, selection, execution, and validation at both operations (product/process) and strategic business levels, responsible for $2.9 million in recorded hard project savings, and significant inventory and waste reduction. Main Accomplishments:• Successfully led 20+ complex product improvement projects within a high-volume manufacturing environment, based on data-driven Lean Six Sigma and Red X problem solving methodologies, with financial/operational impact analysis and executive-level reporting completed, resulting in $792k + in hard savings. This included our #1 scrap product, reducing scrap from 26% to 3% with total savings of $114k, and #1 customer quality concern, eliminating sorting and reducing scrap from 13% to < 1.5% with total savings of $144k.• Increased recycled material utilization on plastic product components through testing, analysis, and ERP system inventory management for a 5-year savings of over $950k, and a material inventory reduction of up to 80%.• Implemented a site-wide CI program for injection molded components, with 100+ small Kaizen events completed, achieving a 65% reduction in cosmetic and dimensional product defects, resulting in an estimated $773k in hard savings.• Developed and implemented a CI Lessons Learned tracking database to document product/process improvements, leverage those across other current/future products/processes, and facilitate organizational knowledge sharing. • Led the conception, development, and implementation of a new corporate project management system (MS Project Online) through detailed process mapping and “current state” vs. “future state” analysis, significantly increasing cross-departmental visibility of deliverables, lead times, and resource allocations.