Thomas Eberle Email & Phone Number

Lodi, Wisconsin, United States

Reporting to the President, responsible for profit and loss of the manufacturing plant. Directed Manufacturing areas in the scheduling, production and shipping of quality products on-time and under cost.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States

Working as an Assistant Professor within the Rader School of Business, provide academic instruction to business undergraduate and graduate students in the areas of Operations Management, Project Management, Supply Chain and Logistics as well as LEAN-6 Sigma and Continuous Improvement. Utilizing my past work experience, I have expanded the curriculum in several courses as a means of sharing "real world" examples to classroom business theory.

Greater Milwaukee Area

Working in the Mechanical Engineering department, provide academic instruction to engineering and business students in the areas of Project Management, Production Management, Engineering Economy, Materials and Manufacturing Processes and Production & Inventory Control. I have also been assigned advisory responsibilities on both Junior and Senior Design project teams.

Madison, Wisconsin Area, Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin

Working with Business and Industry, provide on-site training to management, technical and production staff. Meet with client companies to discuss and understand expectations. Develop customized curriculum in Project Management, Critical Core Manufacturing and Lean/Six Sigma.

Responsible for Extrusion and Injection Molding departments consisting of leads, process technicians and a production floor staff on a 24/7 4-shift production schedule. Extrusion consisted of 18 extrusion lines producing up to 80M feet of extrusion yearly. Injection molding consisted of 5 molding/assembly cells producing up to 500K frames annually. Assembly consisted of up to 8 assembly lines producing 22M frames annually.• Developed a process documentation system and implemented in-house training to reduce employee turnover from 30% to fewer than 5% annually. These programs also resulted in monthly quality scrap reductions from 25% to 5% or $2.8M annually.• Introduced a 5S housekeeping program, managed production metrics and tracked results on production boards. This encouraged a “friendly competition” between shifts resulting in a 30% productivity increase or $4.3M savings annually.• Implemented tool life studies and scheduled downtime to repair tooling resulting in efficient machine utilization and extended tool life.• Developed initiatives and implemented best practices in support of “Operation Clean sweep” program resulting in pellet containment practices and good housekeeping aimed at achieving zero pellet loss.

Madison, Wisconsin Area

Developed curriculum and provided instruction to career professionals in courses such as “Operations Management” and “Group Dynamics” for the Masters in Business Administration program.

Directed all aspects of production within the Material Handling division including planning, scheduling, purchasing, engineering and manufacturing. Managed the leads and production staff of 50 employees.• Reorganized the manufacturing floor and warehouse racking into product cells and stored standard components in the cell resulting in higher inventory accuracies and improved manufacturing efficiency by 30%• Improved on-time delivery (OTD) by 40% by implementing a design review process to identify problems and make corrections prior to release. Coordinated production schedules representing hundreds of small orders on a daily basis and sequenced orders within product cells to achieve and maintain OTD at greater than 95%.

Sun Prairie Manufacturing Plant

Reporting to the President, responsible for profit and loss of the manufacturing plant. Directed the Finance, Engineering, Materials and Manufacturing areas in the scheduling, production and shipping of quality products on-time and under cost.• Modernized manufacturing cells with pneumatic tools and manufacturing flow principles increasing plant efficiency and productivity by over 40% within the first 9 months.• Launched product cost reduction initiatives involving both product design and manufacturing that resulted in $400K savings.

Reporting to the Director of Operations, responsible for a staff of 70 employees comprised of engineering, leads and production. Responsible for quality assurance and control, manufacturing engineering, plant facilities, plant security and monitored capital and expense budgets.• Coordinated the introduction of the Mechatron feeder product line including design release, BOM/routing structure, tooling/fixtures/gauges and prototype builds resulting in the 2000 Governor’s award for “Outstanding New Product”.• Implemented lean manufacturing techniques involving point of use storage (POUS), cellular manufacturing and tooling/fixtures within the Feeder Assembly department increasing productivity by 40% or $3M annually.• Created departmental metrics and trained employees on schedule compliance resulting in reaching the Company’s on-time delivery goal of 98%.• Assumed the Quality Manager responsibilities, restored the tool gauge and fixture calibration program, coordinated the non-conforming material (NCM) and Deviation programs and directed the plant ISO certification audits.

Responsibilities centered upon the production processes and methods engineering, product costing, plant facilities, plant safety programs and environmental compliance for both Madison plants, and the Phoenix, AZ facility.• Teamed with Product Design, Quality, Purchasing, Production Control and Manufacturing departments to introduce the next generation of built-in refrigerators resulting in sales increases of $40M.• Coordinated the purchase and installation of over $2M worth of manufacturing and assembly equipment necessary to increase production capacity at the Phoenix, AZ manufacturing plant.

Directed the manufacturing operations, administered policies and procedures, assuring compliance to schedule, maintained quality standards (ISO-9001), and monitored plant labor, expenses and capital budgets for a staff of 150 employees.• Developed and implemented training programs incorporating JIT, Kanban and Kaizen techniques resulting in plant productivity increases up to 30%.• Reduced annual labor cost by 10% while meeting a sales growth of 23% resulting in 5 consecutive quarters of record earnings.

Responsibilities focused upon the concept, design and development of new production processes, product redesigns and new product introductions within the Small Engine Division. Coordinated all of the manufacturing and plant engineering issues as they relate to the start-up of the Rolla, MO facility (250,000 sq.-ft). • Directed a contract-rigging firm in the removal, shipping and installation of over $15M worth of manufacturing equipment.• Quoted, justified and procured $10M in additional equipment and supplies necessary to start-up two semi-automated assembly lines with paint systems, an aluminum die casting process, aluminum and cast iron machining departments and 3 parts washers. • Managed a cross-functional team in the integration of an air primer system into an air cleaner back-plate achieving a product enhancement and $1.7M annual product cost savings.• Oversaw a 2.5M project in the design, manufacture and installation of 8 machines for 3 separate facilities to diamond ream aluminum cylinder piston bores extending the life of the engine while eliminating waste oil producing honing process.

Bs, Industrial Technology - Manufacturing Engineering

Ms, Engineering Management

Master'S Degree, Engineering Management