Tom Lowder Email & Phone Number

Toyota Production System - Over the last year, utilized elements of the Toyota Production System (TPS), such as A3, for problem solving quality issues, internal and external, as well as enhancing processes within the plant.Six Sigma Black Belt – Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt by the University of Arkansas, Ft. Smith in March 2009. Project resulted in design change of casting machine which increased throughput with new alloy by 40%.Six Sigma Green Belt – Certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt by University of Arkansas, Ft. Smith in July 2008. Project showed that 95% of “sticking plate” scrap was from one plate type. Improvements made to process reduced “sticking plates” by 75%.Management - Lead a team of 7 quality assurance personnel responsible for the overall quality of product from the largest sealed valve regulated and flooded lead acid industrial battery manufacturing and distribution plant in North America located in; Lean - Exide's manufacturing representative on a US navy lead Six Sigma project to reduce variation in the manufacturing process of the batteries installed on nuclear powered submarines. Process improvements reduced material weight variation and processing parameters variations. Process Improvement - Team reduced the #1 scrap cause by 80% in 2006 by utilizing lean tools to define the root cause of cells leaking and then improve the process of plastic to plastic bonding. Process Lead Time Reduction - Developed a process for forming and screening batteries that reduced departmental processing time from 14 days to 5 days at; Scrap Reduction - Lead team that reduced the largest scrap cost in 2008 by 40%. Cross functional team included engineering, operations, and quality changed operating temperature and removal technique of oxidized dross from lead alloy pots.ISO - Combined elements of ISO 14000, Environmental, and ISO 9000, Quality, into one Management System such that similar elements from both were not redundant.