Ron Shaffer
Director / EHS / Six Sigma Black Beltat Privately Held Heavy Manufacturing Company
Gurnee, IL
• As Operations Manager – directed and coordinated production, materials, purchasing, production and capacity planning, facilities and security functions. Worked with largest customer in ongoing monthly quality and performance meetings; other customers as appropriate. Established and maintained certain business metrics with targets and goals for improvements. Assured compliance with local, state, federal and/or international regulations. Worked on due diligence for potential acquisitions and representative contracts to bring product to US market. Analyzed and interpreted financial data with ownership. Developed and managed operation and capital budgets.
• As Six Sigma Black Belt – conducted major projects assigned by the Six Sigma Leadership Team including benchmarking, quality system enhancements, continuous improvement, and promoting employee engagement throughout the organization. Responsible for seismic testing, certification and compliance program for products.
• As EHS Director – wrote / maintained Safety and Environmental Policies, Safety and Environmental procedures, and work instructions; Conducted OSHA, EPA, DOT and FDA training on a regular schedule, refresher training as indicted by performance and incident data. Completed annual / semi-annual reports as required by regulatory agencies.
• As Engineering Manager – managed all design and product testing functions plus new product introduction. Managed backlog and Engineering lead time for make to order custom product. Responsible for gathering, interpreting and managing performance and reliability data.
• Additional duties as assigned by ownership (on a regular basis).
Work Experience
Six Sigma Black Belt / Environmental, Health & Safety Director / Operations Manager
May 1998 to Present
Privately held heavy manufacturing company, with 2 locations in Southeast Wisconsin
Operations Manager / Environmental, Health & Safety Director / Materials Management / Engineering Manager / Facilities Manager / Security / Real Estate Mgt. / Six Sigma Black Belt / Trainer
May 1998 to November 2012. Reported to the President / Owner.
Company is a heavy manufacturer of radiators and heat transfer products for large industrial engines and metal fabrications sold into a variety of markets with an excellent reputation of service, performance, quality and value. ISO9000:2008 Certified. Actively practicing Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing.
Operations Manager / Quality Assurance Manager / Division Steering Committee
August 1996 to March 1998
Manufacturer and converter of laminating file sold to the educational, printing, and poster markets. Directed and coordinated the manufacturing operation of 200 employees consisting of Extrusion Coating lines, Converting, Maintenance, Quality, Scheduling and Distribution.
• Responsible for performance and reliability data.
• Worked with customers to resolve problems and develop product for new applications.
• Conducted periodic meetings to enhance communication with all employees.
• Resolved conflicts in accordance with corporate policies and procedures.
Director, Materials Management
October 1994 to March 1996
Reported to Division Manager and managed Purchasing, Production Control and Inventory functions; negotiated major contracts.
• Assumed responsibility for inventory levels, inventory turns and availability to production.
• Directed staff and consultants to discover systemic ERP problems causing parts shortages.
• Provided feedback to staff and provided opportunities for staff to develop and enhance their personal performance
Director, Materials Management
January 1993 to October 1994
Materials Management and Operations trouble shooter, coordinator and advisor for a group of six plants manufacturing and distributing automotive fuel system components and high performance automotive parts and accessories.
• Established and maintained business metrics and tracked to goals for improvements.
• Interpreted financial data reported to corporate for staff.
• Negotiated key commodities and parts; worked with QA, Engineering and Suppliers to resolve Quality discrepancies.
Manager, Planning Systems Development
April 1991 to December 1992
Reported to the Vice President of Materials.
• Worked on corporate assignments and functioned as an “in-house” consultant available on request to divisional management and for corporate damage control projects as needed. Provided on-site assistance to Echlin divisions, domestic and international, in the development of forecasting and planning systems applications to meet their business unit goals.
• Declared “Company Forecasting Guru” by Fred Mancheski, CEO and Chairman of the Board.
• Conducted due diligence projects for possible acquisitions.
• Reported progress to goals weekly to Corporate.
• Resolved conflicts between divisions in regards to Materials and/or Operations issues.
Operations Manager
August 1988 to April 1991
Reported to the Division President
Directed, coordinated and provided leadership to the Operations Department, including Purchasing, Planning, Production Control, Manufacturing and all Distribution/Operations functions.
Education
B.A.
Six Sigma Black Belt
Skills
Six Sigma Black Belt, Caterpillar University.
Additional Information
National Fire Protection Association, member
Principal member of the Technical Subcommittee that is responsible for NFPA Standard 37
Member of the Industrial Fire Protection Section
Industry Advisory Council member, UW-Milwaukee Mechanical Engineering Dept.
Finance Committee Secretary for the headquarters church of a denomination with international scope
Continuing Education and Development: RCRA Compliance and Emergency Coordinator, Judge Reilly Seminars; ISO9000:2000 Internal Auditor, Lean Manufacturing, and Value Stream Mapping, Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension; OSHA 8 Hour Training, OSHA; Failure Mode and Effects Analysis, Caterpillar University; Accident Reduction Techniques, Argonaut Insurance; Bullet Proof Manager, CrestCom; Multiple Environmental Seminars, Federation of Environmental Technologists; Multiple Loss Control and Safety Methodology Seminars, Associated Financial Group; MS Access, Gateway Technical College; Visual FoxPro; SQL, College of Lake County; Visual Basic.NET, College of Lake County
SIGNATURE STRENGTHS
STRATEGIC, LEARNER, ANALYTICAL, IDEATION, ACTIVATOR
PROFESSIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• Initiated a development program for supervisors, lead people and selected hourly workers, resulting in 6 internal promotions in a year.
• Developed a major change to a core process which reduced the process rejection rate from 17% to 0.1% resulting in a stronger, more reliable product at a considerable cost savings.
• Strategically increased production to support a 40% annual sales increase followed by an increase of 167% the following year.
• Reduced labor content from 10% to 8% through implementing standard work procedures and upgraded training.
• Achieved a total reject rate at largest customer of 0.000% for 14 months.
• Decreased customer complaints due to product quality by over 75% through quality training and driving quality responsibility to the machine operators.
• Lead a multi-discipline team to revitalize an old technology product line and made it profitable.
• Chaired Task Force to analyze benefits of moving the distribution of a $20 million product line resulting in a before tax benefit of $1 million; named Project Leader for the resulting move which was accomplished within a planned 2 day interruption of business.
• Created a major new product concept and developed it to production implementation for EPA emissions certified applications.
• Participated in budgeting to meet goals and objectives; administered budgets at the departmental level.
• Lead a Six Sigma team that developed processes to replace wet paint processes with powder coat resulting in reduced cost and reduced Hazardous Air Pollutants and Green House Gas emissions.
• Championed a safety incentive program that created a Safety Culture which reduced workman’s comp claims by 95% and dropped work comp Mod rate from 1.96 to 1.07 in 3 years
• Reduced Hazardous Waste generation by 95% through development of green processes.
• Developed standard Safety and Environmental training for all plants to meet business needs and regulatory requirements.
• Created and implemented a long-range inventory plan to meet seasonal demand which resulted in increased sales, increased equipment utilization and significantly reduced overtime expense.
• Developed algorithm and wrote software to allow quick and timely analysis of inventory trends to maximize same day shipments from stock to meet market demands. Included finite capacity planning to operate within physical constraints.
• Upgraded and implemented J D Edwards, BPCS and SyteLine software modules to meet demands of the business .
• Rewrote and updated purchasing policies resulting in a 75% reduction in excess inventory.
• Diagnosed inter-company relationships that caused customer service failures which resulted in increasing service levels from 75% to 98%.
• Coordinator for all new product projects for the Performance Group’s “New Product Rapid Deployment Team” that released 160 new products in 6 months.
• Implemented Computer Aided Manufacturing for fabrication plant, cutting CNC programming time by 90%.
