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| PAST PROJECTS |
The following are just some of the projects I have worked on throughout my career.
Maintenance / Production Supervisor
Gallagher Corporation
While serving as a Supervisor at Gallagher Corporation, the company was experiencing heavy amounts of waste with the raw material urethane they used to produce their products. Waste was calculated to be around 50%.
I scheduled weekly material waste meetings with all management to discuss altering operations and review progress. I also headed monthly meetings with all production staff to seek their input and review progress of goals.
I discovered the different areas where waste was occurring and determined that there were three main areas. We implemented a system to track incoming raw material to make sure all drums were used before the end of its shelf life. We changed operating procedures and trained personnel in the proper use of the urethane processing machines. We altered the methods of production that were wasteful to more efficient systems. The production floor was re-lit with newer HID lighting to reduce production defects which were leading to waste.
By obtaining buy in from all management and production personnel, raw material waste was reduced from 50% to 17% within a one year time period. Production defects were reduced, not only cutting waste but also increasing productivity.
Operations Manager
Bear Realty of Kenosha, Inc.
Bear Realty was attempting to expand by recruiting new real estate
agents to join the sales force. While the Sales Manager had become
quite effective at convincing good agents to join the company, she was
still losing good candidates to other companies about 50% of the time.
I personally produced, shot and edited a video explaining all the
services and benefits of joining the Bear Realty sales team. The video
was structured in the documentary style and used a series of interviews
with management stating the benefits of being a Bear agent followed by interviews with
existing sales agents praising the value of the services we offered.
After the video was completed and a DVD was created, all potential
agents the Sales Manager was attempting to recruit were shown the
video. The success rate in recruiting new agents increased to nearly
100%.
Tier 3 Analyst
Time Warner Cable
The Tier 3 Analyst was a new position created to determine the root
cause of service issues where customers had three or more service calls
in a one month period. Our team determined whether the issue was affecting the
single customer or if it was affecting multiple customers. If a wider
issue, we determined where in the network the failure began and
dispatched technicians to the location of the fault, thereby saving the
technician hours of time to track down an issue, which was often times intermittent and not easliy discoverable.
There was a need to monitor the customer’s cable modem and cable boxes
along with multiple neighbors to see if signal levels were fluctuating
or errors were being accumulated on only the customer’s equipment or
all equipment in the area. While there was software in place to monitor
modems, the software was designed to monitor individual pieces of
equipment and not tailored to monitoring whole areas. There was no
software in place to monitor cable boxes on an ongoing basis.
On my personal time, I wrote a custom software package, called Net
Tracker, to monitor multiple cable boxes and modems in an efficient
manner. The software grouped all equipment being monitored, whether
modems or cable boxes, under a single investigation umbrella. To check
the status of all equipment monitored under a given investigation, the
analyst would go to a single screen to compare all devices to see if
all modems or cable boxes were showing signal issues or only the
subject customer was.
The software provided an enormous time savings over the standard
software used on the modems. With the standard package, each device
needed to be pulled up individually then the graphs pasted into a Word
document for comparison to determine where in the cable network the
issue began. It was very time consuming to assemble the monitoring data
for analysis and could take up to twenty to thirty minutes or more.
With Net Tracker, this comparison could be performed in only seconds.
In addition to this, since there was no program to monitor cable boxes
over time, this software was the only program available to perform this
function.
Maintenance / Production Supervisor
Gallagher Corporation
While at Gallagher Corporation, the company was experiencing high
failure rates of electronic flow controllers for their urethane
processing machines. Failures were occurring at the rate of 3 to 4
controllers per week, with each failure causing around one hour of down
time on the processing machines. Further, the controllers were being
shipped back to the manufacturer for repair, adding to the expense as
the controllers were out of warranty. Around 75% of the controllers
were returned by the manufacturer as being working units.
I determined that the cabinets the controllers were housed in were not
being cooled properly. Cooling fans with filters and vents were added
to the cabinets thereby reducing the internal cabinet temperature by 10
to 20 degrees. I further determined that when returning the controllers
to the manufacturer, they were only testing the controllers as good or
bad and not performing alignment of the controllers using the internal
adjustments. We developed a test fixture and created troubleshooting,
repair and alignment procedures for the controllers so the units could
be serviced in-house.
All units in production and spare parts inventory were aligned and
tested using the test fixture and procedures. Controller failure was
reduced from the 3 to 4 units per week to one per month. The failures
that did occur were due to actual failure of internal components which
were than able to be fixed in-house using the test fixture and repair
procedures. Gallagher Corporation saved $2,000 to $3,000 per month in
shipping and repair costs the manufacturer was charging as well as the
approximate 12 to 16 hours of down production time per month, which was
costing far more.
Maintenance / Production Supervisor
Gallagher Corporation
While at Gallagher Corporation, the company received a contract to cast
a very large urethane part. Part of the casting process requires that
after the mold is poured, the part needs to go into an oven to be fully
cured. None of the existing production ovens were large enough to house
the part so a quote was obtained from an outside source for one large
enough. The cost was over $40,000 plus installation. Management questioned
whether or not to accept the job due to this high cost.
We determined that the temperature the oven needed to reach was well
within the ability of the existing low pressure steam boiler. I
personally designed, and had maintenance staff construct, an oven using
off the shelf components. Steel studs, sheet metal and fiberglass bat
insulation were assembled to create individual panels which were then
assembled to create the oven. Off the shelf blowers, copper finned
tubing and a temperature controller were used for the steam heating
system. Cost of fabricating this oven was less than $5,000.
The oven was a complete success, allowing several of the original large
parts as well as contracts for other similarly sized parts to be
produced. In addition, the oven was used on a daily basis as a “post
cure” oven for all parts produced in the plant. By not using the other
ovens for this post cure function, it allowed for increased production
capacity. The oven saved the company over $35,000, making the job
profitable. It also increased the company’s production capabilities and
capacity.
Operations Manager
Bear Realty of Kenosha, Inc.
While at Bear Realty’s Bear Property Management division, our tenant
screening process was not working successfully. It was taking over one
week long to process applications, taking excessive staff time. We
were sometimes losing good prospective tenants as they found other
apartments while they waited to be approved for one of our apartments.
We tracked how long it took staff to process each part of the
application. We also compiled historical data regarding how often each
part of the process was rejecting potential tenants. I found that the
part of the process that was taking the longest period of time for
staff to complete was rejecting potential tenants the least number of
times. In fact, we determined that it was very rare to turn away an
applicant for this component. We then streamlined the application and
screening process taking the information learned into account.
Applicants were approved or declined within a 24 to 48 hour time
period. We no longer lost good potential tenants and staff saved
several hours per week in application processing time. As a further
benefit, we discovered that we were filling vacancies faster due to
letting the leasing agents know about declines more quickly so they
could more aggressively market apartments that they previously thought
were already leased up.
Operations Manager
Bear Realty of Kenosha, Inc.
While at Bear Realty’s Bear Property Management division, we were
getting complaints from tenants that some of the onsite managers were
not cleaning the hallways, laundry and other common areas often enough
or were forgetting certain items altogether.
I created a checklist for each of the different apartment complexes
which outlined the items the manager was supposed to perform daily,
weekly and monthly. These were reviewed with each manager and items
were added or modified with their input and then given back to them. I
then used the final checklist during my own inspections of the
properties to make sure tasks were completed in a satisfactory manner.
Customer complaints were reduced from 2 to 3 complaints per month to
one every three months.
Operations Manager
Bear Realty of Kenosha, Inc.
When starting to perform the network administration function for Bear
Realty, the real estate industry as a whole was years behind
technologically from other industries. Bear Realty was in this same
situation. The industry was poised to be forced into change as personal
computers and the Internet were changing customer and client
expectations of real estate agents and companies. I was charged with
the duty of advancing Bear Realty technologically.
I personally expanded the network from a ten user Novell based network
to a Windows based network with over 80 users. I took the network from
a single server performing file and print services to a
multi-functional, multi-server environment which included a Windows,
Active Directory file and print server, an Exchange e-mail server, a
SQL database server, a Windows Terminal Server for remote user access
and a Repartee unified messaging server integrating voicemail, e-mail
and faxing with the phone system and network. I personally built and
implemented all the new servers and upgraded workstation hardware to
save the company thousands of dollars over buying off the shelf systems.
Over an eight year period, I brought Bear Realty technologically into
the top 1% of real estate offices in the country. By building the
server hardware, installing all operating system software, upgrading
workstations and performing all other IT functions in-house, I was able
to do so at a 50% cost savings. The company was able to implement
functions and services which competitors were unable to afford.
Operations Manager
Bear Realty of Kenosha, Inc.
Real estate agents at Bear Realty were concerned that the Just Listed
and Just Sold direct mail pieces the company was sending out were
taking too long to get mailed. It was taking between 1½ and 2 weeks to
get this single sheet, 8½ by 11 flyer sent to 50 homes around each new
listing. The Realtors felt they needed to be mailed within 3 days of
being listed. In analyzing the workflow of the production process, I
determined that it was very inefficient. Each flyer was being created
from a template in WordPerfect, addressed using a mail merge with a
Q&A database, machine folded by the print shop operator, hand
sorted for bulk mailing, bundled and brought down to the post office by
the operator. The flyer production was taking approximately 45 minutes
of labor for each 50 piece mailing.
I personally developed a complete, menu based, database driven program
written in Microsoft Access to streamline the production. The operator entered the property information into fields in an onscreen form
and then directly printed out 50 postcards from the program. They
flipped the cards over and put them back in the printer. They searched
within the same program for 50 addresses around each listing and then
printed out the cards. The cards were then stacked in a postal machine,
automatically stamped with first class postcard postage and picked up
during normal delivery by the postal carrier.
By fully automating the production process in Access, time to produce
each 50 piece mailing was reduced from the 45 minutes to around 5
minutes. The folding, bulk mail sorting and delivery to the post office
steps were eliminated. In addition to the huge labor savings, material
and mailing costs were less per piece. Mailings were completed within
the 3 days that the Realtors had asked for. By making the process so
efficient, the company was able to integrate other duties into the
print shop operator’s job. Because of this, the company did not need to
hire another part time employee for these other functions, saving them
over $20,000 per year in pay and benefits.
Operations Manager
Bear Realty of Kenosha, Inc.
Bear Realty had just purchased, from Kenosha and Racine counties, the
tax roll database which contained the property information, tax
assessment and owner information for all property in the two counties.
This purchase was to produce the targeted mailing list for the Just
Listed, Just Sold postcards that were sent to each real estate listing.
In order to maximize our investment, I put together additional targeted
lists which could be used by the Realtors to increase our listing
inventory. One area in particular we were attempting to increase
inventory in was 2 unit and larger multi-family housing.
I imported the raw data into a Microsoft Access database and mined it
to find properties that were multi-family dwellings in which the owner
lived out of state. This target gave us properties in which the owners
may have a motivation to sell due to it being difficult to manage and
lease apartments because they lived out of the area. This list was then
divided among 10 Realtors to make contact through phone and mail to
speak with the owners about listing the property for sale. This effort
increased our inventory in this segment by about 20% in a 2 month
period.
Vice President, Board Member
The Kenosha Theatre Restoration Project
The Kenosha Theatre Restoration Project, a nonprofit organization I
belong to, needed to get additional public attention and support to
assist in restoration efforts. While we had been successful in the past
in getting some newspaper coverage of the theater because of its
historic nature, we needed to come up with a plan to get additional
press coverage.
We decided to create a Kenosha Theatre Memories video production which
consisted of video taping interviews of older generation Kenoshans who
had attended the theater between 1927 and 1963. I wrote a press release
describing the project and sent it to all the major news media outlets
in the area.
The project was embraced by both the public and news media. Two
articles, two weeks apart were written in the Kenosha News, one article
was written in the Milwaukee Small Business Times and I was featured in
a 10 minute radio interview on WLIP discussing the memories project and
the theater in general.
Production Manager
KISS Computer Corporation
While serving as Production Manager at KISS Computer Corporation, we
were receiving complaints of complete computer system failures and also various subsystems
such as printer ports not working correctly. One of our Fortune 500
corporate customers was threatening to cancel orders for future systems.
I implemented an overhaul of our assembly operations. We first
standardized all components going into the systems and demanded that
vendors ship only approved parts that had shown to be the most
reliable. We developed standardized assembly procedures so that all
systems were assembled in the same manner and so that all internal
cables were routed and dressed in a neat manner. We created a complete
test procedure with checklist so that each system was inspected and
tested prior to being shipped to the customer. All personnel in both
the assembly and service department were taken through the inspection
procedure to stress the importance of shipping new and even repaired
systems back to customers in 100% working condition as well as looking
good cosmetically.
Failed system returns went from around 20% to less than 2%. The Fortune
500 Company continued to purchase our new computers. Customer
satisfaction with our new computers and service department increased
greatly.