Bruce Carnohan, Partner

Senior Lean Consultant 

Summary:    A professional; organized, proactive change agent with visionary drive and enthusiasm for the cultural change and management of mature and new business unit processes. Expert use of advanced training and Lean techniques, knowledge transfer, coaching in FDA/cGMP/Customer Auditing, Customer Services and Business Process Improvement skills, in union and non union environments, this country and Europe.

Experience and Results:

5/00 – 04:        Managing Partner, Lean Operations and Six Sigma Training Services

                        (AAIM/MANP Employer Associations  St. Louis, MO and Erie, PA)

            Marketed, trained staff and implemented significant process improvement projects at our member companies, creating five and six figure

            dollar measurable improvements. Industry sectors:

• Metal Cabinets and Enclosures-Newton Instruments and Great lakes Case and Cabinet

• High accuracy injection mold making using tool room processes - Tech Tool

• HVAC regulated roof top air unit design and manufacturer - Marlo Coil

• Construction site services and metal fabrication - C&R Mechanical

• Wire formed and stamped components for toys, lawn and garden products - Erisco Industries

• Precious metal cutting tools processing and assembly – Sunnen

• Cold formed metal blanks for automotive suppliers - SMC

• Pharmaceutical chemical processing and packaging for aspirin compounds – Rhodia

• Plastic plugs and caps for the medical and automotive suppliers - Alliance Plastics

• Custom injection moldings for all industries - Port Erie Plastics

• Life policy products - Erie Insurance

• Architectural sign design and production - Howard Industries

• Gas heaters for commercial and real estate sub-contractors - Empire Comfort

• Sandblasting machinery - Clemco

• Electric motor machining and assembly - Emerson

• Radiant heater panel manufacture and assembly - Watlow Electric

• Lithographic and gravure metalized label printing and finishing - St. Louis Litho

• Custom after market wheels - KMC Wheels

• Water and shut-off valve assembly - Potter

• Chrome plating process flow - Perfection Plating

8/94 – 5/00      Manager, Quality Systems (Corporate)

                        Sensient Technologies (Universal Foods Color Div.)  St. Louis, MO 

• Headed up the strategy for total quality systems development and training for divisional business units located in major cities in Missouri, New Jersey, Canada, Mexico and Europe.

• Lead the implementation of a business-wide quality system in the regulated ink-jet business units in 1998.  Achieved our major customers’ certification on the first attempt. (First vendor in customer’s supply chain to achieve this.)

• Implemented ISO9001 Certification of this regulated FD&C 400,000 sq. ft. chemical production facility, achieving this on the first attempt in 1997.

• Re-designed the unit’s complaint and concern handling systems to improve our response and effectiveness of corrective and preventive action. This directly supported our defined core competency of Customer Focus.

• Leadership and participation in many successful large Quality Improvement Teams activities.

• Facilitated the company-wide value stream-mapping project, which led to the redesign of the total order fulfillment system and ERP. The successful implementation date for this new software was August 1998.

• Awarded the “Leader of the Pack” recognition trophy.

2/92 - 8/94       Manager, Quality Systems and Operations-Europe

                        Universal Foods (Warner Jenkinson Europe Ltd)   Norfolk, England

• Adapted, taught and implemented the Corporate Total Quality Systems to 210 employees, working in the manufacture of regulated FD&C Chemical Dyes and Pigments (English and Dutch speaking employees).

• Trained and Coached 9 quality improvement teams on the subjects of late delivery reduction, prevention of accidents, reduction of cycle times, implementation of MRP business systems, invoicing and pricing errors, international freight movement, expansion of ISO9002 certification to new product areas, 5S and good manufacturing practices improvement in all processes and buildings.

• Guided quality systems development in the facility located in Amersfoort, HOLLAND.

2/91 - 2/92       General and Manufacturing Manager

            Bowater, PLC     Bristol, England

• Boosted the performance of this under-performing regulated medical device business unit, making ready its sale to a world class competitor.

8/88 - 2/91       Operational General Managers and Total Quality Facilitator

            Bespak, PLC      Norfolk, England 

• Moved a regulated non-aerosol medical/cosmetic device making facility 200 miles on time, to budget, without loss of customer base.  Implemented cost of quality teams which produced savings in excess of $500,000 per year by using world class Lean Operations/Total Quality improvement tools from American, Japanese and European origins.

• Designed “just in time” production techniques, which reduced work in process inventory of medical devices by $600,000 and reduced lead times to customers by 4 weeks.

• Created cellular manufacturing for regulated medical device assembly, which reduced our labor content by 40% across this business unit.

• Achieved profitable turn around of the device business using home grown Lean and Quality techniques, from a negative profit position to an excess of $1,000,000 profit (Our competitor then purchased us!).

1/85 - 8/88       Production Managers to General Manager

            Bowater, PLC (Welton Packaging Ltd)   Bristol, England

• Met the challenge of changing round a business unit from a negative profit situation to a profit of $1,450,000 in 3 years.

• Put in place 3 shift working conditions in a Flexography print union shop environment.

• Re arranged plant layout, implemented employee cross training, purchased new capital equipment and introduced measurable scrap reduction systems into the manufacturing units, using Lean and Quality principles.

1/81-1/85         Production Unit Manager

            Owens Kimble (FBG Trident Ltd)    Bristol, England

• Set up and ran a value added regulated medical device business, which grew from no sales to $2 Million
  in 3 years.

8/72-1/81         Technical Trainee to Senior Production Supervisor

            Avon Tyres Group (Avon Ind. Polymers Ltd)   Bath, England

• Introduced and maintained the production of automotive components for the top auto makers in the world (Ford, GM, Volvo, Saab, Mercedes, Renault, Peugeot, Chrysler, BMW, Lotus, British Leyland, Volkswagen, Jaguar, Rolls Royce, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, Honda, Audi etc.).

Education and Deapth:

00-04                 Specialist in Marketing, Training and Implementation of Lean and Six Sigma Tools:
i.e. 5S/Visual Factory, Set Up Reduction/Quickchangeover, Value Stream and Process Flow Mapping, Kanban Materials Management, Mathematical Work Flow Balancing, Theory of Constraints, Strategy Deployment using Pull Techniques, Green Belt Six Sigma
Member of APICS, good in all Microsoft Office programs.                   (MO & PA)

01/00                  HACCP systems auditing in a regulated FDA facility                             (MO)
10/99                  Lead ISO Auditor (RAB, IRCA Recognized)                                       (VA)

04/96                  High Performance Leadership/Training                                                  (WI)

07/93                  Quality Systems Auditor, through LRQA Training Services                    (ENGLAND)

78-81                 Diploma in Industrial Management                                                         (ENGLAND)

72-78                 Bachelor Degree in Plastics and Rubber Technology                              (ENGLAND)

(Chemistry/Physics/Math/Engineering)

Services Offered and Area's of Expertise:

·        Education, Training and Development of Individuals or Teams in Lean and Process Improvement Techniques

·        Assessments of Business Process Improvement Opportunities

·        Quality Systems (ISO 9001:2000 or TS16949) and Quality Assessments and Development

·        Coaching and Mentoring to Individual Team Members

·        Hands-On Implementation Work – All Levels – Any Sized Business

·        Practical Use of Minitab’s Software for Statistical Quality Improvements

Recent Project Highlights:

Great Lakes Manufacturing, Corry, PA and Newton Instruments, Butner, NC

• Taught and designed a new process for the fabrication of metal cabinets using work flow balancing techniques.

• Worked with both individuals and small teams (5-8 people) to understand and implement Lean tools such as:

• 5S/Visual Factory, Process Flow Mapping, Kanban line supply and replenishment systems to internal and external suppliers, mathematical work flow balanced operations.

• Significant reductions (40%) in non value added activities, work in process inventories and lead time have been acomplished

Erie Insurance, Erie, PA

• Taught and facilitated the creation of Value Streams and the lower level Process Flow maps of an Insurance companies Life Policy products. We created (Team of 7 staff) a vehicle for the communication and subsiquent implementation of processes with significantly less non value added tasks being performed. The speed to deliver accurate policy products from these processes improved by almost 50%.

Erisco Industries, Erie PA

• Taught, facilitated and lead the introduction of 5S/Visual Factory and Kanban supply and replenishment systems in a very old facility. Worked with both individual team leaders and small groups to learn, design and deploy these new processes. We achieved significant reductions in lost time due to materials and information shortages at the manufacturing machines. We further introduced a visual scheduling system which improved both labor and machine utilization by some 20%.

Alliance Plastics, Wesleyville, PA

• Trained and facilitated the company wide implementation of 5S/Visual Factory, Process Flow Mapping, Kanban Materials Management and Six Sigma process improvement techniques.

• Working with both small teams and individuals we achieved significant reductions in non value added time, scrap and balanced the supply of critical raw materials to 48 injection molding machines.

• Furthermore, the process flow mapping team work reduced the implementation time of a new ERP software selection process by 30%.

Manufacturers Association of North West Pensylvania, Erie PA

• Trained staff members to use and adapt the 5S and Kanban techniques to support the effective running of a  conference center, warehouse and catering supporting operations. Working with both individuals and small groups we achieved an 80% reduction in non value added searching time and balanced the entire inventory levels for consumable products such as soda, tea, coffee, training books, cleaning supplies, cables and connectors etc.

Port Erie Plastics, Harborcreek, PA

• Taught the understanding and use of the ISO9001:2000 quality system requirements to individuals and small groups.

• Value Stream and Process Flow Mapped company-wide processes to determine prioritization of ISO implementation plan. Helped design a basic Six Sigma process improvement team approach

Tech Tool and Molded Plastics, Meadville, PA

• Trained and educated a small team in the use of 5S/Visual Factory, Kanban Materials Management and Flow Manufacturing techniques in a toolroom environment. We implemented a flow system that significantly reduced lead time to their customer from 12 weeks down to 5 weeks.

American Turned Products, Fairview and Erie, PA

• Trained and implemented the use of 5S to individuals and multiple small teams in a two site plant.

• We achieved significant awareness and improvements in customer ratings for both plants to their tier main tier one customers.

Howard Industries, Fairview, PA

• Trained and educated a small team in the use of 5S/Visual Factory, Kanban Materials Management and Flow Manufacturing techniques in a job shop environment. We implemented and work flow balanced flexible flow line that reduced the manufacturing time of core products (80% of volume) from 16 hours to less than 4 hours

Member companies in 19 counties of NW. PA

• Set up and facilitated a regional implementers group from a zero involvement base.

• We achieved a 100% increase in member company and individual participation (From 18 to 36 delegates) in one year of running “show and tell” events at muliple sites.