Patrick Kippes

Patrick Kippes
Eau Claire, Wisconsin 54701 • pkippes@gmail.com • (c) 715-577-1787

SENIOR-LEVEL ENGINEERING MANAGER

HIGH ENERGY, DEDICATED ENGINEER WITH PROVEN TRACK RECORD OF HANDS-ON MANAGEMENT

Six-Sigma Trained for Every Stage of Product Lifecycle from Site / Product Development to Continuous Improvement of Manufacturing
Mechanical and Technological Expertise across Broad Range of Disciplines
Data Analysis and Process Control • Environmental System and Mechanical Design • Medical Device and Product Development • Operational Excellence • Liquid Silicone Rubber and Multi-shot Injection Molding Acumen
Team Development • Project/Program Management • Performance Tracking and Standardization

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

Phillips-Medisize, Eau Claire, WI
Global Leader in contract manufacturing for the medical device and drug delivery industry, with high technical expertise and innovation within the injection molding and assembly sectors.
Senior Engineering Manager – Multi-shot Thermoplastic and Multi-shot Liquid Silicone Rubber Molding 2014 to Present
Development and Pre-Production Engineering leadership responsibility for outsource design, development, and technology driven manufacturing of medical device molding and assembly. Specific subject matter expertise in multi-shot molding of thermoplastic engineering polymers and liquid silicone rubber. Direct responsibility for all engineering functions in multiple facilities within Wisconsin manufacturing facilities: Cost Engineering, Tool Engineering, Process Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Automation Engineering, Project Engineering, and Program Management.
• P&L and EBITDA Accountability for all New Product Introductions and Pre-Production activities associated with launching medical device components and assemblies, including regular reporting to Executive Team Members to ensure transparency of value added sales and internal expenses.
• Design For Manufacturing front end collaboration with customer design, manufacturing, and/or sourcing teams to provide critique and expertise for improving manufacturing efficiencies, decreasing component or product development time, and improving tool concepts for cost and complexity.
• Tool and Process Concept Design for advanced injection molding technologies with engineering grade polymers and state-of-the-art process control technology, including being awarded test site status with RJG and Priamus applications for being an innovator and supporter of advanced platforms. Introduced facility wide data acquisition and reporting system utilizing process control data collected in real time.
• Automation and Workflow Development through a well-defined process design sheet (PDS) for scalable and cost effective deployment of manual early stage workflow in small scale to be replaceable with semi or fully automated production concepts with a focus on reducing time to validate tooling, provide early build parts for clinical trials or regulatory proceedings, and build quality into the process steps to avoid manual inspection and associated labor costs.
• Project and Program Management Services managed with internal and external customers to establish project timelines, communicate schedule and contingencies to mitigate/eliminate risks, drive task based milestones to completion, and manage scope of defined activities. Focused skill set development of engineering resources on customer service, technical and non-technical communication, RACI matrix organization roles and responsibilities, scope of work development and change management, fiscal responsibility, and accountability to deliver services on-time and under budget.
• Technology Implementation of liquid silicone rubber (LSR) single and multi-shot molding. From prototype press and tooling concepts to the first production scale cleanroom applications within the corporation and facility expansions planned to support pipeline of new business through 2018 and exceeding $100MM within the first three years of production.

North American Lighting, Paris, IL
Global Leader and Manufacturer of Advanced Automotive Lighting Solutions
General Manager – Manufacturing Engineering, Equipment & New Technology Development – NAL 2013 to 2014
Technical leadership responsibility for cross functional and international/global engineering teams to develop, mature, and deploy new technology process for automotive lighting manufacturing. Site governance and deployment of best practices for manufacturing efficiency across four manufacturing sites with key internal stake holders. Responsible for progression and development of six manager level direct reports, impacting five functional sites and 75 cross functional engineers. Direction of critical activities to define manufacturing readiness assessment of advanced technology product manufacturing, including quality, cost, delivery, and safety (QCDS) evaluations.
• Strategic timeline and milestone establishment to revise standard product development timing to allow maturation of materials, processes, and equipment for injection molding, organic coating, surface treatment, and automated assembly.
• Defined requirements for new technology development of LED arrays, flexible circuit board integration, high temperature polymers, thin walled molding processes, advanced surface treatments for scratch resistance, coatings to reduce haze/glare, and robotics automation.
• Characterized functional manufacturing requirements into a concise matrix for the purpose of evaluating product design intent to accurately assess manufacturing feasibility, labor requirements, capital cost estimation, and customer requirement adherence. This tool is used as the primary evaluation of design maturation prior to initiating tooling and capital release.
• Reduced lead time of capital equipment by 32% by standardizing process development specifications for assembly to remove non-value added steps, streamline internal customer communication, and pre-populate form data with product lifecycle management (PLM) data.
• Planning and execution of capital budgeting of $235M for mid-range plan, including strategic forethought, customer requirement integration to existing assets, customer driven expansion, prototype process and part evaluations, ROI calculations for plant efficiency improvement, internal project requests for both expansion and consolidation, and site expansion requirements.
• Scrap reduction efforts within four manufacturing plants of >8% through statistical process control analysis of defect data, molded material optimization, innovative coating technology detection integration, tooling refinement and improvement, and leveraging known best practices across the enterprise.
• Reduced major raw material costs by 13% within first six months through statistical process control analysis of defect data, robot path optimizations, manufacturing standardization for safe part handling areas, and tooling refinement and improvement.
• Increased vendor capacity by 29% by on-boarding specific skill set parties to assist with automation integration and precision component fabrication, standardized work cell builds for high volume machine types, instituting refurbishment process for used assets, and deploying evaluation process prior to decommissioning previously used assets.
• Achieved 19% reduction in downtime on reactive hot melt structural adhesive equipment by formalizing maintenance processes, streamlining spare parts procurement, innovating offline concurrent tasks, and harmonizing best practices between multiple facilities.
• Definition of integrated shop floor reporting for engineering cooperation with IT development of manufacturing data acquisition, component traceability in assembly environments, and quality/warranty data archiving. Scope of work anticipated to save >$1M per year in manual data transactions and associated activity.

SONY DADC (Digital Audio Disc Corporation), Terre Haute, IN
Global Leader and Manufacturer of CDs, DVDs, UMDs, and Blu-Ray Discs
Engineering Manager, DVD and BD Replication – SONY DADC 2005 to 2013
Drive $280M expansion of next generation Blu-ray optical disc (BD) as team lead and technical point person. Oversee, hire, train, motivate, and develop 82 technicians, 20 cross functional engineers, and third party contractors from five countries with operations spread across four continents. Ensure highest standards of efficiency and work process through Six Sigma continuous improvement initiatives. Directed all essential processes, including facilities, tooling, and equipment requirements, raw material preparation, facility readiness, initial standardization, and timeline development for installation of 133 replication lines worldwide. Coordinated international team of engineers in specifying custom manufacturing equipment, designing machine components, qualifying raw materials, and developing production process to steer BD from lab to production floor.
• Strategic timeline and milestone establishment from site readiness of product launch to five phase continuous improvement planning.
• Innovated and implemented a new optical disc format in response to a unique customer driven request to combine standard and high definition media in one product form factor; delivered the solution in time for a critical new release launch of a strategic customer.
• Spearheaded annual capital projects and requests in excess of $25M, including idea generation, prototype testing, data evaluation, ROI calculation, project request, and implementation to the shop floor.
• Maintains ISO/IEC 9001 process standardization and 270001 information security management certification through preparation for annual compliance audits and periodic re-assessments.
• Improved yield 65% within first six months and 10% in subsequent three years through focused, continuous improvement practices based on pareto of failure modes and disciplined statistical process control.
• Reduced major raw material costs by 68% within 2008 fiscal year and 34% within 2009 through competitive vendor management and redesign of key components within the part structure.
• Reduced contractor fees by 36% by responsibly managing third parties and hiring or training resources to combine responsibilities of existing assets.
• Achieved 55% reduction in cycle time, 75% reduction in skew, and 62% reduction in spacer layer defects by implementing multiple output improvement projects based on tribological optimization, failure mode elimination, and environmental control.

Process Engineer/Technical Supervisor, DVD Replication – SONY DADC 2004 to 2005
Ensured uptime, output, and yield for 142 replication lines with emphasis on raw material requirements and injection-molding aspects such as tooling, thin film sputtering, vacuum bonding, and downstream handling automation. Liaised with up- and downstream aspects of value stream to better maximize inputs and outputs of manufacturing process. Consistently guaranteed adherence and compliance to OSHA regulated safety rules, Six Sigma, 5S+1, and Gemba Kaizen among department technicians. Prevented and repaired machinery breakdowns to prevent production losses.
• Increased inspection points checked 318% and reduced time required to maintenance tooling 53% through automation and standardization respectively.
• Achieved up to 2.8M units per day of production during peak season through intensive 24/7 support and machine breakdown maintenance.
• Eliminated critical playability defects while reducing cosmetic defects 14% through Six Sigma DOE-type analysis.

Proficiency:

• Gantt chart development of complex scheduling
• Conflict Resolution and Advanced Technical Writing
• AutoCAD, Mechanical Desktop, CATIA and Inventor
• JD Edwards, SAP, and IQMS asset management, ERP and P&L
• Oracle Business Intelligence and Oracle Discoverer Reports
• Advanced Robotics and Vision systems for Manufacturing Automation at scalable volumes
• Scanning Electron Microscope w/ EDX
• AFM metrology, Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope
• 5S+1 workplace safety practices
• P/D-FMEA, DFM/DFA, and risk mitigation
• Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Systems

EDUCATION & PROFESSIONAL ADVANCEMENT:
Pittsburg State University, College of Technology, 2004 Graduate
Bachelor of Science, Plastics Engineering Technology (Emphasis: Design), Pittsburg, KS

• Sony Leadership Academy Training
• Frontline Leadership
• Situational Leadership Approaches
• Toyota Production System (TPS)
• Peter Drucker Organizational Practices of Effective Managers
• Six Sigma Green Belt and SPC
• Six Sigma Black Belt and DOE
• Air Academy Problem Solving Initiatives (PSI)
• Program Management Certificate (U of Minn)
• (7) courses from the Stephen Covey Effectiveness and Leadership Habits Series

Hobbies and Interests:
Proud father of four active children and committed husband

• Industry Advisor and Steering Committee Member for Wisconsin Materials Institute
• Principal Charter Member of Regional Materials and Manufacturing Network (RM2N)
• Board member for Consortium of Excellence for Advanced & Composite Materials non-profit entity
• Competitive runner and triathlete (National level competitor at marathon and ultra distances)
• All-Conference Collegiate Athlete (MIAA Track and Cross Country)
• Active member of Career Athlete Network
• Board of Directors member for Eau Claire County Youth Soccer Program
• Capital Investment Review Committee member for Eau Claire Sports and Recreation Center
• Volunteer at St. James Catholic Church