Nov. 1983 – Jul. 1998

HK SYSTEMS

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Employed by HK Systems, a privately owned $300 million designer, installer, and integrator of automated material handling systems that includes customized software, manufactured equipment and purchased components.

HK Systems’s organizational structure and assignments are project and industry related. Wherein these projects typically range in the 10 million - 12 month category, I have specialized since 1983 in providing them engineering and project administration/ services for high risk and large contract value assignments in the 100+ million - 2+ year category.  Project-related responsibilities, and accomplishments follow by assignment.

Jun. 1993 - Apr. 1998

THE NEW YORK TIMES

New York, New York

Provided project management and engineering services for the design, development, integration, and certification of The New York Times’s new $350 million color printing plant at College Point. While reporting to the Vice President of Production, specific duties and accomplishments included but were not limited to the following:

Developed contractual Bid Specifications covering standards for software, electrical, and mechanical engineering disciplines and project management responsibilities.

Developed plant subsystem conceptual layouts and supported extensive simulation of conceptual subsystems to ensure overall facility throughputs could be achieved. Documented individual subsystem requirements within vendor specific Bid Documents.

Reviewed vendor proposal submittals for compliance to Specifications and participated in vendor selection process.

Analyzed vendor detailed implementation schedules. Developed and maintained integrated schedules to resolve cross vendor dependencies. Held biweekly vendor coordination meetings to resolve scheduling conflicts and to maintain scheduling history in defense of contractual liquidated damages.

Designed, specified, and procured computer hardware and layered product software systems on behalf of United States and European manufacturing equipment suppliers. Primary systems were based upon Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) Alpha AXP servers and workstations running Digital UNIX, NT,  and VMS operating systems. Underlying DBMS’s were ORACLE.

Designed and specified local and wide-area network topologies in support of vendor subsystems. Motivated corporate systems & technologies into assuming responsibility for maintenance and support of production facility networks. Segmented and assigned addressing schemes for all facility equipment and protocols including TCP, DECnet and LAT.

Designed the conceptual software integration structure of vendor manufacturing systems. Shifted a long-standing paradigm of operating the manufacturing systems as islands of automation - scheduled within shift boundaries. Overcame production scheduling inefficiencies and waste by the integration of vendor systems, which now produce a batch of manufactured product under a variable time allotment. Source production quantities now correlate with currently shipping delivery demands.

Developed and implemented the overall testing program for the facility that ensured the procured systems complied to specifications and the certification process was optimally executed.

Supervised vendor compliance to Specification and approved completed scope.

Mar. 1992 - Jun. 1993

HK SYSTEMS - ENGINEERING MANAGER

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

HK Systems was reorganized in March of 1992 from a departmental structure organized by engineering disciplines to business units organized by end user client and industries. Concurrent with this change, I was promoted to Engineering Manager - responsible for software, electrical, and mechanical engineering contractual scope, capital expenditures, and personnel within Commercial systems.

Developed standardized Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) for all engineering disciplines and instigated time and expense tracking based upon its structure through all phases of newly acquired contracts.

Standardized project schedule templates used in conjunction with the WBS and integrated existing financial time tracking systems into a common project tracking / scheduling system. Successfully completed the integration that allowed for consistent, automated tracking of proposed and contracted scope and schedules with automated percent complete and cost to complete project tracking. Utilized the system for improved proposal estimates and in optimizing existing scope completion among concurrent projects. In the project description to follow, eliminated approximately 2,000 hours of budgeted project scope through the elimination of duplicated development efforts.

Evaluated and procured advanced technology hardware and software for capital investment. As example, acquired and instigated the use of CAD/CAM systems in the design and documentation of electrical engineering schematic and panel layout activities. Recouped the full cost and training investments, (approximately $100,000) by saved labor and reduced inefficiencies within a single existing contract.

Developed and directed business unit product development plans. Plans included the productization and marketing of baseline software control systems and related hardware components. Much of this plan initially included reverse engineering of completed software systems into modular building blocks for reuse in future development efforts. Championed the philosophy of customization via selection and arrangement of standardized components versus development from scratch.

While an Engineering Manager, undertook numerous projects including:

Mar. 1992 - Jun. 1993

SARA LEE CORPORATION

Greenwood, South Carolina

Eden, North Carolina

Directed the engineering design, fabrication, development, installation, and certification of two greenfield construction projects for Sara Lee Corporation.  Both projects, which were concurrent, had significant amounts of risk in schedule and engineering content. Engineering firsts for R&D undertaken on these projects included:

• the first monorail capable of changing elevations along its guide path;

• the first double masted - double shuttle storage and retrieval crane;

• the first client-server computer architecture control system.

In addition to defining detailed procedures for managing the above engineering scope and associated risk, significant risk laid in the scope of the interfacing host that was being designed and implemented by another firm.  I negotiated additional scope and time in order that our certification and acceptance could be performed without the need for the host interfacing layer.  We acquired significant scope and contract value for eliminating the need of their host controller by incorporating portions of that scope throughout our systems. The facility was successfully commissioned on time with an 8% increase in margin.

Nov. 1991 - Mar. 1992

HK SYSTEMS - SOFTWARE MANAGER

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Promoted to manager of the software engineering department in November of 1991. Instituted a departmental restructuring in support of obtaining a favorable Department of Defense software maturity assessment rating. Created organizational departments, policies and procedures for Software Quality Assurance (SQA), Software Configuration Management (SCM), and Software Engineering Process Groups (SEPG).

Negotiated third party vendor Value Added Reseller (VAR) agreements.  Negotiated and implemented agreements with vendors including but not limited to Digital Equipment Corporation, ORACLE Corporation, Tandem Computers, Intellution Incorporated, and JYACC Incorporated.

Performed operational assessments of ongoing contracts and directed change procedures for optimally completing scope.

Jan. 1991 - Nov. 1991

HK SYSTEMS - SR. APPLICATIONS ENGINEER

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Relocated to Milwaukee, Wisconsin upon completion of the previous assignment and assumed the position of Sr. Applications Engineer within Sales and Marketing.  Specific functions were the review of Request for Proposals (RFP's) and the subsequent formation of bid responses including cost, scope, and schedule for computer control and networking portions of all RFP’s.

In formulating RFP responses, duties included but were not limited to:

• participating in bid / no bid decisions;

• documenting missing or incomplete bid requirements;

• determining custom scope from defined bid requirements;

• price and schedule determination & documentation for related scope;

• solicitation of third party hardware and software costs and delivery schedules;

• writing and orally presenting proposal offers;

• supporting the transition of awarded projects to internal divisions.

Jan. 1990 - Jan. 1991

CANADIAN TIRE CORPORATION

Toronto, Ontario - Canada

Promoted to engineering manager (a title created unique to this assignment) on behalf of a special need to manage engineering disciplines as consultants to Canadian Tire Corporation.  I relocated to Toronto and supported Canadian Tire’s Architectural and Engineering (A&E) firm - Giffels Associates, in the design, construction, and certification of the A.J. Billes Distribution Center.

Principle activities were to oversee the engineering and project management of contract and internal staff in support of filling holes within the Giffels organization and to ensure control integration aspects were of sound design.  Services rendered included but were not limited to:

• simulation of facility subsystems control algorithms and throughputs;

• review of vendor mechanical, electrical, and software design submittals;

• analysis of facility failure susceptibility;

• creation and implementation of an overall facility testing, training, documentation, and maintenance programs.

In addition, was called upon to perform an oversight role in the administration of our sister corporation SYSCON’s contract to design and implement a plant wide scheduling system for the facility’s management. While reporting to HK Systems Vice President of Commercial Systems, defined and developed detailed action plans for eliminating design and implementation defects.

Jul. 1987 – Jan. 1990

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Promoted to Sr. Systems Engineer and relocated to Harrisburg, PA for the duration of the design and construction of a $356 million Department of Defense project. On behalf of a formed joint venture between Morrison Knudson, Harnischfeger Engineers, and Eaton-Kenway, entitled “MHK”, my principle role was that of subcontract management and engineering coordination of mechanization subcontracts.  Subcontracts included conveyor, towline, narrow aisle vehicle, rack, sortation, robotics, vision systems, computer controls, broadband local area network, and real-time monitoring of facility systems.

Feb. 1987 - Jul. 1987

GENERAL ELECTRIC CORPORATION

Evendale, Ohio - Lynn, Massachusetts

Relocated to Evendale, OH in support of ongoing General Electric operations.  General Electric requested operations management consulting for the optimization of scheduling the building of jet aircraft engines from available inventory.  Performed consulting services for a six month period having had intimate knowledge of the operations gained from work completed in December of 1985.

Created and implemented modernization proposals for the two year old installation and managed the resulting hardware and software upgrades, developed ongoing maintenance procedures, and trained new General Electric upper management personnel.

Dec. 1985 - Feb. 1987

US WEST

Portland, Oregon

Promoted to Systems Engineer and relocated to Portland Oregon to oversee all software design and development for the construction of a distribution facility for US West. The control systems were highly distributed and relied on a hierarchy of PLC, PdP, VAX, and IBM mainframe systems. Duties included administrative management and technical development of on-site staff, design and development of software and LAN systems, and subsequent installation and certification of completed systems.

Mar. 1985 - Dec. 1985

HK SYSTEMS - SR. SOFTWARE ENGINEER

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Promoted to Senior Software Engineer upon graduation from Marquette University.  Principle responsibilities were the design and implementation of database systems, user interface applications, and real-time graphical displays for integrated manufacturing and distribution systems.  Systems implemented were primarily on DEC VAX and PdP equipment along with some IBM, TANDEM, and Stratus platforms.  Software was written in C, FORTRAN, PASCAL, and assembly language.

Quickly progressed to managing software staff in the design and implementation of systems specific for awarded projects. While a Sr. Software Engineer, undertook numerous projects including:

GENERAL ELECTRIC CORPORATION

Evendale, Ohio - Lynn, Massachusetts

Designed database, graphical real-time displays, kitting scheduling, and inventory allocation systems for General Electric Corporation’s jet aircraft engine manufacturing facilities in Evendale, OH and Lynn, MA.

Nov. 1983 - Mar. 1985

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Piketon, Ohio

Recruited to HK Systems while still attending college in 1983 as a Design Engineer. While working and attending college full time, designed user interface dialogs and underlying database processes for a gas centrifuge uranium enrichment facility for the Department of Energy. The system was based upon a Digital Equipment Corporation PdP 11/44 running the RSX-11M Plus operating system. Coding was done utilizing assembly language and FORTRAN. The databases developed incorporated before and after image journals with rollback capability - but were designed and implemented from scratch since true DBMS’s were in their infancy.  The system level displays of critical information incorporated modifying the operating systems data structures and DEC’s kernel software.

(see Projects for current work)