Bertram Barco
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Charlotte, NC, United States
Toptal member since October 18, 2024
Bertram is a results-oriented cultural change agent who inspires individuals and teams to embrace continuous improvement (CI) and deliver value to the end customer. He identifies and provides holistic solutions using the appropriate Lean Six Sigma tool. Bertram's successful track record in operations management, Lean deployment, and quality systems demonstrates an ability to deliver value in diverse industries.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Continuous Improvement
- Kaizen
- Kanban
- Lean
- Manage for Daily Improvement (MDI/SIM)
- Root-cause Analysis (RCA)
- Six Sigma Black Belt Certified
- Value Stream Mapping
Work Experience
East Regional Manufacturing Quality Manager, Project Manager, and Supplier Quality Manager
Serta Simmons Bedding
- Expanded regional accountability to include half the Canadian territory and reduced Canadian warranty costs by $6.3 million, coaching engineers on Lean tools, initiating total preventative maintenance tools, and implementing process standards.
- Deployed the first Lean initiative in the East Region and coached the Charlotte plant through its culture change, driving $80,000 in previously unidentified hard savings (900% ROI).
- Led a Canadian executive leadership team Kaizen event tasked to improve integrity by 25% for Canadian data warranty. The team standardized the customer returns process, improved data integrity by 27%, and reduced customer service labor by 80%.
- Implemented an electronic inventory validation system and improved the product traceability process, reducing each plant's product recall risk from 10,000 to 30 monthly pieces.
- Partnered with plant and corporate resources to develop process documentation and coached plants through mock audits to lead the East Region (12 plants) through the good manufacturing practices (GMP) certification.
West Regional Quality Engineer
Serta Simmons Bedding
- Leveraged Minitab, measurement system analysis (MSA), and the DMAIC process to streamline product packaging and lessen transportation damage. The project delivered $461,000 in net savings and a 4% reduction in customer complaints.
- Partnered with the Green County Serta plant to develop a process that repurposed obsolete individually wrapped coil (IWC) unit inventory during the pandemic. The process mitigated $800,000 in material shortages across the network.
- Led a project to deliver a holistic solution leveraging customer information, error-proofing, and barcoded dynamic routings to eliminate a 90% customer error rate when using 3rd-party logistics.
- Supported maintenance equipment upgrade activities and trained quality personnel to monitor equipment and process performance to support a $1.5 million glue-saving project.
- Adopted the corner stapling process as a best practice to reduce mattress failures across eight plants, delivering $680,000 in net warranty savings.
- Created and implemented a 10-hour onboarding training program for quality personnel that reduced the six-month department turnover rate by 50%.
Quality Engineer
Serta Simmons Bedding
- Improved mattress-in-box warranty losses, delivering a Six Sigma project that saved $3 million in inventory and warranty losses.
- Partnered with the materials group to deploy 5S, ABC stratification, and Kanban methods, resulting in a 25% increased warehouse efficiency for the mattress-in-box product line.
- Implemented 5S visual management, flexible work cells, Kanban, and material sequencing, thus reducing assembly line labor stoppages for the legacy product line by 30%.
- Supported $165,000 in hard labor savings through Kaizen events, time studies, cycle time reduction, process simulations, and layout changes.
Continuous Improvement and Quality Engineer
SIG (Scholle IPN)
- Completed a Six Sigma project that optimized the fitment automated assembly process, eliminated 100% of nonconforming fitment assemblies, and increased overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) by 17% for the downstream department.
- Delivered the data acquisition system (DAS) project ahead of schedule and on budget. It introduced Microsoft Power BI and provided live plant production data to plant management and supervisors via weblinks and shop floor monitors.
- Led a cross-functional team and taught A3, DMAIC, and statistical process control (SPC) methodologies to troubleshoot machines and shrink machine alarms by 81% in a year-over-year improvement.
- Learned and leveraged SOLIDWORKS to design, fabricate, and install set-up reduction (SUR) tooling, decreasing changeover times by 85% and reducing scrap by 23% for eight automated bag machine (ABM) lines.
- Leveraged SOLIDWORKS, AutoCAD, and time studies to create a box-build station that advanced operator safety, lowered labor by 20%, and increased warehouse availability by 27,000 cubic feet.
- Designed SUR tooling with SOLIDWORKS and standardized the operator training for plastic extrusion machines, reducing changeover times, eliminating 750,000 pieces of scrap annually, and increasing machine availability by 2%.
Lean and Quality Engineer and Productivity Project Manager
Schneider Electric
- Implemented a dynamic Kanban system to account for 40% of seasonal variation from the commercial construction business, increasing part availability by 18%.
- Conducted time studies and implemented standard work to increase capacity by 20%, saving $15,000 in labor and growing revenue by $140,000 without additional labor/capital investment for the modular panel systems product line.
- Reduced the receiving deptartment's lead time by 80% by facilitating a Kaizen event focused on cellular manufacturing and waste from transportation, motion, waiting, and defects.
- Improved the panel board assembly efficiency by 27%, saving $71,000 using ABC parts stratification and improving parts presentation, workstations, and cellular manufacturing.
- Eliminated 100% of the rear cover panel scrap using the "eight disciplines" problem-solving method with internal and external suppliers.
- Trained plant leadership to become value stream managers and implemented a future state value stream map that increased service levels from 90% to 97% in one year.
- Led a cross-functional project team that deployed an inventory tracking process, created a Microsoft Access database, and met financial regulatory and ISO 9000 requirements for customer-supplied parts.
- Deployed a management for daily improvement (MDI) program, Gemba walks, and A3 methodologies to save $247,000 in shop floor and office processes.
Manufacturing Process Engineer, Maintenance Technical Team Lead, and Interim Production Supervisor
Decore-Ative Specialties
- Supervised daily production in the cope and stick department and deployed SUR and workstation turnover time analysis to improve OEE by 42% and increase throughput during peak customer demand.
- Leveraged Lean principles, project management skills, and process knowledge to redeploy 177 pieces of equipment and commission a facility expansion using only two days of scheduled plant downtime.
- Executed a Six Sigma project to improve outside-edge detail process capabilities for a $1.5 million double-end tenone, reducing downtime and increasing OEE by 21% on a bottleneck process.
- Identified risks and wrote the business case to convert shop-floor tribal knowledge into the first documented product routing that became a company-wide multi-plant initiative.
Process Engineer
Flex
- Joined the customer focus team and developed subject matter expertise in PTH solder, press fit, and final assembly processes.
- Received the Solectron's Gold Award for developing a heat sink bonding process, saving $9 million in rework.
- Developed procedures and optimized thermal profiles to implement the first company CNC selective wave soldering process without pallets, eliminating manual soldering and reducing defects by 85% for prototype and premium printed circuit boards.
Assembly Team Leader, Production Manager, Industrial Engineer, and Maintenance Manager
Stanley Black & Decker
- Joined the team as a process improvement engineer, got promoted to quality manager, and then assembly team leader to turn around the DeWalt stationary power tools assembly department, which consisted of 140 people.
- Increased schedule attainment from 54% to 100% and improved labor efficiency from 45% to 97% for the DeWalt job site table saw assembly line in four months.
- Conducted time studies and facilitated layout changes to rebalance the DeWalt miter saw assembly line, saving $84,000 in labor and increasing capacity by 21%.
- Initiated a preventative maintenance program to reduce downtime by 24% and restore 12% of capacity.
Quality Manager and Continuous Improvement Engineer
Stanley Black & Decker
- Leveraged process mapping, SAP product routings, standard work instructions, and first-piece inspections to reduce jig saw and reciprocating saw blade scrap by $40,000 monthly over three months.
- Championed a continuous improvement culture, leading the first Kaizen in the Tampa accessories plant, delivering $90,000 in scrap savings and $60,000 in labor savings.
- Managed an alternative materials project, identifying new metals, testing manufacturability and performance characteristics, and generating $95,000 in savings.
- Completed my Black Belt certification project eliminating $260,000 in scrap. I presented the business case and process capability data to executive management, who approved a $1.2 million capital investment.
- Implemented quality and inventory controls to reduce material losses from $112,000 to $3,000 compared to the previous annual physical inventory audit for the plant.
Global Plastics Assessment and Process Improvement Engineer
Stanley Black & Decker
- Joined a cross-functional team commissioned to improve purchasing and manufacturing responsiveness to market changes.
- Created the current state process map for internal purposes and external plastics organizations.
- Developed a Microsoft Access database that reduced the response time from three days to minutes.
- Compiled a digital profile and simulation of a global plastics organization, including equipment, plant layouts, organizational structures, tool/actual cycle times, site best practices, and organizational structure.
Project History
Six Sigma Project: ABM Downtime Reduction
Reduced the downtime of eight automated bag machines (ABMs) and increased the department's overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) by 17%.
A plant sporadically lost entire shifts due to ABM downtime. After interviewing operators and generating Pareto diagrams of downtime logs and scrap costs, I defined the issue, its economic impact, and the team needed to resolve this in a project charter.
The team used an Ishikawa diagram and an FMEA process to identify and measure key inputs, including machine settings and mold cavities. The prevailing hypothesis to analyze was that defective spout assemblies (SAs) caused ABMs to stop. Using SOLIDWORKS, I created a Poka-Yoke fixture to insulate half the ABMs from any defective SAs, catching the defective SAs before they were destroyed. We confirmed the root cause of the issue was that the spout machine did not properly mate components together during the acceleration and deceleration of the process.
In the improvement phase, a design of experiments (DOE) determined the optimized rate to eliminate defective SAs did not meet the takt rate. The spout machine was then upgraded to control the process, increasing its rate with Poka-Yoke limits. Sending defect-free SAs increased ABM uptime and the OEE by 17%.
Six Sigma Project: Bed-in-a-box Performance Improvement
Found the root causes of crowning nonconformance and saved the company $3 million in warranty losses.
This project involved improving mattress-in-box warranty losses through a Six Sigma project that saved $3 million in inventory and warranty losses.
I partnered with the materials group to deploy 5S, ABC stratification, and Kanban methods, resulting in a 25% increased warehouse efficiency for the mattress-in-box product line.
Kaizen Event: Warranty Data Integrity Improvement
Created a current and future state value stream map that improved Canadian warranty returns data, standardized the returns process, and reduced labor across the customer service department by 80%.
The Canadian CFO, regional sales managers, and quality engineers reviewed a biweekly warranty report, which had 25-33% of the reason codes missing. As a result, I chartered a Kaizen event with the following objectives: providing warranty data with a reason code for 92% of the returned products, updating data within two weeks of the customer-requested return material authorization (RMA), and creating workflow and process documentation.
I selected which Lean tools to teach, coordinated materials, and scheduled team presentations, plant resources, and event logistics. During the Kaizen event, I arranged safety training sessions, trained the team in value stream mapping, and selected Lean tools. We validated the current returns process and created a future state value stream map that immediately standardized the RMA and receiving process. The team piloted the new process, centralizing the customer service department and reducing its labor force from 30 people to six.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering
North Carolina State University - Raleigh, NC, USA
Certifications
Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFM/DFA)
Quality-One International
Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA)
Quality-One International
Pro-molding I
Paulson Plastics Academy
Web Handling Seminar
Oklahoma State University
Lean Expert
The George Group and Schneider Electric
Black Belt
Black & Decker
Skills
Tools
Visio, SOLIDWORKS, Office 365, Microsoft Project, Microsoft Access, Zoom, AutoCAD, Microsoft Power BI
Paradigms
Kanban, Lean, Value Stream Identification, Waste Elimination, Six Sigma, Process Capability Anaysis, Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP), Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)
Platforms
Businessmap (formerly Kanbanize)
Other
Kaizen, Manage for Daily Improvement (MDI/SIM), Root-cause Analysis (RCA), 5S, 5 Whys, A3 Problem Solving, Set Up Reduction (SUR/SMED), Pareto Chart, Assembly, Ishikawa Diagrams, Value Stream Mapping, TPS, PDCA, A3 Modeling, Hoshin Kanri, Quality Management Systems (QMS), ISO 9001, Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), Minitab, Complex Problem Solving, DMAIC, Six Sigma Black Belt Certified, QA Leadership, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Pareto Diagrams, Defect Prevention(Poka-Yoke), Statistical Analysis, Quality Management, Statistical Process Control Tools, Assembly Process Planning (APP), Leadership, Training, Lean Policy Deployment, Toyota Production System (TPS), Quality Control (QC), Engineering, Culture Development, Hypothesis Testing, Design of Experiments (DOE), Pull Replenishment Systems, PPAP, Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA), Etq/Reliance, Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP), Auditing, Nominal Group Technique, Force-Field Analysis, Check Sheet, Data Collection, Fault Tree Analysis, Cause & Effect Matrix, Lean Assessments, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Work Control Systems, Analytical Batch Sizing, Dashboards, Measurement Systems Analysis, Process Control Plans, Operations Management, Project Management, Standardization, Heat Treat, Milling, Grinding, Injection Molding, Continuous Improvement, Creative Problem Solving, Workstation Turnover Time Analysis (WTT), Microsoft Office, New Product Rollout, Managerial Economics, P&L Management, People Development, People Management, Warehouse Management, Process Design, Design for Manufacture & Assembly (DFMA), ISO 9000, Audits, Risk Assessment, SAP, Simulations, Viso, Supplier Quality Assurance, Measurement System Analysis (MSA), Supply Chain, Event Correlation, Regression Modeling, Reverse Logistics, Workflow, P&L Analysis, ABC, Mechanical Engineering, Design for Manufacturing, Web, Design For Assembly (DFA)
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