Expert Details

Design for Manufacturability, Mass Customization, Build-to-Order, Concurrent Engineering

ID: 107589 California, USA

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Expert is a const reduction expert that helps companies reduce cost as much as half the total cost through product development and cost savings through on-demand production and spontaneous (pull based) supply chains.

He has developed leading-edge methodologies that show companies how to design high quality products for manufacturability and the fastest time to stable production. This is based on 25 years of experience training companies and three books. He has also written two books that show companies how to excel in niche markets, offer variety more efficiently, and mass customize products at the speed and efficiency of mass production. He teaches clients how to develop product families that can be built-to-order (BTO) from parts made just in time (JIT) in flexible, continuous flow, demand flow, and pull system manufacturing environments. With products designed for this agility, JIT will foster continuous improvement and eliminate WIP inventory, BTO will eliminate finished goods inventory, and flexible manufacturing will build products efficiently in lots of one, without setup. Expert can help clients develop techniques that will provide ultra-fast development of modular products, quick response to changing markets and opportunities, low overhead costs, and price premium opportunities.

He has experience designing environments that eliminate waste by building parts just-in-time in continuous flow with products "pulled" from customers to eliminate batches, set-up time, waiting, kitting, and inventory while significantly improving quality, productivity, floor space, equipment use, and time-to-market.

As Manager of Flexible Manufacturing at Intel's Systems Group, he developed methodologies for standardization of parts, tools, and processes. He teaches product line rationalization as part of his mass customization seminars. Expert teaches how to design products for minimum raw materials, work-in-process, and finished goods inventory. He shows companies how to design products for JIT environments that minimize WIP inventory and products for build-to-order environments that minimize finished goods inventory. He spoke at internal conference on Product Line Rationalization at Emerson Electric.

As a consultant, he has helped various sized companies in many industries change their product development culture, establish concurrent engineering design teams, and create an infrastructure that supports rapid product development. He uses an approach that goes beyond project management deadlines to focus on the real source of competitive advantage in product development--how to actually design it right the first time. Product design determines 80% of a product's cost, the ease of introduction into production, and how rapidly volume production can be achieved. He taught new product development in the Management of Technology Program at the Haas Graduate Business School at the University of California, Berkeley. In addition, he is adept at design engineering, machining, and welding. Expert spoke on Advanced Product Development for a Hewlett-Packard conference for Engineering Managers. His techniques for Spontaneous Build-to-Order and Mass Customization IS the new "world class manufacturing" because it can enable factories to build any custom or standard product on-demand without forecasts, batches, or ivnentory. This was described in his 512 page book on "Build-to-Order and Mass Customization; How to Build Custom and Standard Products On-Demand for Internet Sales, B2B E-Commerce, and Rapid Store Replenishment without Forecasts, Batches, or Inventory

Expert has trained many companies on how to design products for manufacturability. He has consulted on manufacturability issues using an approach that goes beyond product design for assembly and product design for manufacture (DFM) to include all the other criteria that designers must consider early to optimize development cost, product cost, time-to-market, delivery, expandability, customization, serviceability, quality, reliability disassembly, and environmental considerations. He has conducted in-house new product development workshops that focus on one product, with the participants being the product development team. He is the author of the book, "Design for Manufacturability, Optimizing Cost, Quality, and Time-to-Market" (CIM Press, 1990). He has taught DFM college classes and extension classes through the University of California, Berkeley Engineering Extension. As an employee, he initiated and led the successful DFM program at Intel's Systems Group. He was a panelist for a Caterpillar panel on assembly methodologies.
He is writing a new book on how to cut costs of developing and manufacturing products. Expert has written the most thorough book on Mass Customization.
Expert has also written several other texts that involve the processes of manufacturing and design.

His build-to-order and mass customization techniques can provide the ultimate manufacturing cost contol by minimizing all costs including overhead, inventory, and distribution costs. Expert's build-to-order and mass customization techniques are the ultimate methodologies to reduce manufacturing lead time so that factories can build any product on-demand without any setup or batches. Production can be truly spontaneous without the need for forecasting, purchasing delays, or expediting. He has been teaching Design for Manufacturing for 15 years and taught new product development at a respected University. He shows product development teams how to optimize product design for function, cost, delivery, and quality. His unique methodologies on build-to-order and mass customization allow manufacturers to build products on-demand without forecasts or scheduling. Expert has taught Design for Manufacturability for 15 years and taught new product development at a respected University. His leading-edge build-to-order, mass customization, product line rationalization, and standardization techniques provide the ultimate total cost reduction including supply chain cost and performance. Expert's build-to-order, mass customization, product line rationalization, and standardization techniques can have significant effect in simplifying supply chains and pulling parts from suppliers so that manufacturers can build products on-demand without forecasts or inventory.

INDUSTRIAL EQUIPMENT client engagements include: five DFM seminar/workshop engagements at General Electric (at GE Transportation, GE Power, and GE Energy); four DFM seminars and four worshops, including three cost/steel reduction workshop for Barry Wehmiller (paper processing equipment); two DFM seminars at United Technologies Corp. (air conditioners and fire/security systems); two DFM or Standardization engagements at Emerson Electric (seminars and consulting for electric motors; rationalization for gas regulators); two DFM seminars at FMC (food processing machinery); DFM seminar at Gatan (mass spectrometry and imaging analysis for electron microscopes; DFM seminar at Thermo-Fisher (radiation hardened CID cameras); DFM seminar at Aoptix (adaptive optics scanners); DFM seminar and cost/steel reduction workshop at Idatech (fuel-cell generators); DFM seminar and cost/steel reduction workshops at IMW Industries of Canada (large natural gas compressors); DFM seminar and cost/steel reduction workshop at Alliance Machinery (large cardboard box machine); DFM seminar and cost/steel reduction workshop for Advanced Energy Industries (power-plant scale inverters); Hoffman/Schroff (BTO seminars/workshops on large electrical enclosures; Cooper Industries (BTO seminar electrical cabinets and cable trays); Bimba Manufacturing (pneumatic cylinders and actuation systems); Badger Meter (DFM seminar for water meters); KI Furnature (DFM seminar for office furniture); Exemplis (BTO seminar for office chairs)

- Midmark Corporation (rationalization Dental/Medical tools and furniture)

- Siemens (cost reduction consulting what is now covered in cost/steel reduction workshop on postal automation equipment)

- GE Nuclear (consulting version of what is now cost/steel reduction workshopELECTRONIC PRODUCTS client engagements include: eight DFM seminar/workshop engagements at Hewlett-Packard, five DFM seminars at Plantronics (phone head sets), four trips to Korea for LG Electronics, two DFM seminars at NCR (ATM machines and Point-of-Sale terminals), two DFM seminars and a workshop at Glenayre Electronics (pager transmitters), DFM seminar and workshop for Advanced Energy Industries (RF power supplies), two DFM seminars and a workshop at Winegard (tracking TV antennas for RVs), Capetronic, Taiwan (DFM seminar and workshop for computer CRT monitors), SeaTel (DFM seminar for tracking TV marine antennas), Storage Tek (DFM seminar for high capacity tape and disk drives), Magnetic Analysis Corporation (DFM seminar for non-destructive testers), Industrial Scientific (DFM seminar for gas detectors), Lightwave (DFM seminar for Lasers), Silicon Light Machines (DFM seminar for Laser projection systems), ILC Technology (DFM seminar for lamps and light sources), AOptix Technologies (DFMseminar for adaptive optics biometric scanners), JDSU (DFM seminar for coax cable diagnostic tools), Anritsu (DFM seminar for cable diagnostic tools), - Qualcomm (DFM seminar cell-phone development prototypes and evaluation platforms), Northern Telecom (DFM seminar for telephones), Network Equipment Technologies (DFM seminar for network hardware). MEDICAL PRODUCTS client engagements include: three DFM seminars at Invivo, which has been acquired by Philips (MRI image processing);
two DFM seminars and an implementation meeting at St. Jude Medical (pacemakers, defibrillators); two DFM seminars at Beckman-Coulter (hematology lab equipment); a DFM seminar, workshop, and executive overview at Salient Surgical Technology (transcollation surgical tools), ;
a DFM seminar and two workshops at Varian Medical Systems (Oncology radiation treatment machines); a DFM seminar for four divisions of HP’s Medical Products Group, which have been acquired by Philips;
a DFM seminar for Abiomed (seminar for catheter-based blood pumps);
a tooling workshop for Spectranetics and DFM management overview (for cather-based lasers), a DFM seminar for Biolase (seminar for laser-based dental surgical tools), Advanced Bionics (DFM seminar for Cochlear hearing implants), Becton-Dickinson (DFM seminar for laser-based immunocytrometry lab equipment); Medrad (DFM seminar for tracer injectors); Origin Medsystems (DFM seminar for surgical tools);
Natus (DFM seminar for infant care products); Bausch & Lomb (Mass Customization seminar for Ray-Ban glasses); Allergan-Humphreys (DFM seminar for medical products); Hollister (DFM seminar and plant evaluation for ostomy products); plus management overviews for Baxter Healthcare, Guidant, Salient Surgical Technology, and Spectranetics.
AEROSPACE/DEFENSE Client engagements include: four DFM seminars at BAE Systems (airplane controls and infrared vision/targeting systems),
four DFM seminars at Smiths Aerospace, now GE Aviation (aircraft control panels, starter/generators, and power supplies), four DFM seminars at Boeing (commercial aircraft), three DFM seminars at L-3 Communications (GPS systems); three DFM seminars at Laser Communications Inc., consortium of Ball Aerospace and Comdev (laser-connectedcommunication satellites), three engagements at Loral Western Development Labs, now L-3 (military radios), DFM seminar and implementation meeting at CPI Beverly Microwave Division, the radar spin-off of Varian (microwave assemblies, receiver/protectors, transmitters, magnetrons, amplifiers); Randtron, now L-3 (DFM seminar for radar antennas for AWACS), Med-Eng division of Safariland Corp (blast attenuated seats and blast suite), Cobham, Seatel (DFM seminar for marine antennas), Cobham, Continental (DFM seminar for airborne antennas), DRS Environmental, division of Finmechanica (DFM seminar and Cost/Steel reduction workshop (enclosures and large military trailers)
GE Distributed Power (DFM seminar for jet-engine-powered stationary and trailered power plants), Moog Aircraft, (DFM seminar for hydraulic actuators), Honeybee Robotics Space Mechanisms (DFM seminar for space probe robots and mechanisms), Kaiser Electronics (DFM seminar for heads-up displays for fighter jets); Driessen, (DFM seminar for aircraft galleys), Oceaneering Space Systems (DFM seminar for astronaut tools),
B. E. Meyers (DFM seminar for locating lasers), Rix Industries (consulting for armored door egress mechanisms)

COMMERCIAL VEHICLE client engagements include: six seminars/workshops for Emergency-One (mass customization seminar for firetruck manufacturer, implementation workshop, DFM seminar, standardization workshop, and two flexible tooling workshops for sheetmetal and tubing); DFM seminar and cost/steel reduction workshop for Bucyrus div of Caterpillar (underground mining vehicles), GE Transportation (DFM seminar and workshop for Diesel Locomotive Engines), Tereex ASV (tracked and skid-steer tractors), Kinze Manufacturing (BTO/Cellular Manufacturing seminar, followed by workshops on Rationalization and Standardization for farm machinery), Freightliner (DFM seminar and BTO strategy session for semi-tractors), John Deere (BTO for yard tractors);
Case Tractor (executive education at the Haas Graduate School of Business at UC Berkeley)

Education

Year Degree Subject Institution
Year: 1972 Degree: Doctor of Engineering Subject: Mechanical Engineering Institution: University of California, Berkeley
Year: 1969 Degree: MSME Subject: Mechanical Engineering Institution: University of California, Berkeley
Year: 1967 Degree: BSME Subject: Mechanical Engineering Institution: University of California, Berkeley

Work History

Years Employer Title Department
Years: 1989 to Present Employer: Undisclosed Title: Management Consultant Department:
Responsibilities:
Expert offers leading-edge consulting, seminars, and workshops on Design for Manufacturability, Mass Customization, Build-to-Order, and Cost Reduction
Years Employer Title Department
Years: 1990 to 1994 Employer: Title: Lecturer Department:
Responsibilities:
He taught several classes per year on Design for Manufacturability.
Years Employer Title Department
Years: 1993 to 1994 Employer: University of California, Berkeley Title: Department: Graduate School of Business
Responsibilities:
Expert created and taught the course new product development in the Management of Technology Program.
Years Employer Title Department
Years: 1988 to 1989 Employer: University of Portland Title: Department: CIM Program
Responsibilities:
He created and taught courses on Design for Manufacturability and Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM).
Years Employer Title Department
Years: 1984 to 1989 Employer: Intel Corporation Title: Department: Flexible Manufacturing, Systems Group
Responsibilities:
He implemented programs for standardization of parts and tooling plus Design for Manufacturability program.
Years Employer Title Department
Years: 1977 to 1984 Employer: Title: President Department:
Responsibilities:
He generated design studies for SRI International and built special production equipment for companies such as IBM, FMC, Clorox, and OCLI.
Years Employer Title Department
Years: 1974 to 1977 Employer: Title: Project Engineer Department:
Responsibilities:
He was a project leader to develop a new-generation food processing machine.
Years Employer Title Department
Years: 1974 to 1974 Employer: Title: Design Engineer Department:
Responsibilities:
He designed remote controlled robots and manipulators.

International Experience

Years Country / Region Summary
Years: 1992 to 2000 Country / Region: Asia Summary: Expert has often traveled to Asia to present seminars and conduct classes in Mass Customization and Design for Manufacturability, including four trips to Korea for the LG Group
Years: 1992 to 1998 Country / Region: Europe Summary: Expert has traveled to Europe to present seminars on Design for Manufacturability, including two seminars for HP, Barcelona and one DFM seminar for NCR in Dundee, Scotlane

Career Accomplishments

Associations / Societies
Expert was a Fellow in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), a life member in Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME)
Licenses / Certifications
He is a Registered Professional Engineer in mechanical, industrial, and manufacturing engineering. The Institute of Management Consultants has certified Expert as a Certified Management Consultant (CMC).
Professional Appointments
Expert was the Chairman of the Speakers Bureau of the Professional and Technical Consultants Association (PATCA).
Awards / Recognition
Fellow, American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Publications and Patents Summary
Expert has written three books on product development and two books on Build-to-Order & Mass Customization and numerous publications

Fields of Expertise

build-to-order, continuous flow manufacturing, flexible manufacturing, mass customization, new consumer product development, product design variation reduction, industrial engineering setup time reduction, lean manufacturing, time-to-market, engineering design standardization, manufacturability design review, product cost reduction, product variety optimization, value analysis, concurrent engineering, integrated product development, new product design, new product development, product design, product development cycle time, rapid product development, redesign process, value engineering, cost control, cost engineering, cost reduction, design for cost, design for disassembly, design for environment, design for manufacturability, design for manufacture and assembly, design-for-quality, cost, customization, design for assembly, manufacturing cost control, manufacturing lead time, optimum design, production control, research and development, supplier cost reduction, supplier value analysis, world-class manufacturing, assembly, supply chain cost reduction, high volume, low cost product assembly, high volume, low cost product design, assembly equipment, integrated product team, manufacturing cost analysis, ideation, discrete manufacturing, automation, medical product manufacturing, enterprise resource planning, engineering change order, focused factory, engineering project management, cost accounting, product family, synchronous manufacturing, product reliability improvement, product formulation, medical device product development, improvement, product manufacturing, engineering design, quality cost, electronic product technology innovation, project cost engineering, engineering economics, enterprise application integration, electronic-product design for manufacturability, flexible manufacturing system, medical device product improvement, printed circuit board design-for-manufacturability, material cost reduction, design review, electromechanical product development, electrical product design, management, continuous quality improvement, analysis, printed circuit board assembly process, computer-aided manufacturing, electronic product development, machine design, engineering design productivity, design engineering, product life cycle, process automation, new product development management, factory integration, electronic assembled device, project management, materials control, manufacturing, just-in-time inventory, group technology, flexible-fixturing technology, factory automation, engineering cost, computer integrated manufacturing, manufacturing cell, activity-based costing

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