I double capacity and cut lead times, then build teams in a sustainable way that keep the gains.

Twenty-plus years running manufacturing operations and leading Lean transformations, with a habit of learning whatever the problem needs. I've mapped an average 85% lead-time reduction opportunity across 20+ plants, and I'm now open to fractional COO and advisory work.

Results from the floor

Lean Six Sigma Sensei. I've led plants, trained teams to solve their own problems, and measured every change to make sure it improved the business. A few of the improvements I'm proudest of:

Lean transformations across 20+ plants

Engage Forward, Senior Improvement Consultant, 2024 to present

The work: Cellular redesigns and value stream mapping across more than 20 manufacturing facilities. I've taught dozens of people the concepts of Lean and continuous improvement, including training-within-industry programs that build problem-solving on the floor. I also facilitate improvement ideas with teams and organize them into a prioritized plan the company can act on. I've also acted in an advisory role for client companies and helped them hire for key positions.

What it found: Value stream mapping identified an average 85% lead-time reduction opportunity. My work runs mostly through a Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) center, where every client completes the NIST MEP client survey, run by an independent firm. My clients reported savings of 36 times what they paid for consulting.

Packaging automation that paid back in under a year

Dr. Squatch, Senior Manager, 2021 to 2023, and as an outside advisor

Evaluated: Multiple automation options for filling, packaging, and case packing lines, including robotics, comparing fit, cost, and what each line could realistically support.

Delivered: Specified and implemented the equipment, wrote the SOPs that keep the gains in place, and has since helped other companies choose and install their own. $500,000 in annual labor savings, payback under one year.

Doubling plant capacity in seven months

Dr. Squatch, Senior Manager, Plant Operations, 2021 to 2023

The work: Ran a 130-person plant with a $30M budget, set up root-cause cadences on the packaging lines, and sponsored the rollout of real-time OEE tracking so operators owned their lines.

The result: Capacity up from 1M to 2M units a month in 7 months. Packaging line OEE up 30%. Soap output grew from 1M to 2.7M bars a month while consumables spend fell 26%. Monthly COGS beat target by 10% with zero lost-time injuries.

50% more output in 90 days

Casoro Jewelry Safes, Director of Operations, 2023 to 2024

The work: Found and cleared bottlenecks in the value stream, led an ERP selection and rollout for scheduling and inventory, and insourced critical parts with 3D printing to reduce supply risk.

The result: Output up 50% in 90 days.

Changeovers cut by 75%

PepsiCo, Process Engineer and Cell Leader, 2007 to 2012

The work: Led 10 high-speed packaging lines and 32 direct reports, applying rapid changeover methods line by line.

The result: Changeover time down 75%, with 100% audit compliance across SQF, FDA, and Kosher standards.

$600,000 in recurring savings

Trim-Tex, Plant Operations Manager, 2012 to 2021

The work: Ran a plastics extrusion and recycling plant with more than $50M in annual revenue and 90+ people, and rebuilt procurement and replenishment planning.

The result: $600,000 in recurring annual cost savings, $90,000 a year in utility risk avoided, and 25% less inventory on hand.

My path, drawn to scale

Seven employers in seven industries over more than twenty years. Bar length is time on the job, so you can see the full picture: two long anchor roles, and the scope of the work growing underneath them.

14 yearsat two employers, PepsiCo and Trim-Tex, with more scope at each

32 → 130from 32 direct reports at PepsiCo to a 130-person plant at Dr. Squatch

7industries, from thermoforming and food manufacturing to jewelry safes to consulting across 20+ plants

Hallmark Cards

Thermoforming operation

Second-shift section manager
Jun 2006 – Aug 2007 · 1 yr 2 mo

Supervised up to 41 people and held department efficiency above 105%. Left to move back to the Chicago area.
PepsiCo

Food manufacturing and packaging

Process engineer to cell leader
Sep 2007 – Jan 2012 · 4 yrs 4 mo

Led 10 high-speed packaging lines and 32 direct reports. Cut changeover time 75%.
Trim-Tex

Plastics extrusion and recycling

Materials control to plant operations
Jan 2012 – Aug 2021 · 9 yrs 7 mo

Ran a plant with $50M+ in annual revenue and 90+ people. $600,000 in recurring annual savings.
Dr. Squatch

Personal care and consumer goods

Senior manager, plant operations and continuous improvement
Aug 2021 – Apr 2023 · 1 yr 8 mo

Directed a 130-person plant with a $30M budget and doubled its capacity in 7 months. Left when the plant closed.
Restaurant Depot

Food distribution and logistics

Director of logistics
May – Dec 2023 · 7 mo

Directed 6 cross-docks and $14M in annual freight spend.
Casoro Jewelry Safes

Security products and assembly

Director of operations
Dec 2023 – Sep 2024 · 9 mo

Raised output 50% in 90 days and led an ERP rollout.
Engage Forward

Manufacturing consulting across many environments

Senior improvement consultant
Oct 2024 – today · 2 yrs

Working across 20+ facilities. Value stream mapping identified an average 85% lead-time reduction opportunity, and my clients' answers to the independent NIST MEP survey put savings at 36 times the cost of consulting. I also train teams in Lean, advise leadership, and help clients hire key roles.

Two long anchors, growing scope in each, and since 2021 a widening range of settings. That range is what I now bring to growing companies.

Why range matters more now

I've never been only one thing. I've run plants, coached leaders, built software with AI, and spent time in the green industry. In a world reshaped by AI, that range is an advantage.

Manufacturing operations
Lean and Six Sigma
Leadership and coaching
Technology and AI
Green industry
Effective altruism

Business is a wicked problem

Psychologist Robin Hogarth separated "kind" settings, where rules are clear and feedback is fast, from "wicked" ones, where rules shift and feedback comes late. David Epstein's research shows specialists win in the first, and broad experience wins in the second. Running a plant, a turnaround, or a new business is the second kind. Epstein also points out that AI mastered the kind domains first.

David Epstein, Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World (2019)

Good ideas live between groups

Sociologist Ronald Burt studied managers at a large electronics company. The ideas rated most valuable, along with the raises and promotions, went disproportionately to people who connected groups that otherwise didn't talk. Lean works the same way: the biggest gains are usually in the handoffs between departments, not inside any one of them.

Ronald S. Burt, "Structural Holes and Good Ideas," American Journal of Sociology (2004)

AI rewards knowing where it fails

In a Harvard and BCG experiment with 758 consultants, people using AI finished tasks about 25% faster with roughly 40% higher quality, when the task suited the AI. On a task outside its abilities, they were 19 percentage points less likely to get the right answer, often because they trusted it. Seeing where that line falls takes judgment across many fields.

Dell'Acqua et al., "Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier," Harvard Business School and BCG (2023)

AI is making deep knowledge cheap and instant. What stays scarce is the person who can frame the right problem, connect what the specialists know, and check the answer at the source. That's what twenty years on the shop floor trained me to do.

How I'm wired

I've taken a lot of assessments over the years: DISC, Myers-Briggs, Enneagram, VIA Character Strengths, True Colors, Instinctive Drives, and more. The labels change from test to test. Four threads show up in nearly all of them.

A learner first

Love of Learning is my top character strength. True Colors puts me in Green, the analytical, inventive idea person, and archetype tests rank me Visionary, then Intellectual. My range isn't an accident. It's how I'm built.

VIA Character Strengths, True Colors, Archetypes

People-centered, listen first

My most recent DISC profile is the Advisor: strong listener, steady teammate, doesn't force ideas on people. Both Myers-Briggs results I've had come out extraverted, feeling, and judging, the profile of someone who builds teams around a shared plan.

DISC (2024), Myers-Briggs (ENFJ, then ESFJ)

Order, fairness, and doing it right

The Enneagram calls me a Reformer: someone who brings order to chaos and builds structures that let others do their best work. Fairness and judgment round out my top three character strengths. That's the instinct that drew me to Lean.

Enneagram, VIA Character Strengths

Built to finish

On Instinctive Drives, my strongest drive is Complete and my lowest is Improvise. I do my best work coordinating people toward long-term goals with a clear plan, and I care about outcomes that last, not quick fixes.

Instinctive Drives (I.D. 5573)

Several angles before I act

I look at problems from multiple angles before I commit, which prevents costly mistakes and delays down the road. It's why I compare several options first, not just the obvious one.

My style has moved with my roles

In 2016, as a plant leader, my DISC profile was high Dominance and Conscientiousness: direct, decisive, exacting. By 2024 it had shifted to high Influence and Steadiness.

I still have the drive. But the work now is helping teams own their improvements, and that means leading by listening.

DISC scores, 2024
Influence	70
Steadiness	57
Dominance	47
Conscientiousness	25

Built with AI

I don't write code for a living. These are working tools I've designed and shipped by directing AI, the same way I'd lead a team: clear standards, short cycles, and checking the output at the source.

OC Kids Coordinator

Live

A planner that turns scattered camps, classes, and after-school programs into one schedule for the whole family, with conflicts flagged before you register. Covers Anaheim, Irvine, Newport Beach, Orange, Santa Ana, and Tustin. Built in Lovable on a Supabase database.

The catalog stays current through AI workflows I wrote that check each city's recreation listings, verify changes, and sync them in. Standard work, automated.

See the app

Tab Triage

Prototype

A Chrome extension that gathers open tabs from every device, groups them by theme, and lets you swipe through them to keep or close.

5S for your browser: sort, set in order, shine. Started as a v1 prototype in September 2026.

Business Roundtable

In use

A reusable AI workflow that puts a business question in front of five expert perspectives (operations, growth, product, business development, and sales) and has them debate it before landing on a recommendation.

I use it to pressure-test decisions before I bring them to people.

How I use AI

Lean taught me that most problems aren't about effort. They're about flow, standards, and seeing the problem clearly. AI is the same. The value comes from defining the work well, building in checks, and improving the process every cycle.

In my consulting work I use it three ways. I turn raw meeting and site-visit notes into clear summaries, so nothing a client told me gets lost. I draft statements of work faster, then edit them against what I know the client can actually deliver. And I pressure-test my recommendations against current industry best practice before they reach a client, so the advice is checked against what the latest thinking says, not just my own experience. It gets me to a first draft sooner. The judgment on what to keep is still mine.

Education and credentials

The formal training behind the hands-on work.

Bradley University

B.S. in Industrial Engineering, minor in Business

Lake Forest Graduate School of Management

MBA, specialization in International Business

Lean Six Sigma Sensei

Certified through Villanova University.

Beyond work

What I do when I'm not improving a process (and sometimes when I am).

Effective altruism

Fairness and good judgment are two of my top character strengths. Effective altruism treats doing good as a problem to reason through carefully, with evidence, instead of one to settle by gut feel.

The green industry

I want to help enable the industries that power a cleaner world, from solar and wind to nuclear. The goal is a planet that future generations can simply enjoy, not one they have to plan their lives around climate catastrophe.

Leadership

I lead collaboratively, and I try to anticipate what people need before they have to ask. I've developed individual contributors into supervisors, and supervisors into managers. At PepsiCo, I used skill-based pay to bring every employee on my team to proficient or advanced. The payoff is teams that stay: voluntary turnover on my teams averaged about 2% a year, against roughly 9% for manufacturers across hourly and salaried roles.

Learning, building, and playing

I love learning, and I read constantly on technology, economics, and finance. I'm a points and miles enthusiast, which scratches the same itch as Lean: finding the best value in a system. I've taken up 3D printing as a hobby, and it's a tool I've also used to solve supply chain problems at work. Outside of that, you'll find me on the basketball court or playing with my kids.

If you're here as…

Different people visit for different reasons. Here's where to look.

A potential client

Start with the results above. I help teams find and remove the waste slowing them down, evaluate and implement automation, write the SOPs that make it stick, and build lightweight AI tools to keep the gains.

An employer

Two decades of operations leadership, range across functions, and a working ability to turn AI into practical tools. Reach out and I'll send my résumé.

A business partner

I bring operating discipline, process design, and the ability to build and test ideas quickly. Expect a partner who listens first, wants a clear plan, and sees it through.

Let's talk

Based in Tustin, California. Open to fractional COO roles, advisory positions, contract work, and partnerships.