Chris Gotwald

Lead global product management team for softener/filter valves, hygienic valves, pulse jet valves and brewing QC equipment.

Global product management responsibility for purification systems. Project manager and marketing owner for the commercialization of multiple new product lines including incremental product advancement, new to Pentair product development and new to world technologies. Supervise purification systems product managers. Lead teams addressing price analysis, divestiture of product lines, and strategic partnerships. Lead training of internal and external personnel on product and business practices.

Manage multiple projects with customers and between divisions to obtain new sales and cost savings on existing sales. Coordinate with customers, suppliers, and all facets of the organization to drive projects to completion. Identify opportunities for new business and potential savings on current products, and drive growth. Member of the lean steering committee.

Manage a cross functional team of design, manufacturing, and quality personnel to reduce the cost of products sold by our division. The scope of the group included strategic sourcing, value engineering/redesign, insourcing, outsourcing, and transfer of production to our China and Mexico facilities.

Direct the sending team product transfers from the filtration division to our Suzhou, China facility. Manage forecasting and operations for filtration products transferred to Suzhou. Relocate family to Suzhou, China for 7 months to expedite the startup of multiple production lines.

Manage projects for new product introduction and product transfers for our Suzhou, China facility. Develop strategy deployment metrics and goals.

Lead quality efforts for new product introduction and process improvement. Kaizen program team member. Quality systems development. Equipment procurement for metrology laboratory. Work with operations, engineering and purchasing to lead the evaluation and improvement of products and processes.

Supervise group of quality engineers. Provide direction for machining quality and evaluate the effectiveness of improvement efforts. FMEA facilitator, PPAP coordinator and corrective action lead. Responsible for the machining quality of new product and the development of the quality methods and systems that will be used in production. Six sigma green belt training.

Machining quality for outboard engine manufacturing. Projects include scrap reduction, process improvement/statistical process evaluation, structured problem solving/evaluation with innovative solutions, and quality system development and implementation.

Strove to improve purchased material through total quality management. Worked with purchasing, design engineering and suppliers to improve the design, quality and manufacturability of purchased products. Statistical evaluation of vendor processes and Kaizen/BPR participation.

Responsible for the quality of aluminum manufacturing operations and externally machined and plated aluminum parts. Introduced process controls to reduce scrap and rework costs to below plan. Implemented QS and ISO concepts to promote an understanding of manufacturing processes.