Robert Sherrill

I was brought onboard in late 2024 to raise the OMW quality program to a higher level. I have introduced 1) monthly Cost of Quality reporting of scrap, rework, etc 2) a monthly Scrap Review meeting looking for opportunities to address systemic quality issues, 3) introduction of cross functional continuous improvement teams using the 8-D (eight disciplines) problem solving methodology, 4) monthly quality engineering training sessions, and 5) revamped the quality management review process from an annual review of a slide deck to monthly working meetings with the senior leadership team that include safety, financial key business metrics, quality indicators, and continuous improvement efforts.

I led a team of eight to ten product quality engineers, and from July 2021 until August 2022, four customer quality engineers. We made energetic components for life saving aircraft safety systems such as ejection sets and emergency evacuation slides. Having flown ejection seat equipped aircraft as a Naval Aviator, I know the importance of this work. So do my colleagues who have never flown an airplane.

BIW Connector Systems designs and manufactures high current electrical connectors used on gas and oil wells as well as geo-thermal power generation facilities. I was responsible for all aspects of quality management within the company. My efforts during 2015 included launching a new quality training program for all employees and the implementation of a weekly material review board to review failures found at receiving, in-process and final inspection and test. We also went live on SAP a month after I joined BIW; and while I have supported that effort, I must give credit to other folks who led that effort before I arrived. In 2016 we started a new weekly review of customer issues with Customer Service, Engineering and Product Management. This is a quick, stand-up meeting intended to improve communication and collaboration. We also started a monthly supplier development meeting with Purchasing. In 2017 I began studying the latest revision of ISO 9001 in earnest and laying the groundwork for our transition to the 2015 revision in 2018. We obtained ISO 9001:2015 accreditation in 2018. In 2019 I was excited to be developing a new quality observations program. It ties in nicely with my practice of daily gemba walks throughout the factory. I work with our operators to identify overlooked or potential problems that may cause us major grief down the line. It has been an eye opening experience, and I am getting positive feedback from both operators and management.

Core Brands was a group of formerly independent companies owned by Nortek Inc. that produced audio, power management, and control systems for residential and commercial applications. Our brands included Aton, BlueBOLT, Elan, Emphasys, Furman, Niles, Panamax, Proficient, SpeakerCraft, Sunfire and Xantech. As Director of Quality, I was responsible for all aspects of quality management within Core Brands. This includes development of the quality management system and all quality control activities in the USA and China. As a member of the Leadership Team, I was responsible for overseeing the new product development process. I also helped organize our strategic planning process. In 2014 I began acting as the Director of Quality for Gefen, a sister company within Nortek that produced state of the art video switching products. I stepped in to quickly build a quality management system that had been promised but never implemented in order to keep two major customers who were threatening to drop Gefen as a supplier.

RPD, formerly part of Varian, designed and manufactured nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and X-ray diffraction measurement systems used in scientific and medical research. RPD had design and manufacturing facilities in California, Colorado, England, and Poland. My responsibilities included maintenance of the ISO 9000 programs in California and England, and the development of new ISO 9000 quality management systems in Colorado and Poland. In addtion, I was given responsibilities for the global RoHS program in late 2011. Faced with serious quality issues that were effecting the company's reputation and finances, I led the creation of a Quality Steering Committee comprised of RPD senior managers and other key stakeholders from Agilent. We formed a number of cross functional improvement teams (on three continents) that identified a variety of improvement projects. The Steering Committee reviewed all proposals, and chartered a handful of projects for each team that seemed most likely to have a near term impact. I believe that my approach to continuous improvement was theoretically sound, but eminently practical. Given the urgency of the situation, I taught the teams basic problem solving techniques (including root cause and corrective action and 8-D) and project management fundamentals. Where team members had Six Sigma experience, they were encouraged to use the DMAIC process (or anything else that would get the job done).

eIQ was a solar power start-up that had a unique approach management of a photovoltaic solar power system that optimized the output of each solar panel. My responsibilities at eIQ included designing and implementing a new quality program appropriate to the needs of the company, working with our Supply Chain manager on supplier development, and reliability engineering. I implemented a multiple phase approach to building a documented quality management system. We focused our attention on those quality elements that are critical to a start-up (e.g. sourcing, new product development). My supplier development responsibilities included working with various component suppliers in North America and Asia and our contract manufacturer in the Philippines. We established a ongoing dialogue with our C.M. to identify manufacturing, delivery, and quality problems. I was the liason with eIQ Operations and Engineering, working with all parties to resolve these issues. What was comparatively new for me was the responsibility for the Failure Reporting And Corrective Action System (FRACAS). I documented a FRACAS process and have led Failure Analysis Teams looking at data from our various Beta sites. Lessons from these efforts are being incorporated in our upcoming production units. I also began building reliability prediction models using the Relex software. These models forecast the expected failure rate of units in the field, and give our engineers insights into ways of improving reliability during the design phase. While my fulltime employment with eIQ concluded at the end of August as the company retrenched, I continued to consult with them on reliability engineering issues through the remainder of 2010.

At EKC Technology we built arguably the best quality program in the semiconductor process chemicals industry. Our foundation was a documented quality management system that met or exceeded industry requirements (ISO 9001, QS 9000, TS 16949). Meeting specifications was a given; our focus was on Manufacturing In Control so our customers received the most consistent quality possible. To do this we trained all employees in quality fundamentals, continuous improvement, and Statistical Process Control. When I joined the company in 1998 as Purchasing Manager, EKC was a $100 million plus supplier of semiconductor process materials (photoresist removers, and chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) slurries and process chemistries with R&D and manufacturing facilities in the USA, UK, and Japan. Our supply base of highly specialized, high purity chemicals and abrasives was similarly distributed. Our CMP business partner was Baikowski Chimie in Annecy, France. Building upon the supplier development experience that I had gained at Electroglas, we realized significant improvements in quality, delivery and service. We also reduced raw materials costs by about $1.5 million a year by negotiating global supply agreements with key suppliers and generally paying attention to details. I was promoted to the senior staff as Quality Assurance Manager in February 2000. I had global responsiblity for the ISO 9000 quality management system, quality training, and supplier development. In 2001 we upgraded our quality system and received QS 9000 certification. I arranged to have our QS 9000 training subsidized by the California Employment Training Panel and the Corporation for Manufacturing Excellence (MANEX). From February 2004 to July 2009 I was the Global Quality Manager, responsible for quality systems, supplier development, and quality control. I had a total of four managers reporting to me (one each in Asia and Europe, two in the USA).

Electroglas manufactured wafer probers- very precise, electro-mechanical systems used to test silicon wafers during the semiconductor manufacturing process. I was fortunate enough to work for Joe Reid, Director of Quality at EG, and the president of the West Coast Quality Forum. We started a new supplier development program based on the Small Business Operating System developed by three WCQF members. SBOS was designed to help small suppliers with limited resources (e.g. <20 or 30 employees) use a phased approach to implement a robust quality program. We had a small group (two engineers and myself), but big ambitions! Our goal was to help some of our vital, but very small, parts suppliers (printed circuit board houses, machine shops, sheet metal vendors, cable and wiring harness assemblers etc) install quality processes in their companies. This very progressive approach to supplier development was later adopted by some much larger Silicon Valley companies (e.g. Applied Materials), but we at EG were the first!

This was my first quality management assignment. I was promoted to this position from a Product Development Engineering position. I was responsible for all aspects of quality management including Quality Control (Non Destructive Test and dimensional inspection) and Quality Assurance (quality systems, audits, supplier quality etc). A good deal of my efforts the first year went into addressing management and supervision issues that had been allowed to fester for a long time. We eventually created a leadership team (Inspection Supervisor, Chief Inspector, and Senior Quality Engineer) that was quite effective. Our quality system was based on the MIL-Q-9858 standard (a predecessor of ISO 9000). We were one of the first foundries certified to the Boeing D1-9000 quality standard, and to be qualified by the National Aerospace Defense Contractors Accreditation Program (NADCAP). We did an interesting implementation of Lean techniques for one of our major product lines (power generation castings). We created a inspection/repair work cell using single piece flow and cross trained operators that reduced the average cycle time from two weeks to three days. I joined the ASQ during this period, and was also a founding member of the East Bay Quality Network.

Studied the power generation characteristics of high speed axial windmills as my senior project.

Field Study: Marketing Strategy for an American High Technology company to enter the People's Republic of China