Josh Miller

Visionary leader. Continuous improvement specialist. Manufacturing and planning expert. Problem solver. 

I have the ability to take complex business and operational opportunities, apply logic and industry tools to improve efficiency, increase profitability, and eliminate waste and cost. 

Professional Experience 

Dr Squatch, Brea, CA Feb 2023 - Present 

Director of Manufacturing Innovation and Engineering 

Workforce directed – 1 Manufacturing Engineering Manager, 1 Process Engineer, 1 Industrial Engineer, 1 Mech Tech/Draftsman 

Provide leadership to engineering groups of the organization, select and develop personnel, along with counseling and motivating employees. Determine engineering resource needs and seek out and utilize external engineering resource groups as needed with specialized projects. 

Develop and implement new process for cold soap manufacturing and oversee the expansion and transition of all equipment and production volume to the new method. Re-imagined the method for making soap in the facility to realize scrap reduction savings over $2.8M/yr along with improved ergonomic handling, increased efficiencies, reduced manpower needs, and reduction in floorspace footprint. 

Oversee development of process controls, SOP’s, working standards, and training documentation for new and improved processes throughout the facility. 

Determine engineering resources and work with multiple equipment vendors to deliver new automation and processing solutions in the factory. Includes researching viable solutions, determining capital requirements and cost justifications, managing timelines and installation schedules, and tracking and communicating spending, savings, and realized gains. 

Prepared and presented communication to senior management and company stakeholders on improvement projects, implementation planning, budget tracking, savings, COGS, and ROI. Determined capital projects and compiled project investment details for yearly spending planning. Managed approximately $10M/yr capital budget for engineering improvements and plantwide infrastructure development in a new manufacturing facility. 

American Woodmark Corporation, Anaheim, CA Sept 2021 – Feb 2023 

Sr. Operations Manager 

Workforce directed – 2 plant managers, 2 zone managers, 13 supervisors, and 450+ production/maintenance teammates 

Provide leadership to all production areas of the facility, select and develop personnel, along with counseling and motivating employees. Administered the union collective bargaining agreement and enforced plant policies. 

Development and enforcement of quality standards, practices, and improvement countermeasures. 

Drive product improvement strategies, equipment expansions, personnel retention programs, and plant wide process changes to improve layouts, flow, product ramp ups, and delivery. 

Initiate and enforce safety protocols, investigate and countermeasure safety related issues and potential dangers, and provide training and safety related instructions for teammates. 

Responsible for budget, purchasing, and reconciling of production related supplies, tools, lean manufacturing items, and expense related improvement projects. Provide direction and project management for capital project implementations and work with process engineering on layout, manpower, and process balancing improvements. 

Implement and sustain a 5S program throughout all production departments. Track and audit results to ensure completion, compliance, and sustain activities. 

American Woodmark Corporation, Anaheim, CA Feb 2018 – Sept 2021 

Plant Manager – Assembly Operations 

Workforce directed – 3 zone managers, 9 supervisors, and 350+ production/maintenance teammates (seasonal headcount fluctuation) 

Provide leadership to production, select and develop personnel with multiple temporary workforce ramp up and ramp down periods of the year, along with counseling and motivating employees for the assembly area. Implemented training program and onboarding methods. 

Enforcement of quality standards, practices, and improvement countermeasures. Worked with the team to develop working and posted quality standards and utilize quality data tracking to decrease quality defects and reduce scrap. Developed tracking mechanisms and implemented statistical tools to assist in defect identification and reduction activities. 

Initiate and enforce safety protocols, investigate and countermeasure safety related issues and potential dangers, and provide training and safety related instructions for teammates. 

Responsible for budget, purchasing, and reconciling of production related supplies, tools, lean manufacturing items, and expense related improvement projects. 

Restructure and reorganize plant processes and layouts to ensure compliance with COVID19 working conditions. Implemented social distancing into previous process, establish rules and procedures for safe operation, and communicate and enforce protocols daily to ensure compliance. 

Instrumental in assisting in plant wide cultural change. American Woodmark purchased RSI in January of 2018 with a contrasting culture and business structure. Quickly adapted to the new culture and leadership principles and championed the culture change implementation and roll out to all employees. 

Bridgestone Bandag, LLC, Corporate employee based in Long Beach, CA Jun 2015 – Feb 2018 

Sr. Manufacturing Process Engineer & Environmental Manager 

Manufacturing Process Engineering Activities: 

Worked on various improvement projects across all North American Bandag manufacturing operations while based in the Long Beach manufacturing location. Corporate-wide activities include mold change time studies that resulted in a 15.7% change time reduction, compound mixing optimization reducing cycle times up to 16.7%, assistance with new compound trials introducing three new compounds, and outsource rubber manufacturing acceptance testing. 

Determined an optimized manufacturing system for company-wide implementation of a new manufacturing process designed to reduce overall company conversion costs by 30%. Included development of simulations to verify efficiency and capability of new layout and manufacturing design. 

Developed tracking mechanisms for product lab testing results. Set quality acceptance limits and product disposition limits. Reduced work back material up to 76.2% with data driven expansion of quality release parameters. 

Worked to trouble-shoot plant-wide quality issues and defects to determine root cause and develop appropriate countermeasures. No repeat customer complaints after corrective actions were implemented. 

Created and improved plant working standards and recipe operating conditions for mixing, extrusion, curing, and calendering equipment. Provided teammate training on all updated working standards and recipe revisions. 

Lead multiple quality improvement and Kaizen activities for all departments in the Long Beach manufacturing plant including arc splice strength improvements, butyl compound improvements, and 5S implementation and sustaining activities. 

Six Sigma projects on mold coating improvements and envelope scrap reduction reducing overall defects by 45%. DMAIC properties applied to all improvement activities. Use of Pareto principles, cause and effect matrix, input process output mapping, fishbone diagrams, fault tree analysis, FMEA (failure modes and effects analysis), MSA (measurement system analysis), Minitab statistical verification, and IIP (itemized implementation plan) tracking. 

Environmental Manager Activities: 

Developed working standards for environmental activities for the Long Beach facility including oil delivery processes, oil/water separator instructions, SPCC plan revisions, HAZ material inventory list and business plan, air and water permit map, regulatory checklists and audit plans, and monthly waste/recycling tracking. 

Ensured compliance with all government regulated self-auditing and annual reporting. Ensure compliance with all CA environmental rules and regulations. 

Established and managed all government payment activity for permits, outside contractor services, lab services, and annual/quarterly fees. 

Main contact for government and internal environmental inspections and responsible for rectifying any non-conformance or recommended improvement findings. Audits included SCAQMD, LB Fire Dept., LA County Sanitation District, CA Water Board, and internal corporate inspections. All findings and recommendations implemented or countermeasures adopted. 

Responsible for preparing the Long Beach facility for ISO 14001 certification. 

Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, LLC, Des Moines, IA 

Sr. Industrial Engineer Aug 2012 – Jun 2015 

Industrial Engineer May 2003 – Jun 2009 

Set and tracked department budgets for utilization, cycle times, manpower, refinement projects, ship out capacities, and SAP material rate tables. Maintained machine/manpower analyses and determined required manpower and machine effectiveness. Headed multiple manpower refinement projects leading to a 22.1% manpower reduction in my areas of responsibility. 

Maintained rate and routing information in SAP. Analyzed tire costing down to the component level and determined cost savings and benefits of new equipment or projects including IRR and ROI analyses. Set and maintained job classifications, pay grades, working standards, and process control plans. 

Worked on new equipment installations and upgrades including Marangoni treading machines, machine vision systems, automatic pigment systems, video monitoring systems, and robotic bale-loading systems. 

Involved in multiple process improvement studies including Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, Value Stream Mapping, Kokai watches, 5-S improvement plans, time studies, and equipment layouts. 

Participated in numerous cross functional teams for improvement activities such as TMA reduction task force team, cement usage reduction project, mixing cycle time reduction team, Bekidou tracking project, calender equipment upgrade team, and scrap reduction teams. Combined annual decrease in cycle times over 5.8% and increase in throughput over 16 million lb/yr. 

Performed industrial engineering training for new Jr. Industrial Engineers, supervisor training on utilization calculation and MMA analysis, and operator training on downtime calculation and recording. 

Project management experience with tread tray repair. Determined root cause of damages and developed and implemented countermeasures. Worked on redesign of trays, floor repairs, and handling improvements. 

Developed various business tracking reports including department hours worked comparison to budget and monthly expectations, monthly tire production by specific item compared to historical and future forecasts and inventories, and daily machine schedules versus actual production and gentani expectation. Tracking assisted in reducing warehouse inventories by 22.2% (50,000 tires). 

Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, LLC, Des Moines, IA Apr 2011 - Aug 2012 

Area Business Manager - Mixing 

Workforce directed – 2 mixing foreman, 6 mixing supervisors, 1 maintenance supervisor, 2 process engineers, 1 industrial engineer, 1 mechanical engineer, 1 quality leader, 1 electrical engineer, 143 production floor/maintenance teammates. 

Provided leadership to production, selected and developed personnel, identified training needs, counseled and motivated subordinates, insured fair and equitable practices, maintained good working environment, and recommended promotions. 

Interpreted and administered the union collective bargaining agreement and resolve grievances. Administered plant personnel policies. 

Monitored and controlled quality in the department. Surpassed 2011 budget for dump compounds and realized reduction of scrap by 27.7% from 0.166% in 2010 to 0.12% in 2012. Developed and implemented quality control systems to ensure production personnel are following standards. Passed both 2011 and 2012 ISO certification audits with no major non-conformance findings. Coordinated the investigation and analysis of problems, developed countermeasures, monitored departmental results, promoted housekeeping, and implemented new activities focused on continuous improvement. 

Directed and controlled all departmental activities consistent with the Division’s policy, budget, waste, and scrap objectives. Monitored and analyzed department performances, countermeasure adverse trends or problem areas for expected results, obtained and deployed resources as necessary, and established effective cost reduction programs. Reported monthly on KPI (key performance indicator) trends and reviewed root cause analyses and countermeasures for safety, quality, or productivity issues. 

Established plan and control points for meeting production requirements, communicated objectives to subordinates, interacted and coordinated activities with downstream departments, engineering/maintenance, and technical support. Increased throughput by 108% from 800,000 lb/day to 864,000 lb/day through cross-functional team activities including cycle time reductions, loss time reductions, and batch size optimization. Directed resources from within and outside the department to improve and correct deficiencies, initiate countermeasures, report and monitor results. Mixing pounds per clock hour improved by 130% from 1000 lb/CMHR in 2010 to 1295 lb/CMHR in 2012 due to throughput increases without adding manpower. 

Promoted safety awareness, initiated and monitored safety programs, investigated and countermeasure safety problems, reported results, and developed plans for improvement. Exceeded 2011 budget of 4.91 on OSHA incident rate with actual of 4.41. Worker compensation was less than 2011 budget of $169,297 by $64,125. Maintained and promoted safety awareness and improvement through structured safety IIP (itemized implementation plan) that combined implementing safety awareness, tracking training and incident occurrences, and improving upon hidden dangers and near miss opportunities. Improved safety IIP completion percentage from 88.5% in 2010 to 98% completion in 2011. 

Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, LLC, Des Moines, IA Jun 2009 - Apr 2011 

Production Support Manager 

Workforce directed – 1 facility engineer, 1 store room manager, 1 facility manager, 1 janitorial manager, 4 janitorial supervisors, 1 fork truck supervisor, 70 production floor/maintenance teammates, multiple capital project contractors on as needed basis. 

Provided leadership, development, counseling, and motivation to subordinates. 

Managed and directed receiving and ship out operations. Focused on reducing costs associated with truck and railcar demurrage along with managing systems to ensure no lost production on material outages. 

Maintained proper store room parts inventory while focusing on min/max levels and reorder points to ensure timely replenishment of parts and reduce downtime associated with no parts on hand. Worked directly with maintenance and purchasing to determine obsolete parts and remove them from inventory along with archiving slow moving items to reduce on-hand inventory costs. End of year 2010 MRO was $189,000 better than budget of $10.451M. 

Ensured daily repair of fork truck fleet and PM activities. Implemented shock watch system on all forklifts to proactively identify equipment damage resulting from excessive forces over 1.0 G. 

Ensured daily repairs of material handling equipment along with tracking of repair backlog and part costs. Implemented countermeasures plant wide to reduce damage to tread trays along with cost reduction plan on restoring old tread trays versus purchasing new. Restored 75 trays in 2010 at average cost of $2,678 versus new purchase price of $9,800 for total savings of $534,150. 

Pioneered transition to outside contracted janitorial services that saved over $800,000 per year. Determined and maintained daily/weekly/monthly cleaning activity checklists and requirements along with recycling and necessary environmental activities to ensure state and federal compliances. 

Set and maintained departmental expense budgets. Determined and managed capital spending of approximately $2.8 million/yr for facility improvements. Projects included roof restoration, steel plate flooring improvements, office renovations, energy savings lighting conversion and gas fired make up air unit installations, HVAC replacements, material handling equipment restorations, railroad infrastructure, and general facility equipment replacement. 

Managed facility maintenance crews and facility improvement activities including general HVAC PM and emergency maintenance, roof maintenance, guardrail installations, plumbing and lift station maintenance, structure and office renovations, and 5S cleaning improvements. Responsible for grounds upkeep including landscaping improvements, parking lot resurfacing, storm water maintenance, fire suppression systems, and grounds improvement projects. 

Education 

The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, Master of Business Administration, Professionals and Managers (2011) 

Iowa State University of Science and Technology, Ames, IA, Bachelor of Science, Industrial Engineering (2004)