Resume

Ross Bernheim

rossbernheim@gmail.com (408) 745-6299

Production Manager / Materials Planner

PERFORMANCE PROFILE

Production Manager / Materials Planner with extensive experience in corporate, consumer, and military environments, consistently delivering high-quality electronic devices, appliances, and equipment to the marketplace ahead of deadline and under budget. Skilled in anticipating issues and identifying solutions within the supply chain, successfully developed and implemented a variety of highly-efficient product planning systems and production-methods that improved process flows, reduced waste and costs, prevented delays, and ensured timely deliveries.

CORE EXPERTISE

Key contributor to business growth and product development: Work with engineering teams to optimize product design for ease-of-manufacture and maintenance increasing price margins and availability.

Reduce operating costs by evaluating requirements to identify bottleneck issues before they occur. Determine types, quantities, and features of components to assure optimal performance in finished product: Develop processes that expedite assembly, increase reliability, and reduce labor and material costs.

Increase efficiency of tracking systems for business by developing comprehensive database, part-number scheme, forms, and documents for material planning, purchasing, assembly, and product test.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

MANAGER, PRODUCTION & MATERIALS

XIE Scientific, Redwood City, CA 2003 – 2013

Full charge of all operations involved in the manufacture, test, and delivery of decontaminators for electron microscopes. Coordinated activities to meet growing demand for this highly-specialized device used by the semiconductor fabrication, failure analysis, and material engineering industries. Technical contributions to improved design and function of device enabled production of higher volumes of quality product, increasing customer confidence and new business.

Production Process Development

• Developed and implemented entire Procurement, Materials Planning, and Manufacturing Systems from the ground up, reliably producing units for a growing market. Instrumental in building the business from a single engineer with a small production unit and few sales into a reputable and leading industry supplier with $3M in revenues.

• Designed processes for every facet of manufacturing to reliably trace activity from procurement through final test. Established procedures, created custom forms and logs, and determined sign-off points. Conducted process reviews at intervals to identify and correct problems. Realized cost savings across product suite.

Manufacturing Redesign

• Proposed product design changes to better meet quality and compliance standards while reducing manufacturing time, number and type of components, and costs. Implemented changes achieved a 20% reduction in overall cost-to-build for certain key products, increasing per-unit margins and overall revenue.

• Utilized extensive electronic design knowledge and skill to reengineer subassemblies for increased reliability and improved performance through iterative process that would not disrupt current build/delivery commitments. After adjusting production to reliably deliver redesigned unit, replacement/repair requests dropped 80%.

Supply Chain Management / Documentation

• Worked with component sellers in the selection, inventory levels, and delivery schedules of parts for the greatest efficiency and lowest cost. Arranged value-added service provisions to control inventory levels while ensuring uninterrupted flow of critical-path items to production line.

• Evaluated all components for their value to final production, considering ease-of-access for assembly, service, availability, and cost. Recommended changes in component choice or design as implementation would improve delivery or maintenance. Qualified vendors and negotiated blanket orders to maintain pricing and supply.

• Full charge of content development and management of a new Component and Assembly Document Database. Designed Purchase Orders, Travelers, Test Data Sheets, logs, and reports. Reviewed all documents regularly for consistency and completeness of parts history and safety qualifications.

Production-Accounting Systems Integration

• Researched, selected, and implemented new PLM System to manage increasing number and variety of parts and subassemblies. Negotiated comprehensive system installation on a lease arrangement saving 60% on acquisition. Integration enabled instant retrieval of information needed for timely planning and procurement.

• Transformed poorly-organized unconnected pieces of information into an integrated efficient system with multiple points-of-reference for vendors and materials. Built robust database including BOMs, invoices, specifications, and procedures. Reduced time and difficulty previously involved in billing, purchasing, and production processes.

• Structured system so certifications could be obtained quickly, demonstrating compliance and capabilities to potential customers. Qualifications opened new markets that were previously closed. Company won lucrative contracts from several customers for quantities of product representing a significant boost in sales.

SENIOR ELECTRONIC TECHNICIAN

RF Services, Sunnyvale, CA 1993 – 2003

Performed complex repairs and trained others in the repair and maintenance of RF Generators and Matching Networks, with outputs from 150 to 5000 watts, used in silicon wafer processing for the semiconductor industry.

• As Senior Technician, trained technicians and developed procedures and instructional documents across functional areas for repairs and troubleshooting. Documents describing symptoms and causes were made available for instant reference. Efforts reduced manufacturing time and labor while increasing number of completed repairs.

• Developed and presented training on Plasma Processing and RF Systems for customer maintenance personnel. Increased knowledge and skill of technicians significantly reducing fab downtime and maintenance costs.

ADDITIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Engineering Design: Key contributor to engineering efforts, driving decisions to modify standard parts as quantity requirements increased and customization justified. Redesigned circuitry of analog controllers and circuit boards used in complex devices, improving performance and realizing significant savings in production time and costs. Developed and produced integrated subassemblies, saving on the more-costly purchase of multiple small components.

Regulatory Standards Compliance: Selected components and designed assemblies with features to meet or exceed International Standards for certification testing. Designed layout of cabling and connectors to separate them, reducing unnecessary inductance. Coordinated changes and testing to meet standards necessary to prequalify components and subassemblies to pass rigorous tolerance tests.

EDUCATION & CERTIFICATIONS