Achievements

Led team to design an innovative solar cell manufacturing platform that was scale-able, configurable, and had common parts through the product line. New product line generated nearly $30m in the first year of sales

Created computer thermal model of heat transfer from firing furnace to solar wafer which led to the discovery that the wavelength emitted by halogen quartz lamps was not optimized for best heat transfer to solar cells.  Successfully led R&D through the process of empirically determining optimum emission wavelength for heating solar wafers.

New technology increased heating ramp rates of solar wafers from typical 65C/s to over 250C/s; introduced convection cooling to increase cooling ramp rates from 80C/s to greater than 200C/s allowing new processes that increase solar cell efficiency.

Transitioned innovative air-beam technology from concept selection through robust development, into manufacturing readiness, mass production, and solid IP protection

WindScape, a truly novel, innovative technology of wrinkle free graphics over air-beam frames enabled 10′ trade-show exhibits to fit inside an airline carry-on, and setup in 5 minutes. Air-beam invention stretched Skyline into its first “never-been-done-before-by-anybody” technology. Success was achieved by lowering the cost through large scale manufacturing studies via transfer of technology to off-shore partners with embedded Skyline engineers. Explosive sales growth was fully supported with scale-able manufacturing, and enabled quick adoption of new applications including a global fleet of outdoor exhibits for a major electric car company. Robust, strategic patent protection shut down competitive copies without litigation.

Commanded a premium price point through listening, and applying expert problem solving

At one European facility, initial testing on a standard product led to deeper discussions on how to control the manufacturing process.  Greater understanding of the process led the customer to accept a proposal for a $340,000 custom solution in an industry where typical pricing was $110,000.  Equipment performance exceeded expectation, and projections are for 10-12 more machines in this new segment.

Led merged division of 2 competitors to embrace new strategy: “Conceptronic. We make technology simple.”

(It is easy to make technology complicated and expensive.) Merged best of two previous competitors into single division under completely new corporate culture. Moved major manufacturing center from New Hampshire to New York. Created and operated a viable modern sheet metal and machine shop by minimizing bottle necks and maximizing tool utilization.

Assembled new leadership team of production, engineering, and planning. Retained major portion of existing customer base by listening and addressing product improvements to mature product lines that were requested and required.

Focused product line from 8 major product lines to 3 major product lines with niche presence in 3 distinct markets. Reduced product costs by more than 60% while selling prices fell more than 50%, through vertical integration with manufacturing, and strategic focus on common assemblies. Repaired falling profits with increased margins on service and parts business.

Negotiated contract with Malaysian assembler to support a spike of large volume of business in Taiwan and China. Strategic parts and technology was supplied from USA and supplemented with low cost sheet metal and assembly in Malaysia.

Driven by customer requests, developed & launched low cost, light weight, made in USA table, that setups in less than 2 minutes in 84 days.

After Skyline brought modular design thinking to furniture with its very successful Tablox product line, a regular customer request was to bring the same higher level design aesthetic to the portable in-line space. In a market-space that the dominant decision driver is price among Chinese manufactured commodities, we utilized rapid prototyping and closed-loop feedback to commercialize the product in only 84 days. Made in the USA with high end features without sacrificing a competitive price point projected 1.3M top-line revenue in the first year of production.

Launched a modular, structural, tool-less trade-show wall system, and added extensions over 5 years, creating Skyline’s flagship product

Direct strategic partnerships with a key account, marketing, and engineering resulted in the launch of the most structural, tool-less, modular wall system for the trade show marketplace. Regular agile updates, with direct customer feedback during development scored “home-run” performance including immediate market acceptance, minimal post-launch changes, and explosive revenue growth. 5 years after launch, product extensions continued to sustain 30% YOY revenue increases.

Negotiated and landed a 1.7 million contract with a brand new customer by dramatically reducing their maintenance costs

A lease and research program with a new customer created a superb customer partnership through a commitment to understand and solve their problems.  Required maintenance was reduced from 11 hours/week on competitor’s oven to 1 hour/week with new oven design.  A new conveyor mechanism enabled PCB designers to save more than 10% PCB board size compared to other standard products.  The customer was convinced to underwrite a full 33% of the development and purchase 1.7 million of new capital equipment in the first year of the relationship.

Innovated a new temperature measurement tool for solar cells

Demonstrated that industry standard of measuring solar wafer temperatures inside the firing furnace was incapable of measuring ramp rates above 100C/s and was not repeatable after 2 thermal excursions through a furnace.  Created new Wafer Simulator (including forming tooling & manufacturing processes) that accurately measures the wafer thermal experience, at 20% of the cost, and is repeatable over 250 thermal excursions.  Has become the industry standard for measuring wafer temperatures.

Updated flagship printed circuit board rework station to maintain premium customer list

Redesigned positional control, and heat transfer, of high end printed circuit board rework tool to lower cost and keep robustness. Rework tool was known in the industry of being able to run 24/7 without recalibration. Was specified as 1 of 2 models worldwide approved for reworking Intel 1366 processors, and Xbox 360 GEN 1, overheating issues due to Pb-free solder process.