Huntsville-Decatur-Albertville Area
David L. Acker ("Dave") - Operations Leader | Operational Excellence Leader | Lean Six Sigma MBB | Program Manager | Project Manager | Consultant | Continuous Improvement Practitioner PASSIONATE, PROVEN, PERFORMANCE-DRIVEN LEADER, RELATIONSHIP BUILDER, & CULTURE DRIVER with significant role experience in two fast-growing Performance Materials (Chemicals) global businesses of $1 Billion and $2.5 Billion. One was Public, and 1 was Private. LEADER IN CONNECTING WITH AND HELPING other Leaders, Departments, and Individuals form together as Teams to understand and solve important and difficult problems, do hard things well, and achieve gains in trust and culture. EXPERIENCE IN TRAVELING AND WORKING NATIONALLY AND INTERNATIONALLY on behalf of all locations and regions. Experience in process, maintenance & plant engineering. Managed plants, portions of plants and large and small capital and non-capital projects. Managed Portfolios, Programs, and Projects that required fast and sustainable changes and productivity. LED A GLOBAL DIRECT AND INDIRECT TEAM OF LEAN SIX SIGMA PROFESSIONALS that enabled organization-wide improvement targeting & roll-down, opportunity identification / diagnosis / prioritization / selection / execution, benefit harvest, and the continuous feeding of an evergreen opportunity and project portfolio aligned with business strategy. BUILT AND ADVANCED A STRUCTURE AND CULTURE OF IMPROVEMENT within fast-growing businesses that delivered significant measurable, step-change financial results and funded fast growth. Drove difficult change in under-defined environments, achieved short term and significant cost and capacity productivity, and led large teams and projects across multiple geographies and functions. KEY COMPETENCIES: Leadership, Customer Focus, Operational Excellence, P&L Improvement, Productivity Management, Portfolio / Program / Project Management, Continuous Improvement, Lean Six Sigma, Chemical Engineering, Manufacturing, Process Improvement, Operations Management, Supply Chain Optimization, High-Performing Teams, Change Management, Conflict Management, EHS, working across regions and plants. ROLE HELD, LOCATIONS LIVED / WORKED: Production Engineering, Maintenance Management, Plant Engineering, Project Management, EHS Management, Plant Management, Productivity and Quality Management, Continuous Improvement, Lean Six Sigma BB and MBB, External Consultant Partner, International Greenfield Program Leader. Lived / worked in PA (twice), CA, SC (twice), TX and AL. Traveled the US, Asia, and Europe for business.
Leadership accountability for Operations Excellence and Lean Six Sigma objectives for the Decatur site's businesses. Focus on the development and application of a comprehensive strategy to build capability & drive transformative change. Strategy included a practical methodology to produce and sustain value and results via optimal use of the Ascend to Excellence (A2E OpEx) tools. Deliverables included: 1) Establish / drive / harvest a robust pipeline of productivity projects to ensure year-on-year productivity improvements in the operating units 2) Equip people with Lean Six Sigma tools while growing and driving the culture of improvement 3) Celebrate people and teams and their improvement successes 4) Run and also mentor large and complex projects that drive business results 5) Design / implement / lead as an advocate and champion the use of Best in Class work processes for all aspects of operations, maintenance, reliability, engineering and project execution
Special 2-Year assignment while maintaining my primary OpEx role. Led Program PMO as well as the equipping and deployment of a new Operations & Laboratory workforce within a Greenfield Plant Build and Start-Up (the "Jupiter Project") in Lianyungang, China. Accountable for & achieved the following: 1) US Program Lead. Ensured Operational Training was conceived, planned & executed and ensured all Immigration, Logistics, Housing, and Care for our visiting personnel from our China Team. 2) Partnered with China Sr. Ops Director to ensure the new Plant had requirements met for start-up in terms of support personnel, processes and infrastructure (ESSH, IT, Finance, Maintenance, SAP, etc.) 3) Set up and led the execution of the Management Systems (PMO structure / meetings / rhythms, financial monitoring of budget vs. spend, etc.) related to this Training and Start-Up effort.
Special 6-Month assignment while maintaining my primary OpEx role. Partnered as an owner-representative with the Site Director & with Accenture Consulting. Studied baseline design & performance, identified gaps, considered & ranked opportunities, and drove fast-cycle process, physical, and cultural changes with the Leaders and Employees of Greenwood to improve plant and business performance. Led the Operations Improvement Team in partnership with Accenture’s Lead Consultant. Achievements over 6 months included: 1) $1.6M Ops cost improvement + $1.2M active project pipeline + $2.7M non-active opportunities 2) Coached Ops Leaders to “Lead with a capital L” and to set effective rhythms that cross departments 3) Designed and installed improved daily tiered operating meeting rhythms and metrics dashboards 4) Improved front-line defect visibility & response time by conditioning Ops to “raise and solve” issues 5) Mapped, diagnosed and solved a waste generation, handling, and disposal site-wide issue 6) Led a Team of Ops and Maintenance Leaders to establish basic Operator Assisted Reliability 7) Integrated work with other improvement work led by other Ascend / Accenture consultant pairs
Led, built, and grew the Global Continuous Improvement Program for this division of 1,200+ employees. Established & spearheaded an improvement culture with senior leaders and teams. Targeted, identified, drove and reported on the division's cost and capacity productivity project portfolio. Directed the DMAIC and LSS education for the division. Coached and mentored part-time and full-time improvement resources. Ran small and large projects within and across business verticals. * Drove more than $100 Million of investor-reportable Net Productivity to the bottom line over the last 5 years. This productivity gain funded strong growth in the business. * Established a data-driven culture of improvement by initiating the CI program and evolving it from a "corporate push" to "the way we do work" with full engagement from top leadership. * Attracted, developed, and certified high performers at the Black, Green and Yellow Belt levels who were retained and promoted by the business into roles of higher responsibility. * Redesigned Operations and Technical work processes for the division, resulting in clear line of sight and cascade of themes, targets, and issues to all performing organizations. * Created Prioritization and Resourcing Process via a Lean Six Sigma project which has been recognized as one of the division's most significant impactful work process projects. * Promoted and rewarded improvement project success, resulting in 10 Corporate Continuous Improvement Recognition Awards over a 3-year period (23% of total awards given).