Dave Strong 2742 Springdale Circle Naperville, IL 60564 Phone: (630) 416-1611 Email: DaveCStrong@gmail.com Leadership Profile Operations Leadership, Engineering, ISO, Supply Chain Management, Lean Six Sigma Results-driven executive with a demonstrated record of success in streamlining operations, implementing state-of-the-art process improvements, and integrating high productivity quality programs to meet the needs of changing market trends. Proven ability to slash production costs, boost productivity and quality, and generate profits in highly competitive startup, slowdown, turnaround, and high-growth environments. Directed consolidation, continuous improvement, and quality programs in both domestic and international venues. Six Sigma black belt with extensive experience in engineering, ISO 9001:2000, change management, and supply chain management principles and techniques. In-depth experience includes innovative, visionary leadership, excellent insight into key industry opportunities and challenges, with superior negotiating skills. Professional Experience RR Donnelley Chicago, Illinois Director, Quality Affairs 2007 to 2008 Directed the corporate quality organization for this fortune 500 printing and graphic arts company with $11.5 billion in annual international sales. Provided leadership for the team that planned, developed, and implemented the program that would expand the responsibilities of the corporate quality organization both domestically and internationally without additional head count. The new quality program applied to both ISO and non-ISO facilities. Standardizing the quality program brought cohesion to a disparate conglomeration of facilities resulting from merger and acquisition and was used by the sales team for customer retention and to attract new business. * Established and directed a team in the development, implementation, and maintenance of the quality program, suitable for both ISO 9001:2000 and non-ISO facilities using a matrix organization. * Identified struggling facilities, conducted quality management system audits, and provided training. All 80 ISO-certified facilities striving to maintain their certifications passed their recertification or surveillance audits. * Oversaw the Six Sigma green belt program where newly certified green belts delivered more than $3.5 million in annualized savings over the three-year duration of the program. Director, Process Management and Audit, Corporate Quality 2004 to 2007 Directed corporate quality oversight for two business units consisting of eight ISO-certified facilities with $50 million in annual sales, business communications systems (BCS), and customer service centers (CSC). Led facility-based quality teams in the implementation, maintenance, and improvement of ISO 9001:2000 quality management systems. Designed and delivered training that resulted in a more thorough root cause, corrective, and preventative action process. Conducted facility quality audits and authored process improvement reports for high-profile customers, including Goldman Sachs, Humana, and Phoenix Life. * Implemented a proactive continuous improvement program focused on higher cost and frequency problem areas. Achieved significant year-after-year improvement in quality in both organizations-improved order accuracy from 4.41 to 4.52 sigma and package accuracy from 5.04 to 5.75 sigma. * BCS primarily prints live checks and financial statements, and is a very high risk business where 100 percent mailing is a requirement and the liability can be far higher than the cost of the print job. Provided leadership to the quality team that drove year-after-year reductions in the severity and cost of errors in high risk jobs. Slashed errors costs in half from 2005 to 2006. * Key player on the corporate quality improvement team that worked directly with customers. This value-added service saved accounts and brought in new business. * Led the team that achieved ISO 9001:2000 certification for the Nashville, BCS plant. * Designed and implemented a "Slim Six Sigma" program to improve quality and reduce costs. The program turned out certified Six Sigma "green belts" for just the cost of reimbursed business expenses to attend the training. Produced four waves of green belt training over three years, saving more than $3.5 million. * Developed, implemented, and maintained an appropriate and accurate quality and operational metrics package to set annual improvement targets, appropriate head count, to identify then drive best practices, and allocate resources for the Moore Wallace acquisition. Director, Asset Optimization, Direct Mail Operations 2002 to 2004 Drove major cost reductions while improving quality, delivery, and service across a multi-facility platform as a member of the direct mail operations leadership team both before and after a merger. Charged with closing down two redundant, non-profitable direct mail plants that resulted from a merger. Built a cross-functional team made up of HR, corporate staff, and facility members. Successfully closed the plants in compliance with all local, state, and federal regulations. Separation packages were prepared according to policy and counseling and outplacement services were offered to all who needed them. The assets were scrapped, sold, or refurbished and reallocated; customers were transitioned to the remaining plants with no loss of service time or quality of service. * Provided leadership for the team that consolidated the direct mail platform prepress function into a single plant, reducing labor by 25 percent while improving quality and reducing cycle times; saved $3 million annually. * Directed the team that consolidated the direct mail platform programming/list processing function, reducing labor by 15 percent for an annual savings of $1.5 million while improving quality and reducing cycle times. * Developed and implemented a supply chain solution for direct mail platform outsourcing that reduced costs between 10 and 20 percent on a $27 million annual spend by consolidating suppliers, thereby increasing volume to the remaining suppliers, which was pivotal in negotiating reduced pricing. Director, Materials Performance and Practices, Supply Chain Management 1997 to 2002 Led the team that developed and implemented a total "cost of ownership" model based on quality, delivery, price, and service. Built a total cost of ownership model for paper, the strategic and most expensive commodity in long run printing, which had never been done before. Implemented the use of performance scorecards to suppliers to drive improvements in paper performance, moving down the total cost of ownership. Negotiated for the highest performance paper, leaving the poorer performing paper to the competition and giving the company a strategic advantage. Developed operating standards through SOPs, and participated in the material yield (waste reduction) core team that significantly reduced costs by reducing paper waste. * Spearheaded the paper ACTIONS training program that was developed and delivered to every company facility. Internal compliance with the specification that covered how to store, inventory, and deliver paper to the press, as well as how to hold suppliers accountable for poor performing paper, drove millions of dollars of annual savings to RRD and customers. * Leader of the ink contract negotiation team that delivered $60 million in savings by using supply chain management principles to secure the first decrease in ink pricing in memory. The company was so pleased with the savings that each team member received a $10,000 presidential award that year. * Developed and implemented the "Follow the Flow" ink program that developed and internalized ink specifications that resulted in much more consistent inks delivered on time, within spec, at a higher service level-which reduced costs by millions of dollars. Director, Applied Research, Technical Center 1979 to 1997 Began tenure as an electronics hardware design engineer with the mission of replacing analog prepress processes that were inconsistent and labor intensive with digital technologies that were more consistent and required less labor. Was promoted to supervisor within two years; continued to be promoted through the ranks, serving in various management positions with increasing responsibility. In each position, implemented processes and programs that improved quality, reduced delivery times, cut costs, and boosted customer satisfaction. Provided day-to-day hands-on leadership to all divisions assigned to my care. Significant accomplishments included: * Rolled out several "industry first" processes, including the first higher volume color digital press, the Creo computer to plate-making system that eventually took a majority of market share, digital camera technology, the DataMiner web break database system, and a leading-edge image library database system developed in C++ under Unix, which was supported by a high speed fiber optic token ring network. * Key contributor of the team that slashed the cost of preparing a single page for the gravure printing process from $1200 to $200. * Supervised the team that implemented digital proofers and second and third-generation gravure cylinder-making machine interfaces along with the debugging and integration of third-party supplied hardware such as the PDI film scanner. * Designed and implemented a hardware digital color corrector that eliminated the need to purchase many expensive general purpose computers to do the same job. Shortened color correction times from 40 minutes running on a general purpose computer in software to 40 seconds. This device was patented under Clark, Strong, and White, patent number 4,477,833. * Designed and implemented the first computer interface to a gravure printing process cylinder-making machine-despite the manufacturer's insistence that it "couldn't be done." Employment Prior to 1979 Completed a year of graduate work at the University of Illinois. Entered the management training program at U.S. Steel South Works in Chicago; was promoted to Area III supervisor for the power division upon completion of the training program. Implemented preventive maintenance projects, reducing costly equipment downtime delays. Became skilled in power generation and distribution as well as electrical and electronic systems troubleshooting as electrical maintenance foreman, load dispatcher, and electrical operations turn foreman. Education/Professional Development * "Performance Measurement for Lean Manufacturing" training-2006. * Bay Group "Negotiating with Suppliers" training-2002. * Senn-Delaney change management "Foundations" training-2001. * Certified as a Six Sigma Black Belt-2000. * Center for Creative Leadership management training-1991. * MS, Electrical Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL-1986. Specialization in digital signal processing/image processing and computer systems architecture. * BS, Electrical Engineering, Bradley University, Peoria, IL-1974. Cum laude; specialization in communications and stochastic processes.