1. Mr. Richard B Elwell
134 Bob McKinney Rd
Brownsboro, AL 35741
Home Phone: 256-852-5636 Mobile Phone: 256 -694-2354
E-mail: richard.b.elwell@gmail.com
Senior Manufacturing Engineer with extensive experience supporting electronic and mechanical
assembly operations. Experienced in commercial high volume production and building to
military/medical specifications. Detail oriented, self-motivated professional with excellent problem
resolution, communication and relationship management skills. Demonstrated ability to align and
motivate teams to achieve superior levels of performance.
HIGHLIGHTS OF QUALIFICATIONS
Lean Manufacturing Problem Resolution Sigma Green Belt
Prototype Refinement Process Improvement Product Development
Configuration Management Root Cause Analysis Cost Containment
Senior Manufacturing Engineer Lockheed Martin Courtland, AL 2003 - 2016
IPT lead in charge of building support equipment for an air launch vehicle.
Created bills of materials and manufacturing work instructions.
Reviewed engineering changes
Product Engineer Sanmina/SCI Huntsville, AL 1995 - 2003
Built product to meet customer requirements
Supported printed circuit cards and box build
Managed customer changes (Mexico, Huntsville, Taiwan)
Senior Manufacturing Engineer Sola Electric Ft Payne, AL 1994 - 1995
Create company labor standards.
Managed changes
Managed production equipment
Developed process flow
Engineering Manager Unisys Huntsville, AL 1990 - 1994
Managed manufacturing engineering department
Created standards and supported quote process
EDUCATION
Bachelor’s Degree – UA Huntsville

2. SIGNIFICANT PROFESSIONAL SUCCESSES
Process Improvement: Production line bottleneck where more product was being produced than
could be managed. This resulted in a product overflow and addition of second shift to keep up with
production. A thorough investigation of the production line process revealed multiple areas in need of
improvement. Impact: An analysis and redesign of the entire product line resulted in throughput
improvement from 17 per hour to 32 per hour (88% increase) and removal of the need for the second
shift. This improvement evolved into rate per hour becoming an incentive rate.
Cost Containment: Company spending an average of $50,000 annually on production tooling
rental costs. Designed and developed a central tooling database that tracked all tooling in the facility
both owned and rented. By monitoring tool usage were able to reduce and streamlined in house
rental tools. Impact: Upon implementation 80% of the rental equipment was returned to vendors
reducing the annual rental cost by 90%. Additionally were able to track tool availability to determine
if rental was necessary or not.
Configuration Management: Instituted a configuration control process to control customer change
documentation. Created a new business startup process by taking customer documentation and
having the print shop copy and create a standardized documentation packet. Implemented a required
kick off meeting where all departments needed to attend and review this packet for customer
requirements. The deliverables from this meeting would be an action items list and an
implementation schedule. Any changes to either of these required approval by configuration control
board. Impact: This process improved productivity and reduced the support hours for the program.
It also created a configuration control process that did not exist prior to this.
Root Cause Analysis: Production line test failure rate for circuit card manufacturing was running at
37% on a line that produced 28,000 cards a day. A systematic inspection of what was causing the
failures uncovered a soldering defect where the solder bridged between two adjacent pads which
were too close. Recommended a circuit card change that widened the spacing between the pads and
failures were reduced dramatically. Impact: As a result of this change the test failure rate went
from 37% down to less than 2%.
Rewards
Co-worker:
During the third week of November 2015 we were tasked with job of "potting" some backshells. The
material had to be injected into the backshells through a very tiny hole. The potting material was very
thick and almost impossible to inject by using a syringe like we normally do. Rich designed and
constructed a "force multiplier" device which allowed us to inject the material into the backshells far
more easily than by trying to use "sheer exertion" and "muscle power". Rich's contribution to this
operation really made a difference. Thanks Rich!! And keep up the good work.
Co-worker:
Rich is receiving this award because of his impeccable execution of the valuable task of parts and
tooling research most recently for XXX & YYY programs being built or soon planned for the shop
build. Due to his resourcefulness and experience, he is well equipped to showcase an impressive
ability to resolve issues very early pertaining to tooling needs and special processes for these new
and different assemblies as well as any assembly the shop has been expected to deliver. For his
expeditious commitment to accomplish this task as early as possible in the build process, Rich
deserves this award. Congrats, Rich, on being an Operationally Excellent employee!
Co-worker:
This award is two years overdue. Rich was vital in training me as a new Manufacturing Engineer. He's
is a vital team member of the shop and has a vast wealth of knowledge in terms of industry
hardware, tooling, and various build specs.
Manager:
Rich recently took on a stretch assignment for engineering rework surge support which is for another
IPT team than he is assigned to which shows his support for team work. Not only was this
assignment outside his assigned IPT team, the team he was supporting utilizes different functions
and transactions more, so in response Rich did a great job embracing the challenge and identified a
transitional way to help out in a surge situation while utilizing the system he was use to but
incorporating it into a way that the other system could accept it through a unique method thus
meeting the assignment and teams need. He has also accepted and embraced the challenge of cross
training to learn the way other teams on campus utilize different methods to make himself more
available for this type support in the future. This act of team work ensures the Manufacturing
Engineering team is an inclusive one.