2. Overview
Attached is an overview of the accomplishments during
each phase of my career.
• Lecturer at WVUP Community Education Center.
• Project Engineer at Jacobs and KBR
• Six Sigma Continuous Improvement Consultant at
DuPont and Chemours
• Lead Systems Engineer at United Space Alliance
• Recommendations/ References
3. Lecturer at WVUP
Performs a community service by developing and teaching
the following courses at the Community Education Center.
o LinkedIn Essentials: A basic overview of the professional networking tool
LinkedIn. This walks students thru the creation of an account, the use of an
account, and the proper etiquette on LinkedIn.
o History of the Shuttle Program: This provides a lighthearted tour of the Shuttle
Program as told from the eyes of a veteran engineer of 22 years.
4. LinkedIn Essentials
Purpose/Process/ Product
Purpose: To learn the basics of the professional networking site
LinkedIn.
Process: This will be a combination of hands on and lecture. In
this class you will set up your LinkedIn account. You will create
your profile. You will search for contacts and you will send
requests. We will search for Jobs and endorse skills.
Product: A practical understanding of LinkedIn as it differs from
the social networks and how to use LinkedIn to aid in your
professional endeavors/
5. History of the Shuttle Program
Purpose/Process/ Product
Purpose: To provide an overview of the history of the Shuttle
Program
Process: This will be accomplished by a combination of history
and personal anecdotes.
Product: The student should come away with an appreciation of
the Shuttle Program and attach the history to the actual human
beings that made the Space Shuttle Fly
6. Project Engineer at Jacobs
and KBR
I started work as a contract employee supporting the
Chemours Belle WV plant. At the time I started KBR owned
the contract, but it was later awarded to Jacobs. In this
function I provided project management for capital projects
less than 500 thousand dollars for three business units at
the site with an annual budget of 1.5 million dollars, 125
thousand dollars and 1 million dollars. This includes
scheduling, creating the Work Breakdown Structures,
budgeting, prioritizing based on business unit needs and
leading the design and execution teams.
7. Amines Business Unit
• Managed five projects in the 2015 shutdown from May till
installation in September.
o Three of these were newly initiated projects.
o Two of these were stagnated projects.
o The projects were successfully executed on time and under budget.
• Managed a transition for business needs from
contractors performing capital work to plant area
maintenance.
• Developed in house tools for estimating when budget
cuts forced the release of our estimator
o This was used by other Project Engineers at the site.
• Managed a total of seven projects from May 2015 thru
Dec 2005.
o All were on time and on budget
8. Amines Business Unit
• Managed four projects for the 2016 Scheduled
shutdown.
• Managed one project in 2016 from concept to completion
in two months (less than half the nominal time). This
included:
o Driving design to completion.
o Overseeing of the order of parts
o Managing the construction
• Managed Three project designs from concept to design
issue for construction.
o One of these projects was an access cage that the design had been stalled for
years and I led the design team to come up with a solution.
o One was a regulatory requirement for above ground storage tanks where I sat
with the civil designers and led a design that saves 40 thousand dollars.
9. DME Business Unit
• Managed two projects to completion.
• Worked with the client to adjust the priorities for a budget
cut of 50%.
10. Lucite Business Unit
• Worked with the Lucite team to improve the
communications within the team.
o Utilized collaborative software to ensure that the communications were
continuously updated.
o Continuously upgraded the presentation by engaging the team.
o These efforts resulted in a reduction in team meeting time from 90 minutes to 30
minutes.
• Activated four stalled projects and managed them thru to
completion.
• Led the design team to complete the design and issue
for construction on three other projects.
11. Six Sigma Continuous
Improvement Consultant
at DuPont and Chemours
Review and analyze processes using the Six Sigma
methodology and lean tools to identify and implement
improvements in support of the Flouroproducts business
unit at the Washington Works facility.
13. Background
Material is skimmed across a tank. Typically, once per shift
the process is stopped so that material loss at the bottom of
the tank may be cleaned.
16. Solutions
• Revised the procedures to more efficiently perform the
tasks.
o Reviewed the shifts to find a consistent pattern.
o Engaged the shift with the best performance to capture best practices for the
procedure.
• Increased water pressure to ensure better breakup of
materials and more efficient cleaning.
o Assessed the equipment to find a consistent pattern.
o Reviewed the process in cleaning
o Listened to the stake holders to incorporate VOC
• Created software to allow for faster fill of the tanks
when coming out of a cleaning.
o Analyzed the equipment
o Created a basic logic path
o Handed over to programmers to develop
o Tested with stake holders
17. Results
The average time dropped from 94.0 minutes with a
standard deviation of 34.1 minutes to 66.2 minutes with
a standard deviation of 20.8 minutes.
19. Background
During a review of possible sources of contamination, the product
packout room was found to be lacking in the control of air. A project
was initiate to repair the room to better control air pressures. Total
budgeted repair was $300,000.
20. Problem
The airflow thru the packout room was inconsistent. There was negative pressure in some
locations. Critical filters were open to the nominal warehouse and processing environment.
Large portions of the HVAC system were not defined on the site drawings
21. Problem• Airflow was not well defined.
• HVAC units abandoned in place and replacement not
on drawing.
• Air for HVAC unit pulled directly from the processing
area in violation of building code.
• Make up air pulled down stream of HVAC which is not
filtered.
• Make up air in Zone 2 closed off.
• Numerous ducts were disconnected from the filter
units.
• Zone 2 was drawing 300+ cfm from zone 1 thru the
door and make up air blower was drawing 500+ cfm
from outside the clean room.
22. SolutionsThis consisted of two Projects
The first was architectural. The following items were
performed:
o Ceiling tiles were repaired and replaced.
o Ceiling tiles in the Lag area(except those designated for FFU filter access)
were sealed.
o Plenum was built above the drum prep room so that air is not supplied from
the Warehouse area.
o The static bars were removed and replaced.
o Repair of entry routes into room to minimize leakage.
23. SolutionsThe second was a redesign of the HVAC system consisting of
2 phases
Phase I
• Analysis of existing system for HVAC Zone 1
• Rerouting of duct work to draw air from outside
instead of process area in accordance with building
and industrial hygiene codes.
• Routing of all supply air thru a single MERV 15 filter
before entering the air handling system.
Phase II
• Create an airflow diagram
• Repair Zone II HVAC unit
24. Results
Balanced airflow with slight positive pressure which
meets the original design intent for the room.
A statically improved particle count in the room. Was a Z
score of 0.628 now Z score of 1.540.
HVAC system that meets industrial hygiene and building
codes in that it no longer draws makeup air from the
processing area.
26. Background
A Transition is the process to clean and prepare the equipment for the next
material in the product wheel. The A+ transition is the transition that is the most
intensive and requires the greatest amount of cleaning and preparation. To
optimize this I pulled together a Kaizen team.
27. Problem
A+ transitions are not optimized from the last powder off
the dryer belt to the next good powder. Data from 2012
indicates the total down time due to A+ transition
average 25.2 hrs.
28. Define Current State
I collected data to present to the team with regard to the current state, brought the
team together and obtained buy in of current state. Used both Gant and swim lane
charts to present states to the team
29. Target State
– Reduce average turnaround time by six hours per transition
– Increase dryer uptime by six additional days per year (6 hrs X 50 transitions
per year/ 2 dryers) equivalent to a 2% increase in capacity release per dryer
Engaged the team to define the following target state
of 19 hours per transition instead of 25.2 hours per
transition.
30. Solutions
• Revised the procedures to more efficiently perform the
tasks.
o Engaged stakeholders to review procedures
o Facilitated stakeholder updates to procedures.
• Provide visual metric of performance to operations.
o Developed tool in Microsoft Excel to tabulate data being collected on this
operation.
o Developed visual presentation of this data in Excel.
• Improved tooling and ergonomics.
• Consolidated locations of lockout points.
o Engaged operators as to locations of the switches.
o Engaged design to locate switches where needed.
o Engaged electricians on installation to correct design shortcomings.
o Directed design in correcting the issue
• Provided interlock bypass to allow for safe, but more
efficient cleaning of the system.
31. Results
The average time for an A+ transition dropped from 25.2
hours in 2012 to 19.2 hours in 2013 and 2014.
37. Background
During a review of possible sources of contamination, monitoring of
the cleanliness of the room was found to be lacking. For this
purpose methods of continuously monitoring the room were
explored.
38. Problem
The particles in the room are monitored as a spot check once per
month and there is no method to where the check points are
chosen.
39. Process• Contact vendor and describe the size and shape of the
room.
• Perform walk thru with the vendor to place sensors at the
best locations based on modern clean room design.
• Determined with the stake holders the date that this room
needed to be complete.
• Guided design, the vendor and the stake holders to chose
the proper milestone dates.
• Followed up to ensure that the due dates were met.
• Oversaw installation vendors to ensure the work was
complete as promised.
40. Results
A complete continuous particle counter that can be
monitored by anyone with access to the process explorer
software at the plant.
41. ET Mechanical Lead
Systems Engineer
• Participate in Final inspection activities,
o which include hydrogen leak detector installation, visual inspections, photographic inspections and film inspection of
mechanical interfaces, launch pad systems and cryogenic tanks and engines.
• Author and maintain controlling documents and procedures for processing
the ET (External Tank)
• Perform real time trouble shooting of the ET mechanical and Thermal
Protection Systems using engineering discipline and methodology.
• Lead project efforts including coordinating with customer, design and
construction resources.
• Provide management/ leadership for 6 engineers by Assigning shift
schedules and work assignments for the ET Mechanical Engineering group.
• Provide input in hiring of personnel.
• Provide inputs to management for personnel performance reviews.
• Develop engineering training packages and manuals.
42. Managing Personnel
• Provided management of a group that consisted of six
engineers.
• Trained and mentored ten engineers who went on to
provide contributions in the space program.
• Hired five engineers.
44. Background
February 26 2007 hail struck the Space Shuttle System.
Over 1,000 dents were created in the insulating foam on
the External Tank.
45. Problem
The damage to the vehicle was of such scope and magnitude
that it exceeded the engineering allowances for safe flight and
for a qualified repair.
46. My Role
• Organized a Rapid Response Team day of event to get
early assessment of the damage.
• Partnered with thermal, structural and aerodynamic design
disciplines to ensure that all repairs were documented and
that the engineering for each repair was properly
incorporated.
• Organized repairs in accordance with the engineering
redesign.
• Maintained controlling documents for the overall
repair/project.
• Coordinated and directed construction and support
organization to ensure environmental conditions and
access were obtained for repairs
• Ensured all work was completed and that engineering
designs were properly incorporated then summed up the
entire repair for flight readiness.
47. My Role
New Repair Processes
developed for this
project
Scaffolding and
HVAC resources
directed in place
to support this
project
Overseeing and directing
work in accordance with
the defined plan and
engineering
49. Awards
• 2008 NASA medallion for contributions to the STS 122 and STS 123 ECO
Sensor recovery.
• 2007 NASA medallion for contributions to the STS 117 hails damage recovery.
• 2007 Personal commendation from Shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale for
contributions to the STS 117 hail damage recovery.
• Dec 2002 Employee of the Month for work with employing digital video capture
for Launch inspections.
• 1996 Engineering Excellence Award for work with implementing new foams.
• 2003 NASA Group Achievement Award for work with the alternate offload
process.
• 2010 NASA Group Achievement Award for support of two processing flows to
support launch on need
• 2005 NASA Group Achievement award for efforts in the return to flight
modifications.
• 2006 Personal commendation from Shuttle Launch Director Mike Lienbach for
work with the imaging techniques that allowed for the July 4th launch.
• 2006 USA Employee of the year for work with the imaging techniques that
allowed for the July 4th launch.
• Completion of the 12 module USA Leadership course 2007
50. References
Hal BandyClick to drag this recommendation
TS/SCI Senior Logistician at EXELIS
Bill is a great employee with a wonderful work ethic, he works well within a team environment or as an individual. Bill has a great knowledge of Engineering
functions as well as leadership abilities.
Bill also has a great deal of experience in Lean Six Sigma and has excelled in whatever challenge is placed before him. He is always supportive of those
around him and performs his assigned tasks with a willingness that any employer would be glad to have on staff.
It has been my pleasure to both work with Bill and to know him personally. He is honest in his dealings with his fellow man and I can attest to his high moral
character and his desire to serve those around him.less
March 17, 2015, Hal worked with William at United Space Alliance
Tony BartoloneClick to drag this recommendation
Ground Processing SLS Ops Integration Lead at NASA KSC
I had the distinct pleasure of working with Bill for the last 24 missions of the Space Shuttle Program at NASA KSC. Bill played an integral role as we finished
safely flying the Shuttle into the history books. As one of his NASA engineering counterparts, I had the opportunity to lead numerous projects and anomaly
teams that included Bill as a key player and I got to witness first hand his outstanding dedication and passion for his work. As the USA External Tank
Mechanical Lead system engineer, Bill had a large amount of responsibility to oversee a team of engineers and technicians that performed the routine and non-
routine work to prepare the ET for flight. The expertise Bill acquired through his long career at KSC was invaluable to NASA as an agency and the Space
Shuttle Program and he met every challenge with the External Tank that came his way with tremendous professionalism and tenacity. Bill was a key
component to our success here at KSC and he is a very talented and extremely hard working engineer who would be an outstanding asset to any organization
that will give him an opportunity to put his skills to work for them. less
March 17, 2015, Tony managed William indirectly at United Space Alliance
Jim StickleyClick to drag this recommendation
SLS Propulsion Integration & Analysis Engineer at The Boeing Company
It gives me great pleasure to recommend Bill as an Engineer and as an individual. The following comments related to Bill Richards are bounded by
perspectives and relationships as his Engineering Manager, a joint-systems Engineering (ET Mechanical-to-Orbiter Main Propulsion), and as an ET/SRB
Technician.
Bill stands out among peers as a man with integrity who pours himself into his work assignments and his personal life. His abilities to prioritize and separate
work from family are clearly visible on his resume. He accomplishes assigned tasks with fervor and dedication. It has been a pleasure to lead, work side-by-
side, and under Bill.less
June 15, 2011, Jim managed William at United Space Alliance
Kenneth RevayClick to drag this recommendation
Entrepreneur & Philanthropist
I am very pleased to write this recommendation for Bill Richards. His efforts have led to improved processing of our Space Shuttle External Tanks from the
lifting and mating operations of the flight hardware to the inspection and repair of insulting foam covering the exterior of the ET. He is a member of the Final
Inspection team that inspected the Space Shuttle vehicle on the launch pad prior to launch. He works well with our NASA, Lockheed-Martin ,and other team
members ,and has supported significant events such as the STS-117 ET Hail Damage repair and Return to flight activities. His work contributed to the safety of
flight and resulted in numerous positive award fee write-ups for our team during my time as his Manager II. I wish him all the best.less
June 13, 2011, Kenneth managed William indirectly at United Space Alliance
