David Smith
Wentzville,Missouri
Summary
Global leader of engineering professionals in support of product innovation and world-class manufacturing strategies. Over 30 years experience in engineering-focused manufacturing and 20 years in engineering processes, project management, and professional leadership across multiple global sites.
Overview
34
34
years of professional experience
Work History
Sr. Director of Engineering – Air Product
Nike AIR Manufacturing Innovation
05.2023 - Current
- Global leader for Nike Air Product Engineering
- Create and drive strategy for Air Product Engineering function with 70 professionals on staff at three sites.
- Created vision and led efforts for the successful implementation of prioritization tools for engineering projects and manufacturing support resulting in improved communication, collaboration, and overall efficiency among engineering teams.
- Implemented engineering shift to multi-disciplined squads with sprint planning and resource tracking systems. (Agile Methodology)
- Accountable for execution of 10+ new Nike Air development programs.
Sr. Director of Engineering – Global Extrusion
Nike AIR Manufacturing Innovation
05.2018 - 04.2023
- Global leader for extrusion engineering with 2 sites in the USA, 1 site in Vietnam, and consulting on 2 sites in Asia.
- Delivered highly technical extrusion engineering solutions through strong partnerships with key vendors and Nike development teams.
- Migrated functional project tracking to a single solution with a 1-Team mindset.
- Created a strong system of intellectual property protection systems for Nike's key revenue stream.
- Jointly created expansion plan for new manufacturing site including procurement of $22.5M in equipment.
Director of Engineering - Thermoforming
Nike AIR Manufacturing Innovation
01.2013 - 01.2017
- Led efforts to increase manufacturing capacity >20% for 5 straight years
- Tripled engineering staff
- Drive next generation of European manufacturing lines to increase operational efficiency and capability.
- Responsible for procurement through commercialization of over $20M in capital improvements and approximately $5M in operation expenses.
Senior Manufacturing Engineer/Consultant
Nike In House Manufacturing
08.2007 - 12.2012
- Stood up first manufacturing of Nike Air in Asia leading Engineering, Quality, Safety, and Manufacturing best practices in brownfield site
- Project managed relocating ~5000sqft industrial machinery from US facility to China including teardown, crating, shipping, customs, reassembly, startup, validation, training, and quality programs
- Production started on promise date and exceeded projected efficiencies by over 20%.
- Provided leadership, training, and many other various skills into another department and raised manufacturing efficiency from 65% to over 90% with steady production and reduction of labor by 200%.
- Providing project management leadership to partnering engineering staff
- Co-created first automated Air manufacturing cell.
- Implement and train production staff on OEE, Lean Manufacturing practices, mistake-proofing systems, quality auditing, preventative and predictive maintenance, and production leadership
- Researching areas to increase efficiency and reduce labor using existing engineering workforce as a teaching aid.
- Led or drove Nike innovation projects from ideation through commercialization including two patents.
Manufacturing Engineer
Nike In House Manufacturing
09.2004 - 08.2007
- Commercialized large industrial manufacturing system from various used and new components to save half the standard installation time and a fourth of the cost of a new machine while exceeding the expected saving rate and reducing downtime and cleanup times by a third. Overall project savings of $6 million and over 6 months lead time reduction.
- Managed the upgrade and installation of a major extrusion system retrofit to complete digital controls in roughly 25% of the planned downtime.
- Managed and supervised 3 to 5 major and up to 10 minor projects each year.
- Implemented lean manufacturing principles within new equipment projects.
- Provided process engineering support for all monolayer and coextrusion sheetlines.
Production Manager – Sheet Extrusion
Nike In House Manufacturing
02.1997 - 09.2004
- Accountable for over 120 people across 4 supervisors and 3 departments, involved in all phases of the manufacturing environment including monolayer, coextrusion, process control plans, training, scheduling, and sample order planning.
- Took key role in developing control plans for all jobs and implementing processes ahead of ISO certification
- Extensive training and implementation of Lean Manufacturing principles based from the Toyota Production System and modified for the specialty plastics industry.
- Responsible for the production start of microlayer sheet, a key component of Nike Air.
Manufacturing Supervisor – Sheet Extrusion
Nike IHM
09.1995 - 02.1997
- Supervised crew of up to 21 people and 11 plastic extrusion lines
- Provided a good base of trained personnel that have remained to train other personnel over the past 25+ years
- Produced over 60% of the training documentation for the extrusion department.
Manufacturing Operator/Leadperson
Nike In House Manufacturing
07.1990 - 09.1995
- Involvement in each new machine startup, development, and training including countless sample trials.
- Trained core group of operators while maintaining high level of enthusiasm for each job function.
Education
Master of Science - Mechanical Engineering
University of Missouri – Columbia
Columbia, Missouri05.1990
Skills
- Project Management
- Manufacturing Processes
- Product Development
- Cross-functional Team Leadership
- Stakeholder Management
- Innovation Management
- Technical Leadership
- Process Improvement
Timeline
Sr. Director of Engineering – Air Product
Nike AIR Manufacturing Innovation
05.2023 - Current
Sr. Director of Engineering – Global Extrusion
Nike AIR Manufacturing Innovation
05.2018 - 04.2023
Director of Engineering - Thermoforming
Nike AIR Manufacturing Innovation
01.2013 - 01.2017
Senior Manufacturing Engineer/Consultant
Nike In House Manufacturing
08.2007 - 12.2012
Manufacturing Engineer
Nike In House Manufacturing
09.2004 - 08.2007
Production Manager – Sheet Extrusion
Nike In House Manufacturing
02.1997 - 09.2004
Manufacturing Supervisor – Sheet Extrusion
Nike IHM
09.1995 - 02.1997
Manufacturing Operator/Leadperson
Nike In House Manufacturing
07.1990 - 09.1995
Master of Science - Mechanical Engineering
University of Missouri – Columbia
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