James Cunningham
Covington,GA
Summary
Purposeful Operations Leader with a successful history of driving efficiency, yield, uptime, revenue, and profitability gains in startup, turnaround, and high-growth manufacturing facilities. Generate strong and sustainable performance results while also focusing on cultivating union and nonunion relationships and empowering team members to exceed desired metrics. Recognized for consistently securing buy-in for major change initiatives, leveraging strong people skills and a hands-on work ethic, to foster enterprise-wide support, high engagement, and leader development.
Overview
21
21
years of professional experience
Work History
MANUFACTURING ENGINEER
Inline Plastics
07.2022 - 01.2024
- Lead safety initiatives throughout plant
- Lean/Continuous improvement techniques
- Design equipment and automate to reduce labor
- Thermoforming equipment consist of Lyle and GNs
- Process all new molds and work with Q.C
- To set quality standards
- Work with outside contractors on projects.
OPERATIONS MANAGER
Genpak LLC
01.2017 - 05.2022
- Overseen seven foam and ridged thermoforming and extrusion plastic plants and three distribution centers
- Responsible for strategic planning, organizational development, process improvement, project management, supplier relations, contract negotiations
- Manage twenty-eight extruders and fifty-two thermoformers
- Successfully negotiated removal of paid lunches company wide, resulting in savings of $2,000,000 annually
- Refurbished twenty-eight thermoformer oven systems within house designed system, resulting in savings of $560,000 over OEM upgrade
- Spearheaded corporate safety initiative for all thermoformer where OEM inadequate safety measures had to replace with designed systems
- This resulted in drop in lost-time accidents with this equipment by 10% on average
- Initiated overhaul of extruders in all plants, resulting in equipment availability increase of 28%
- Revamped PSM program, performed structured update of all as-built PID’s, catalog of process system components, required preventmaintenance
- Initiatives noted above contributed to increase average daily case count by 30%.
PLANT MANAGER
Genpak LLC
06.2012 - 01.2017
- Oversaw total budget / cost for manufacturing facility and distribution center
- Responsible for strategic planning, plant leadership development, process improvement, project management, supplier relations
- Accountable for all plant union contract negotiations
- Led quality teams in SQF and Yum certifications
- Responsible for all environmental regulatory documentation
- Managed five extruders and eight thermoformers
- Established plant wide safety culture where none had existed previously, resulting in TIR reduction from 6.2 to 2.6
- Used SMED principles to reduce average changeover time from 8 hrs
- To 4 hrs.
PROCESS ENGINEER
WNA
05.2011 - 06.2012
- Continuous improvements to increase quality and efficiency
- Design equipment and automated to reduce labor
- Involved in all plant expansions and equipment purchases
- Process all new molds and work with Q.C
- To set quality specs
- Work with outside contractors on projects
- Worked with In-Line Extruders, Thermoformers.
PLANT MANAGER
Crespac Inc
03.2003 - 04.2011
- Directed management team daily
- Managed Extrusion Department with 2 Welex Co extruders and 1 PTI extruder
- Managed Thermoforming Department with thirteen high speed thermoformers
- Process knowledge of R-PET, A-PET, PP, HDPE, PETG, LDPE, PVC, and PS materials
- Oversaw all plant operations including hiring, scheduling, purchasing, and training of personnel
- Purchased and installed varies equipment.
PROCESS ENGINEER
Rock-Tenn Plastics
- 03.2003
- Work with operators and supervisors to increase quality and efficiency
- Design machines and automate to reduce labor
- Involved in all plant expansions and machine purchases
- Process all new molds and work with Q.C
- To set quality specs
- Designed a template for extrusion die to reduce scrap on start-ups
- Work with outside contractors on projects
- Worked with 7- 50-inch Lyle thermoformers, 2- 40-inch Browns
- Two PTI extrusion sheet lines which were co-extruders and two Davis Standard.
Education
Skills
- Long-Range Strategic & Operations Planning
- Plant Startup, Management, & Optimization
- Capital & Process Improvement Projects
- New Models & Process Introduction
- Vendor Relationship Management
- Quality, Performance, & Safety Management
- Environmental RMP – PSM Compliance
- Continuous Improvements / Lean
- Revenue Generation & Cost Reduction
- Systems Integration & Automation
- Maintenance background
- Excellent troubleshooting skills
- Maintenance PM program Using infor and nexgen
Timeline
MANUFACTURING ENGINEER
Inline Plastics
07.2022 - 01.2024
OPERATIONS MANAGER
Genpak LLC
01.2017 - 05.2022
PLANT MANAGER
Genpak LLC
06.2012 - 01.2017
PROCESS ENGINEER
WNA
05.2011 - 06.2012
PLANT MANAGER
Crespac Inc
03.2003 - 04.2011
PROCESS ENGINEER
Rock-Tenn Plastics
- 03.2003
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