Category Archives: Team Spotlight

Gary Spoerre Promoted to Director – Sales Enablement!

We are thrilled to announce the promotion of Gary Spoerre to the role of Director, Sales Enablement. Gary brings 29 years of invaluable experience in process engineering and management across diverse sectors such as manufacturing, electronics, software, education, and aerospace.

In his previous roles, Gary has demonstrated an impressive ability to lead teams, establish standards, and train personnel, resulting in enhanced production, reduced defects, and improved safety. Notably, during his tenure at General Dynamics, he successfully managed their learning management systems and the ongoing training of 400+ site personnel. His dedication to creating comprehensive documentation and providing effective training contributed significantly to a safer work environment and improved product quality. At Whirlpool/Maytag, he trained and counseled employees on product quality improvement, workstation safety, and continuous process improvement. Gary’s role in redesigning the production training program resulted in a significant reduction in rework, lowered injury risks, and increased employee cross-training.

Gary’s multifaceted expertise extends into the aerospace and software fields, where he coordinated complex electronics assembly projects, managed software installation and customer service teams, and developed procedures to ensure consistent customer satisfaction.

Gary holds a Master’s in Education from Southern Illinois University and a BS in Industrial Engineering. His military service as Petty Officer, 2nd Class (E-5) for the U.S. Navy and Sergeant (E-5) for the USARNG showcases his commitment to excellence and discipline.

Additionally, Gary is a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and holds certifications in the Society for HR Management, Foundations of Project Management and Lean Systems Design.

Please join me in congratulating Gary Spoerre on his well-earned promotion! His wealth of experience and dedication will undoubtedly continue to drive success in his new role as Director, Sales Enablement. 

Audie Penn now Vice President, Business Development and Service Delivery

Congratulations to Audie Penn on his promotion to Vice President, Business Development and Service Delivery at The ProAction Group! With 38 years of extensive experience in various manufacturing environments, Audie brings a wealth of knowledge to his new role.

In his capacity as Vice President, Audie will play a crucial role in collaborating with clients to identify risk and implement value creation initiatives, ensuring that companies reach their strategic, organizational, and financial goals.

Audie’s diverse background, encompassing both consulting and industry roles, spans across industries such as furniture, food, heavy equipment, municipal functions, energy, and building materials. His previous role as managing partner for a consulting firm focusing on operational excellence showcases his ability to drive significant improvements, exemplified by the impressive EBITDA growth achieved for his clients.

Notably, Audie’s contributions as Group Manager for a global heavy equipment manufacturer led to surpassing performance expectations and a substantial reduction in variable costs within the first five months of his tenure. His expertise extends to supply chain management and global production system deployment, particularly in implementing Lean methodologies for performance enhancement globally.

Audie holds degrees in accounting and business management, along with an MBA from St. Ambrose University. He is also Master Black Belt Certified and holds certifications at the Gold, Silver, and Bronze levels through the Lean Certification Alliance. Currently serving as the chair of the SME Certification Oversight and Appeals Committee within the alliance, Audie continues to contribute significantly to the field.

The ProAction Group is fortunate to have Audie Penn in this leadership role, and his extensive experience and expertise will undoubtedly contribute to continued success and growth for our clients.

Kevin Hofert Expanded Role

We are pleased to share that Kevin Hofert has been promoted to Vice President, Business Development and Sales Management.  In this expanded role Kevin is primarily responsible for driving revenue growth, acquiring and retaining clients, and ensuring successful project delivery.  Kevin will serve as a bridge between our consulting team and our clients, leveraging their expertise to build relationships and identify business opportunities that add value to client portfolios. 

Kevin has over 28 years of business management, engineering, and leadership experience, and has a proven background in operations management, design engineering, and overall P&L leadership.  His operating experience, engineering mindset, and the combination of his law degree and MBA, provides a unique perspective that will continue to inform his decisions and direction in this new role.  

Prior to joining The ProAction Group, Kevin was CEO for a large, midwestern sign manufacturer where he collaborated with ownership and financial institutions to expand operations to 2 additional states, taking the business from $29M in 2016 to $56M in 2019.  Throughout his career he has successfully integrated add-on business acquisitions and operational improvements, and has continuously managed a wide range of business risk reduction efforts.  Earlier in his career, Kevin held the roles of VP of Engineering, Chief Engineer, and construction field manager.

Please join us in congratulating Kevin on his promotion and wishing him well in his new role.

Kevin has an MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management, BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Michigan, and Juris Doctor from the University of Illinois-Chicago Law School.

Tim Van Mieghem Podcast Speaker: Part 2 – The Value of Business Intelligence: Understanding and Measuring Operational Issues

The second part of Tim Van Mieghem’s interview with Jack and his team at Nestell Associates’ podcast, focuses on helping companies actually leverage their ERP systems.  In this episode, we talk about measuring operational issues!

Listen to: Episode 14, Part 2 here.

Timely and accurate visibility to operational data is a significant competitive differentiator. This episode discusses how to turn data into insight that is actionable. We discuss many people, process, and technological influences that help ensure organizational business intelligence availability and alignment.

 ProAction helps companies identify improvement opportunities through data-based evidence, which fosters organizational support for change.  We also explore the challenge of strategic decision making with Tim.

If you missed Part 1, you can listen here.

Nestell Associates Podcast Homepage: https://nestellassociates.com/podcast-home/

Tim Van Mieghem Podcast Speaker: The ERP Organization Change Journal, Episode 13 – The Value of Business Intelligence Part 1

We all know too many horror stories of ERP systems gone wrong.  More rampant, however, are ERP systems that simply provide a fraction of their potential value.  They way the company uses the system, it does the basics.  But the company has essentially found a way to convert gold into iron…  Jack and his team present ideas to actually get the value your ERP systems can provide.  Continue reading Tim Van Mieghem Podcast Speaker: The ERP Organization Change Journal, Episode 13 – The Value of Business Intelligence Part 1

ProAction Profile: Perry Hall

Perry HallWith over 30 years of experience, Perry Hall, an expert in Operational Excellence, including facility layouts, has helped many of The ProAction Group’s clients improve manufacturing efficiency and facilitate continuous improvementPerry’s expertise is often leveraged when businesses are building, re-configuring or consolidating facilities.  He designs optimized layouts with project plans for implementation, and he often works with clients through plan execution. 

From automobiles to shampoo, Perry’s manufacturing experience is vast. One ProAction Group client, a haircare company, manufactured their own private label products as well as those of other brands. The business did not have a strong understanding of their capacity and felt there were opportunities to improve efficiency. Perry broke the various jobs into families (shampoo, conditioner, etc.), considered orders and variables such as product viscosity, and designed a new scheduling planHe was able to redo the company’s standards so that they understood what they should be accomplishing each day. He also implemented The ProAction Group’s process of “Manufacturing for Daily Improvement, and the financial improvements his work generated enabled the company to command a premium price when they were sold.   

Another ProAction Group client manufactures blister packs for medications. Their employees were always working overtime, and still, customer orders were often late. Perry leveraged ProAction’s “9-Box Insights” to identify optimization opportunities. He created an index for equipment availability, and with better planning and sequencing, the company was able to service customers on-time and dramatically reduce their second shift labor hours 

Perry has numerous best-practices to share when it comes to plant-layout and manufacturing. He encourages businesses to think beyond the widget-making and consider how materials will flow into and out of facilities. What floor space may be needed for batch manufacturing? How will materials be delivered to assemblers? 

Throughout his career, Perry has lent his consulting expertise to the portfolio companies of Private Equity firms and many mid-size and Fortune500 manufactures. Next month Perry celebrates his 10th year working with The ProAction Group. Click here to engage with Perry or other experts at The ProAction Group. 

TEAM SPOTLIGHT: Kathy Wishnew

Kathy WishnewThis month’s Spotlight is on Kathy Wishnew. Kathy joined ProAction in 2015 and immediately brought added depth to our front office lean and engineering process capabilities, particularly as they relate to our customers in the service and complex-engineered products industries. She has also been integral in expanding our proprietary 9-Box inventory optimization and customer pricing tool, an innovative process that has helped many of our clients drive meaningful improvements to their EBITDA. Kathy makes transformative change happen. Her skills in lean manufacturing, global business operations, process improvement, program management, quality assurance, Six Sigma, and goal deployment have helped her significantly improve bottom-line performance for companies. Kathy uses a top-down strategy of aligning systems, processes, and people to help those changes stick.

Kathy has led many projects for our clients and below are a couple that highlight the depth and breadth of the positive results she brings to an organization:

One midsized medical services firm was turning down new business due to its inability to meet current demand and the extensive learning curve for onboarding new employees. Kathy worked with their leadership team to restructure responsibilities by centralizing like-work content, creating standardized processes, and instituting metrics that provided transparency when the process was not going as expected. The company has not only started accepting new clients and marketing the offering, their sales have grown significantly without the need to hire additional manpower.

Another example involved a midsized manufacturer of large material handling platforms. The company was struggling to meet critical multi-phased customer on-time-delivery dates and a growing list of backorders. Once one phase ran behind schedule, the later scheduled deliveries would not only require re-scheduling, but many times would incur fines and penalties by the end-users and / or installers. Kathy worked with the cross-functional technical team, that operated independently of each other, to standardize internal deliverables between departments. Many non-value added steps were eliminated, rework was reduced and flow was created between internal suppliers and customers. The list of backorders was reduced by 60% and the company is back on track to meet annual growth targets.

Prior to ProAction, as Vice President at Jarden Safety & Security, Kathy established a lean and continuous improvement program that reduced costs by nearly $9 million its inaugural year. The program created transparency and linked operations to strategic plan initiatives, leading to a record number of new product launches and a centralized quality management system.

Kathy served in many executive positions in her 17 years at Panduit Corporation. One she is particularly fond of was as a General Manager and turning a chronic loss leader in to a profitable Business Unit.

After receiving her bachelor’s degree in Industrial Systems Engineering from The Ohio State University, where she became a member of the Alpha Pi Mu Industrial Engineering Society, Kathy received several certifications. She is trained as a Six Sigma Black Belt, ASQ Engineer, Lean Leader, and Shainin Red X Problem Solver. Kathy is also certified as a Franklin Covey facilitator in the Great Leaders, Great Teams, Great Results and the 4 Disciplines of Execution.