B. J. Fontaine has more than 29 years of experience in various industrial and defense industry businesses. He has a proven track record of leadership in applying Lean and Six Sigma methods in reducing variation, labor costs, cycle times, lead times, in-process material costs, improving quality, and maintenance program effectiveness. He has taught a wide range of process improvement techniques to over 700 people from shop floor employees to executives.
He is the Designated Lean Equipment Management Group Leader at the Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center at the University of Texas Arlington, focusing on Predictive and Preventive Maintenance, Total Productive Maintenance, Set-Up Reduction, Maintenance Work Order development, planning, and, scheduling, and Maintenance Repair and Operations materials and program management. He also is responsible for implementing, coaching, and teaching Lean Six Sigma techniques with a wide variety of Texas businesses from injection molders to corrugators and cosmetics companies to high tech electronics companies in the DFW region.
BJ worked for General Dynamics, Ordnance and Tactical Systems as Director of Operations for over 600 people. Lean Six Sigma techniques were used to optimize the new annealing furnace operating parameters, resolve a hot and cold press problem, and correct both sandblasting and machining problems that were considered quality critical to the customer. At NASSCO-San Diego, a GD Company with $12 Billion in backlog, BJ as Manager of Manufacturing Engineering was responsible for introducing and implementing Lean Manufacturing and changing the shipyard into a ship factory. He was a certified ISO 9000 and 14000 Lead Auditor helping to get NASSCO registered for both. He was an Engineering Manager, Superintendent of Shipboard Power Trains, Production Manager, and Project Manager for continuous improvement. In his roles in Production and Engineering, he led project teams that developed world class designs and installation processes that have been adopted by the major power train equipment manufacturers and resulted in significant cost and cycle time reductions delivering high quality ships ahead of schedule and lower cost to the Navy. He has managed and led continuous improvement projects at pipe, sheet metal, and machine shops, blast and paint facilities, assembly production, as well as, engineering, planning, and purchasing processes. As Manager of Manufacturing Engineering, he was responsible for developing and implementing the Lean Manufacturing Program at NASSCO and helped with the Lean Six Sigma Programs at Electric Boat and Bath Iron Works. He was also a member of the General Dynamics Lean Manufacturing Council responsible for developing and initiating programs across all divisions.
BJ is NIST certified under the Federal Dept. of Commerce, across the spectrum of Lean Manufacturing tools, he is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, and an examiner for the Shingo Prize. He has a Bachelor of Science in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering.
Contact:
fontaine@arri.uta.edu |
