Dave Bowman

Dave is a Senior Advisor within FTE Performance Consulting’s Advisory Network. He is a results-oriented, ethics-driven leader with significant experience and contributions in manufacturing management, product development, quality control and lean manufacturing. Dave’s personal strengths are strategy development, project management, planning and execution in the automotive sector in Asia, Europe and the United States. Dave’s consulting philosophy has been to strategically implement lean manufacturing principles to yield direct impact on key business metrics including cost, quality, lead time.

Notable experience and accomplishments:

  • During six-month assignment as Interim Operations Director at a metal stamping and parts fabrication plant, led activities that reduced inventory levels by 40% while improving customer on time delivery performance to 100%.
  • As Senior Manufacturing Advisor for a startup electric hybrid automotive OEM, responsible for assembly plant organization structure development and departmental scope of responsibility definition.
  • As assistant Plant Manager for a high-volume North American vehicle Assembly Plant, responsible for daily production activities, planning and quality. Implemented 5 job-per-hour line speed increase with no added headcount through active management of staff, budget and relations with Union leadership.
  • Served as part of a six-member lean manufacturing advisory team for German automotive brand, responsible for ensuring that plant layouts, organization structure, and business processes adhere to global parent company “lean” model.
  • Assistant Manager for Technical Liaison Office for large OEM joint venture responsible for the incorporation of Toyota Production System for improved productivity and quality. Learned Toyota Production System directly from Toyota managers/advisors.
  • Responsible for the Statistical Problem Solving (“Red X”) team and warranty data analysis processes for North America OEM’s product development organization. This team bridged product development, manufacturing, and warranty departments to solve complex launch and production issues.

Prior to joining FTE, Dave held many direct line leadership positions with a high-volume multi-national automotive OEM including Body Shop, Quality Control, Tooling Process Engineering and Dimensional Management.

Dave holds a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from General Motors Institute (now Kettering University).

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