Ed Grant is a Senior Advisor with over 40 years of experience in manufacturing operations. Ed is recognized as an expert on throughput improvement and was instrumental to achieving desired output at a number of automotive facilities.  Additionally, he has served as facility director for multiple large automotive complexes, and has experience in machining, stamping, body welding, paint process and vehicle assembly.

Notable experience and accomplishments:

• Managed key elements of successful brownfield site conversion, including process conveyors, controls, facilities, ventilation, fire protection sprinkler & alarm modifications in support of $65M vehicle launch. All facility conversions implemented on time, & under budget, within aggressive 8-month program timeline.
• Instrumental in the implementation of new quality assurance monitoring system for commercial vehicle launch, yielding End of Line test and Final Inspection rates of 97% and 92%, respectively
• Developed and implemented complete maintenance programs and focused on predictive technologies to increase uptime and throughput
• Strong ability to design/implement systems, procedures, documentation and training for improving uptime of equipment & tooling
• Responsible for design and implementation of common controls architecture for welding and body shop assembly robots
• Led the central support team in design, build, and tryout of major robotic welding systems for 25 new model lines
• Spearheaded PLC control systems modifications for improved diagnostics, trouble shooting, and downtime recovery
• Led collaborative efforts to develop and implement Factory Floor Monitoring, utilizing PLC data collection to drive significant throughput improvements at vehicle assembly and powertrain plants in the United States, Mexico and Europe

Prior to consulting, Ed worked for General Motors and retired in 2008 after a 42 year career in manufacturing. He has worked as Director of Manufacturing Engineering, Engineering Director – Controls and Robotics, responsible for design, build, commission and start-up at a number of greenfield sites, as well as numerous brownfield facility conversions. Locations included US, Mexico and Great Britain.

Ed Grant holds a Bachelor of Science Industrial Engineering General Motors Institute and an MBA from Babson College, Boston, and is fluent in Spanish.