Alvaro Vargas Gurdián

Responsible for the Hoshin Kanri (Strategic Planning Process), Value Improvement Program (VIP) and Business Excellence Simplification Program to continue embracing a continuous improvement culture to continue increasing capacity and growing the business.

• Reports to the Operations Director
• Leads all business aspects of cross functional Values Stream team to ensure goals are met for 2 different companies key costumers: Johnson & Johnson and Philips (contractor product development and manufacturing services provided)
• Responsible for ensuring compliance with all company regulations, policies and procedures for the Quality System and for Health, Safety and Environment compliance.
• Based on customer order requirements, plans operations for manufacturing of products.
• Performs production forecast to achieve monthly sales goal.
• Partners with other team members to execute financial commitments of the business.
• Leads and supports the operation team in Lean Manufacturing initiatives.
• Completes production plan by scheduling and assigning personnel, accomplishing work results, establishing priorities, monitoring progress, revising schedules and resolving problems related to the Value Stream.
• Implements and improves the current production standards to obtain cost reductions YoY

• Company founded with my wife 11 years ago, dedicated to the rental business and the design & production of social and corporate events.
• Responsible for developing and executing the business strategy for sustaining and growing the business; provide direction in Finance, Operations, Marketing and Sales.

• Reports to the Global Enterprise Excellence Department based in MN, USA.
• Responsible to develop and implement an enterprise-wide cultural transformation program of Continuous Improvement in the Commercial offices and Distribution Centers located in LATAM, applying a both top-down and bottom-up approach to achieve high performance to grow revenue faster than market and grow operating income faster than revenue.
• Technical mentor of multi-cultural / cross-functional project teams in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and Puerto Rico to successfully implement continuous improvements projects that generated $10 MM in annual savings.

• Reports to the Production Director.
• 6 Engineers and 10+ interns report to this position.
• Managed the Industrial Engineering Department, including areas such as process improvement, facility layout, space optimization and production standards definition.
• Responsible for influencing / transforming the organizational culture designing the Business Strategic & Operating Plan Performance based in principles management systems characterized in engaging people at all levels of the organization to solve problems, enhance skillsets and achieve rapid rates of sustained improvements.
• Led the identification and implementation of improvement activities through the use of Lean Management Principles, both in manufacturing operations as in support/office environments to achieve a product cost reduction of 9% year over year and improve the standard margins over 80%.
• Only professional in Costa Rica who has led the Shingo Prize application at the only two local companies that had become Shingo Prize winners in Costa Rica (BSC obtaining the Bronze level and Baxter the Gold Medallion).
• Shingo Prize is considered the Nobel Prize for Operational Excellence applying Lean practices.
• Organized the first Lean Council in Costa Rica with the visit of more than 40+ participants from BSC plants network to share best practices.

• Value Improvement Process Steward for Heredia & Coyol facilities.
• Reports to Coyol's Vice-President (dotted line to Heredia's VP).
• Responsible for fully implementing Value Improvement Program at both sites.
• Focus on creating the platform and structure for a successful implementation of the program, upper management involvement, training and creating the mechanisms for project execution follow up at all levels of the organization.
• Support given to the Strategic Quality Planning process of the facility to define a strategy capable of achieving the expected results.

• Product & Process Engineering Manager.
• Reports to the General Manager.
• 3rd employee hired for Costa Rica (company start-up).
• 6 Engineers and a workforce of 200 persons report to this position.
• Main achievements: first owned Moog's Medical manufacturing facility opened in CR; focus on building readiness to start operations and transfer products from the outsourcing suppliers.

• Reports to the Production Director.
• 5 Engineers and a workforce of 450 persons report to this position.
• Person with the highest rank at the company present during this work schedule, it demands high decision making and problem solving.
• Results oriented in terms of productivity, quality, safety, and financial in order to achieve with the expected department's metric indicators.
• Leader in the implementation of lean manufacturing tools for providing to Customers products with the highest quality, at the best cost and with on time delivery.

• Reports to the General Manager Leadership, business knowledge and flexibility required for planning and executing company's high impact projects with different areas of the organization; some examples are:.
• Lean enterprise project leader, resulting in the achievement of the Shingo Prize for the Operational Excellence, considered the Nobel Prize for Manufacturing and positioning Costa Rica as the first country outside North America to obtain it.
• Support given to the Plastics Department leading molds transfer projects.
• Support given to the Product and Process Engineering Department leading the "Value Improvement Projects" program (cost reduction initiatives); temporarily occupying the position of P&P Director.
• Company representative in different forums: 1) Industry Chamber participating in the "Operational Excellence Prize" program; 2) Key point of contact with the Corporation and other Baxter facilities around the world for project management ; 3) In charge of Corporate Relations in some important events as they have been the visit of the Costa Rica's President and of high Corporate stakeholders.
• Support given to the plant's strategic planning process: 1) Application of the lean A3 tool for strategy deployment; 2) Coordinator for the "Business Alignment 2008" session where the business high value projects are defined.

• Reports to the General Manager.
• 8 supervisors report to this position.
• Responsible for the Customer Service and Purchasing Departments.

• See information for this same position between March 2007 - May 2009.

• Reports to the P&P Engineering Director.
• 2 technicians of the Packaging Laboratory report to this position.
• Project management specialization oriented in costs reduction (product design, processes and packaging optimization, products transfers to Costa Rica, among others).
• Corporate relations with the company headquarters and other Baxter facilities around the world for project execution and implementation (Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Malta, Singapore, Canada, USA).
• Corporate relations with Government ("Cinde", "Costa Rica Provee" for local suppliers development) and with.

• Reports to the Production Director.
• Responsible for 3 production lines integrated by a workforce of 100 persons.
• Results oriented for achieving key metric indicators.