Koh Murai

16927 NE Morelli Dr. Yamhill, OR 97148-8419

(H) 503.662.3000   (M) 503.781.0534   Ltakoh@msn.com

 

EXPERIENCE

2005-Current       Celerity, Inc.                                                       Tualatin, OR

            {Design and manufacture of chemical and slurry supply tools for semiconductor wafer fabrication industry as well as solar cell industry}

Position:             Chem. Systems Engineering New Product Introduction Manager, Manufacturing Engineer

·        Led team that introduced first new product line for slurries and nanoslurries in four years.  Modularized designs of electrical, controls, mechanical and software to permit faster response to customer and market demands.  Now flagship product line for division.

·        Team member in movement of slurry/chemical testing laboratory from Tempe, AZ to Allen, TX.  Coordinate and prioritize lab testing schedule for balance between new raw materials and new process testing to optimize critical resources.

·        Manage manufacturing engineering group (5) as well as NPI design group (13).

·        Created formal, detailed engineering design standards, as well as improvements in testing and patent documentation methods for NPI.

2000-2005          Global Solutions for Science and Learning, Inc.             Tillamook, OR

{Small firm that designs, constructs, tests, flies high altitude scientific balloons and inflatables for a variety of government customers including NASA, DoD, NOAA, NSF, INEL}

Position:             Engineering Manager

·        Project management for 100% expansion of manufacturing area and addition of administrative offices.

·        Created the document control, engineering change control, and test protocol systems for the company.

·        Provided management of design and production engineering, modeling and testing for components and systems.  This was a hands on management style including engineering tasks and project management.

·        Versed in  NASA and DoD standards for payload design, ASTM standards for film, fiber, fabric testing and evaluation.  Utilized Solidworks for 3D modeling work.

1990-2000          The Clarkson Company/ Tyco Valves & Controls                     Sparks, NV

            {Manufacturer of valve and control products for slurry application, specializing in abrasive-corrosive slurries}

Positions: Engineering Manager, Engineering Services Project Manager, Sales Application Engineer

·        Design and project management for elastomer/polymer QA laboratory construction.  Provided design and owner construction management for 110,000 ft2 manufacturing facility.

·        Provided on site and remote technical service, training, and consulting.  Most often to assist customer with poor piping system design and stream characterization in order to obtain proper function and life out of the valve or control product.  The most common of these situations were reduced into a series of Technical Bulletins, which I wrote.  The sizing related situations were addressed by a series of order and selection guides for valves, hydraulic power units, and control systems.  These guides were a cross functional effort.  In similar cross functional effort all of the installation and operations documents were grouped by product, graphic documentation added and published in a customer friendly format. 

·        As engineer and manager in conjunction with R&D department brought 2 new successful valve product lines to market.  Also introduced 6 new auxiliary support products to the market.

·        Provide department management for design engineering, including CAD documentation, test lab, field service, custom auxiliaries design (hydraulic power units, electric generators, portable power solutions).  Staff varied from 10 – 22.  This was also a hands on situation where I did all the functions as well.  2D CAD work done in H-P ME-10, 3D CAD in H-P Mechanical Designer and ANVIL, analysis work done with ALGOR.

·        Instituted processes and training to achieve improved customer (internal and external) service response:

RMA evaluations – reduced from 5 days to <8 hours total time including reports

Customer Drawings – eliminated missed due dates, reduced completion times by 35%

Engineering design on customer special configuration – reduced from 1-3 weeks to <1 week depending complexity.

·        A wide variety of management type activities were routinely accomplished including: strategic and tactical planning, SWOT analysis, sunset reviews, budgeting, cost control/tracking, financial statement (company and department) analysis, recruiting, training and personnel activities.

·        After integrating engineering functions (BOM, ECO/ECN,RMA) into new ERP system and reducing customer lead time, the engineering group was the lead force in moving the company to achieving ISO 9001 certification (which they still hold).  Subsequently via continuous improvement, implementation of the 5S philosophy, the department maintained a leading role in implementing Six Sigma.  I was one of the 4 instructors in the 5S program training cross functional teams (all departments) in the techniques and following up on the performance of the various groups.

 

 

1987-1990          Free-Flow Packaging Corporation      Redwood City, CA

            {Manufacturer of loose fill packaging and foam sheet materials}

Position:             Project Engineer

·        Design & construction engineering and project management for one grass roots polymer extrusion facility installation (USA) and three extrusion process line installation/expansion projects (2-USA, 1 Europe).  In all cases adjustments for local codes and authorities were handled with projects completed on time and at/under budget.  Also handled obtaining all required permits and associated issues.  All CAD work done in AutoCAD 2D environment.

·        Key member of R&D and engineering effort that brought a new polyethylene “bubble wrap” line to market.  Used different technology to effect significant cost reductions over normal vacuum forming method.

·        Using statistical process analysis, made improvements in polystyrene and polyethylene extrusion line operations.  Also completed safety analysis and implemented changes for these extrusion lines.

 

1986-1987             Webb, Murray & Associates            Clear Lake, TX

{Consulting firm specializing in fire protection systems, systems safety and safety analysis}

Position:             Senior Engineer

·        Performed Failure Modes and Effects (FMEA) analysis on north shore oil platform blowout preventor.

·        Performed chemical and mechanical safety analysis and fire prevention analysis for NASA, Johnson Space Center to support the Ground Safety Division (NS3)

·        Performed Fault Tree (FTA) and Hazards Analysis (HA) at Morton Thiokol for NASA on selected areas of Space Shuttle SRB manufacture.  Headed up engineering team (5) on this project.  Based on quality of work, timeliness, and cost of this initial effort a contract extension ($250,000) was awarded.

 

1977-1986          Stauffer Chemical Company            Houston/Greens Bayou/Baytown, TX & Westport, CT

            {Heavy and specialty chemical manufacturer, Co-generation owner/operator}

Positions:    Sr. Corporate Energy Engineer, Plant Manager, Plant Supt., Production Supt., Process Engineer

·        Provided construction engineering and management for industrial chemical operation units including hazardous chemicals (liquid hydrogen sulfide, liquid sulfur trioxide), lethal chemicals (liquid sulfur dioxide), storage system vent gas control, and hydrocarbon incineration systems. Also for: control room conversions to electric and PLC based controls, water treatment and demineralization plants.

·        Managed commissioning operations and de-bottlenecking of a fully EPA permitted, closed loop, pilot plant for organic cleaning of chemical transport containers (truck and ship).  Designed and installed a solvent recovery system upgrade that increased overall solvent recovery by 30%).

·        Reviewed and stamped a test plan submitted to EPA for a test burn of hazardous wastes in a thermal incineration system.  Plan approved and I coordinated the test burn which demonstrated 99.9999% DRE.  A successful business unit resulted along with successful permit applications in 3 EPA regions.

·        For the division, created and wrote the energy conservation manual for operating plants with sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid and nitric acid facilities including all support utilities (air, steam, gas, electricity).

·        Designed and completed many process and cost improvements in chemical and utility areas.  Participated in new technology implementation startups at local plant and other plants around the USA.  Also part of emergency/disaster recovery team for all division locations.  SW USA CHEMTREC coordinator.

·        Designed and installed a 1MW induction motor generator and switchgear.  Unit reduced plant electricity purchased by 50-80% depending on production rates.

·        Provided construction engineering and supervision for a 5 MW co-generation facility installation including 2.4KV switchgear and controls.  Revised plant operation scheme to utilize this unit with existing 1.5 MW unit to allow generation of 100% of required electricity for the plant and sell excess back to local utility for additional revenue.

·        Designed and provided construction engineering for 2.4 KV power distribution system in chemical plant.  Included 5 sub-stations designs, capacitor banks, transfer switches, with appropriate safety and environmental controls.

·        In my capacity as production/plant superintendent and plant manager, was responsible to daily plant/unit operation in union and non-union environments.  Financial, personnel, safety, environmental, issues dealt with along with routine and emergency operations.

 

EDUCATION: B.S. Chemical Engineering, 1977, University of Michigan.  Studies in elastomer rheology and chemistry, University of Akron and University of Minnesota.  Numerous technical and management courses.

 

REGISTRATION: Registered Professional Engineer in Nevada and Texas.

 

PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES: A.I.Ch.E.-Sr. Member, A.I.A.A. – Sr. Member, A.C.S. Rubber Division-Member