Career

Jeffrey P. Routzahn

I've spent more than forty years in manufacturing — from a quality-control chair in 1978 to running the paint process at Power Partners in Athens, Georgia, today. If a product had to look good and hold up, I was the one making sure the paint did its job.

I was born in Connersville, Indiana. I attended Indiana University in Richmond and graduated in 1978 with an Associate Degree in Business Management, then earned a Bachelor of Science in Management from California Coast University in Santa Ana, California. I was trained and certified as a Six Sigma Greenbelt in 2003.

Through the years

1978 · Joined Design and Manufacturing Corporation in a quality-control position.

1980 · Promoted into an electro-deposition technician job — the start of my paint career.

1988 · Became Division Finishing Engineer for York Products in Houston, Texas.

1990 · Took a project-engineering position at Frigidaire, upgrading their paint operations.

1990s · Managed a couple of paint operations, broadening my background.

1998 · Moved to Hayes Lemmerz in Huntington, Indiana, as a manufacturing engineer.

February 2009 · Hayes closed the last of its cast-aluminum facilities in the United States — thirty-one years after I'd walked into my first job.

What I know best

My expertise is process control, paint operations, line troubleshooting, environmental management, pretreatment, electro-deposition, powder paint, and liquid paint. My Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing training let me improve operations using statistical means. I've worked in plants that manufactured or painted products for the appliance, automotive, funeral, and general metals industries.

I always enjoyed leading Manage by Fact and Kaizen teams — the groups that drive process improvements and measurably reduce costs. That's engineer-speak for making things run better, cheaper, and with fewer headaches.

After the plant

When Hayes closed in February 2009, I wasn't done yet — in 2010 I went to work for Power Partners in Athens, Georgia, as a senior process engineer, and I'm still there today. Power Partners was bought out by ERMCO, and these days the plant builds electrical transformers — but the paint process is still mine to run.

We live in Cumming, Georgia, and I make the drive over to Athens and back. After more than forty years of making things look right, I'm hoping to hang up my hat next year and enjoy the next chapter of life — family, hobbies, and time for the good things.