Anne Martin has broken the mold by being a female engineer running a plastics compounding plant that continues to consistently meet its financial targets.
"In the U.S., women make up only 29 percent of the workforce in the manufacturing industry. In my company, U.S. manufacturing has very few, if any, women operations/plant managers. … As an engineer, I fully understand the interactions and dependency of the metrics, and as a plastics manufacturing manager I am able to apply that knowledge to plant operations," said Martin, operations manager for Aptiv's compounding extrusion plant ("Plant 7") in Ohio. Aptiv was spun off from auto supplier Delphi, which was itself spun off from General Motors Co.
Martin handles all aspects of operations, which includes equipment, sales, customer service, procurement of raw materials, shipping and receiving.
"I am responsible for all key plant metrics: revenue, manufacturing cost, OEE [overall equipment effectiveness], TEEP [total effective equipment performance], COPQ [cost of poor quality], etc. Additionally, I write work orders based on material formulas for manufacturing, manage revenue, raw material and finished goods inventories to monthly targets. It is necessary that I interact daily with high-level corporate management," she said.
Martin earned a bachelor's degree in electromechanical computer technology from the New York Institute of Technology and master's degree in manufacturing management from Kettering University in Michigan.
She previously handled $1.1 billion in annual plastics and related purchases at Aptiv and achieved an average of 5.2 percent savings annually. Martin also led the team "that won the Global Excellence Award for taking Delphi Packard Electric Systems (Aptiv) Supply Chain Management seamlessly through bankruptcy filing."
Her greatest achievement came when Martin was a supervisor of cockpit systems, commodity purchasing.
"I led a team of two — only myself and one buyer — with purchasing responsibility for the startup of a joint venture cockpit assembly plant in Lansing, Mich. We were wholly responsible for purchasing everything associated with the startup of the plant, from the building lease to toilet paper. We sourced all productive material (primarily plastic molded components), services, plant equipment and indirect material as we managed facilities renovation/construction contract execution and timing," she said. "We negotiated and procured all plant equipment and assembly services and successfully negotiated the labor contract for the new facility in Lansing."
Martin and her team wear many hats, "depending on what is needed at the time," and continue to meet schedules, revenue and quality targets despite the hurdles.
"I fully enjoy the assignment I have," she said, "and am prepared to continue to improve our compounding operations."