Todd Noethen is vice president of distribution support services for Big Lots, Inc., a Fortune 500 retail corporation with annual revenues exceeding $4 billion. As the nation’s largest broadline closeout retailer, Big Lots offers consumers a wide range of bargain-priced merchandise, including brand-name closeouts, seasonal products, consumables and furniture.
Noethen oversees industrial engineering and support functions for a sophisticated distribution and transportation network comprised of six Regional Distribution Centers totaling more than 10 million square feet. He is also responsible for developing and implementing logistics strategy and warehouse management systems strategy.
With the addition of new distribution facilities over the last few years, Big Lots has made sure that it is not only better able to serve a growing network of stores in the U.S., but that it also learns valuable material handling lessons along the way.
“Our team is dedicated to making these lessons pay off by continuing to implement innovative and region-specific supply-chain management solutions,” he says.
Marianne Von Seggern is vice president of strategic development for Bell Incorporated. This family-owned maker of folding cartons has annual revenues of $60 million and is located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Material handling planning, sourcing, implementation and management will be significant projects for Von Seggern this year, owing to the new contracts the company has won and the need to integrate this business into the company’s manufacturing and material handling processes.
“With our new manufacturing facility, I’ll be busy establishing specifications, designing space plans and process flows and sourcing systems and equipment to enhance material handling,” she says.
Automation projects will include press delivery and off-loading, palletizing of WIP and finished goods, the transition between production processes and finished goods packing and routing.
Paul Marshall is a senior packaging engineer for Ethicon Endo-Surgery, a Johnson & Johnson Company based in Cincinnati. The company manufactures medical instruments and devices for minimally invasive and open surgical procedures. He manages package design projects from concept to production and works in cross-functional teams to develop and test new packaging components and materials for implementation into production. His expertise includes pouching, rigid and flexible thermoforming processes.
“We’ve developed and submitted a new thermoform concept for patent approval that will revolutionize medical device packaging and save our company an estimated $25 million over 5 years,” he says. “In 2007 I’ll continue to travel to our manufacturing sites to do production audits, training, and oversee protocol execution. We’ll also work with external suppliers to develop anti-counterfeiting processes and to implement new technologies and RFID applications.”
