Meet Damon Kries — Production Supervisor

Damon Kries’ experience and adaptability to create a workable and successful production plan on a day-to-day basis helps ALTEX meet the end-use needs of their customers and maximize internal company skill sets. 
“ALTEX was searching for someone that had solid management and technical experience. During my time at Sony, I headed up the technical side of production and knew that my degree in computer engineering electronics technology coupled with my hands-on production management background would be a great fit as their production supervisor,” said Kries.
By determining the skill set required for each ALTEX project or job and evaluating the time it will take to effectively produce a product, Kries allocates resources to allow for individual project deadlines to be met as quickly and efficiently a possible. 
“We don’t have just one project going on at a time. I really spend time making sure the internal staff is trained, and often times cross-trained, in order to keep all of the projects/jobs flowing smoothly through the production process,” shares Kries. “It is similar to fitting all of the pieces of a puzzle together.”
Kries strives to create a production plan that remains “level” and consistent for optimum production output. He is often adapting the production plan to meet changes in a particular job and is adept at reallocating internal resources to meet those changes and still secure deliverable metrics for ALTEX customers.
“I work closely with internal staff to stay aware of any material delivery problems that may affect production or any other facts that might change the outcome of the production plan of action. I maintain constant communication with Lisa Thornberry, the technical sales and advanced scheduling and planning coordinator, to ensure that an efficient, timely and streamlined manufacturing environment for ALTEX stays our top priority,” says Kries.
A strong focus on employee training and skill set evaluation is a big part of Kries’ job. Consistent evaluation and management strategies of the production staff allows him to keep all projects moving ahead at a level pace while also encouraging employees to excel at a specific skill set they may be specifically interested in.
“Offering our employees ongoing training also helps our customer partners,” Kries says. “Production moves along at a measurable increase if we can successfully match employee interest and a knowledgeable and experienced skill set with a specific project.”
Kries’ previous work working with software engineers and in the electronics field also allows him to lend a hand wherever needed on the technical side of things.
“We recently had a tanning bed project that had been in production for some time. We were asked by the customer to make some ballast changes,” said Kries. “It was just a matter of working internally to make sure we could handle the changes without affecting our end-result deliverable time while making sure the production team was as skilled as possible to match the changes.”
For the future Kries is working on production floor layout and creating operational production space for a multitude of projects and will maintain an employee-focused management strategy that will keep production moving ahead seamlessly.
“I love the challenge of coordinating and matching the production that needs to get done with the right team,” said Kries. “We’ve got all the right pieces at ALTEX to make that happen. I enjoy watching all of the planning pay off when a customer is happy with their product. That means we all came together to reach the ultimate goal — customer satisfaction.”