PPB September 2018

Rising Stars | FEATURE His Inspiration People who participate in the grind every day. I watch employees who come in and give their all for the overall success of the organization, and it inspires me to give more. I am surrounded by such good people; people who want to win and want to succeed; those who are willing to work a little extra and are willing to give of their time and talents to provide our customers with the best possible experience. We truly have an amazing group of people here at SnugZ. TheNext 24Months I see myself here at SnugZ, helping to launch the next product line and finding new ways to be successful. In the next 24 months I want to see an increase in product flow throughout our facility and see our turn-time decrease significantly. I want to continue to add to the SnugZ reputation of amazing customer service. ChangeHe’d Like To See I would love to see standardization in the way information flows between suppliers and distributors. There is so much waste in the [current] process. Suppliers are spending significant time trying to understand the customer’s needs and distributors are spending time following up and clarifying. Both sides are losing valuable profits, and this extra time does not enhance the end customer’s experience. We need to figure out how to “lean up” these processes. Justin Gukeisen, 39 Chief Operating Officer SnugZ USA A fter earning his MBA in 2013, Justin Gukeisen worked at a medical device manufacturer until Roseanne Webster, a former Rising Star and CIO at SnugZ, hired him away as director of quality control. In January, he was promoted to COO. “He’s helped us reduce lead times to be more competitive in the market, source a lot of new equipment, develop new lines and laser focus on quality,” she says, adding that because of his outside perspective, he questions everything—and that’s what makes him so valuable. Gukeisen has also brought something else of value to the Salt Lake City-based supplier: kaizen events, a tool that focuses on small, problematic processes to help improve efficiency and effectiveness. Gukeisen assembles kaizen teams comprised of subject matter experts and employees. The events have been wildly successful for both the production and administrative areas of the business, Webster adds. | SEPTEMBER 2018 | 35