Robert Kahn has been a successful engineering consultant to industry for over 20 years, based on a degree in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech and over 30 years of wide-ranging experience as an Industrial Engineer. He is expert at using industrial engineering principles to solve problems and improve efficiency and profitability. As an Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering, Mr. Kahn taught the entire IE curriculum to students and supervised their projects in industry.

Here are some examples of Mr. Kahn's work:

• Hired by an international frieght company which had been handling invoicing at the local level, Mr. Kahn prepared a report, based on his study, of the annual savings to be realized from centralized invoicing. The result was considerable dollar savings, plus many non-tangible benefits to the company.
• Established labor standards for a new 500,000 sq. ft. hardware distribution center in South Georgia. Labor standards for order picking, stocking, receiving and shipping - in all, 16 different standards were established. Recommendations were made for changes that resulted in reduced labor costs. In dealing with problems in the shipping department, recommendations made by Mr. Kahn resulted in reduced labor requirements, reduced congestion and new data that allowed the company to determine staff needs for different levels of merchandise to be shipped. Meetings with management and staff provided the way for employees to buy into the new labor standards.
• A manufacturer of windows and doors in Memphis had a bottleneck at one operation where a sizable investment in new equipment had been made during the past year. Based on initial projections, they were achieving only 66% of projected throughput. Based on a study of operations, recommendations for achieving 100% throughput resulted in reduced labor costs and increased capacity.
• A chemical company wanted to know staffing requirements for their plastic sheet manufacturing operation. From studies of their operation, recommendations were made on staffing needs for different products. Staffing needs were tied to type and size of plastic sheets being run. Reduced labor costs resulted from Mr. Kahn's efforts.

  History
  [Sept. 1977-present] - Independent consultant providing IE consulting services to manufacturing, distribution and service companies. Specializing in sampling studies, manpower utilization and efficiency studies, plant layout, selection of material handling equipment, methods improvement, setting labor standards using time study and predetermined time standards, development of distribution and inventory control systems, human factors engineering, application of the use of bar coding and general problem solving to improve efficiency and increase productivity.

  [Sept. 1977-Aug.1979] - Assistant Professor, Industrial Engineering, Tennessee State Technical Institute. Taught the entire IE curriculum, including: Time and Motion Study, Methods Engineering, Plant Layout, Material Handling, Engineering Economy, Industrial Safety, Production Cost Control, Quality Control, Engineering. Supervised senior student projects in industry. Established student chapter of Institute of Industrial Engineers.

  [Apr. 1976-Sept.1977] - Sr. Industrial Engineer, Sanyo Mfg. Corp. - Set labor standards based on time study and MTM, wrote "make vs. buy" proposals, Responsible for methods improvement and assembly line balancing, prepared justification for in-plant parts production and prepared requirements for assembly and sub-assembly operations.

  [Jan. 1975-Apr. 1976] - Industrial Engineer, ITE Imperial - Methods improvements, workstation design, established labor standards, analyzed, made recommendations and implemented improvement in: production control, inventory control, assembly operations, conveyor paint line, employee morale, repair program for tools and jigs, and quality control.

  [June,1967-June 1972] - Industrial Engineer, Eastman Kodak Company - Designed a relocated manufacturing process for professional sheet film. This required analysis of current process and recommendations for layout, material handling methods, workplace design and storage systems. Also performed work measurement studies, methods analysis and improvement, economic justification of new material handling equipment, equipment capacity studies, design of computer programs for optimum slitting of film, writing computer programs to simulate new automatic storage system and production improvement programs.

  [June1966-Mar.1967] - Industrial Engineer/Advanced Manufacturing, General Electric Co. - Recommended new system for determining optimum lot size purchases, designed new inventory control system, selected equipment for new raw material warehouse, maintained computer report on loading and scheduling of production equipment.

  Education
  Bachelor of Industrial Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology (1966), MBA courses, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN and University of Arkansas, Little Rock, AR.

  Member, Institute of Industrial Engineers (past president of Memphis chapter)

  Specialized Knowledge: Computer languages: ALGOL, PL/1, GPSS, Basic, Paradox, Lotus 1-2-3, Excel, Access.

  US Citizen.

  last update: 4/20/06

  ---

  To Contact Robert Kahn

  Back to Robert Kahn home page.

  Back to Consultants Mall