Kamil
Zigen

Senior Manufacturing & Operational Excellence Engineer. BorgWarner (Tier 1 automotive, 8 years), Chiron Group (CNC integration), Trio Composites (Plant Manager — CNC machining and production management). Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Shainin Red X Apprentice, Power BI Certified, M.Sc. Engineering Management.

Most engineers are strong in either CNC process engineering or Lean Six Sigma. I operate at both. My machining background means I understand the machine — feeds, tools, tolerances, cycle economics. My LSS background means I measure the problem, structure the solution, and build the organisation's acceptance of the change. That combination consistently produces faster diagnosis and more permanent results.

I find what is actually costing money. I build the case to fix it. I make the fix stick.

Step Gundrills were the single largest indirect cost item — €629K annually, 27.5% of total indirect tooling spend. Tools were discarded after just 7 regrinding cycles because no reconditioning capability existed. The spend had been accepted as unavoidable for years. No one had challenged it with data.

Project Leader. Full ownership from cost baseline analysis through DoE execution, PFMEA re-validation, and the change management effort to get production to accept reconditioned tools on safety-critical Audi V6 HPS components.

The technical challenge was solved within weeks. The real barrier was organisational: production was unwilling to use reconditioned tools on Audi safety parts. The breakthrough came from presenting SPC Cpk values (≥1.67) alongside the updated PFMEA. Data made the change unavoidable.

Recurring depth deviation in Audi V6 HPS components during CNC gundrilling at Op 20. Parts were over-machined when the HPV CNC program was applied to HPS parts at changeover — a 16.5 mm depth parameter mismatch (−213.0 mm vs. required −196.5 mm). A second concurrent failure: incorrect gage used during setup verification, preventing detection. Both failure modes were human-dependent. Both had recurred despite procedural containment applied twice previously.

OTD stagnated at 70.3% average across H1 2022 — 20 percentage points below the 90% customer target. Planning was entirely reactive: problems were managed after delays had already occurred. No shared visibility across production, logistics, and procurement. High expediting costs and deteriorating customer relationships.

Chiron Group customers required investment-ready CNC manufacturing proposals — validated, financially modelled, and risk-assessed — before committing capital to capacity expansion. Scope: 25 distinct applications across automotive Tier 1, commercial vehicle, and precision engineering customers in Germany, Turkey, and EU.