Founder, Managing Partner
Mr. Rast has worked with companies such as Lonza Chemicals, Roche Pharmaceuticals, PentaPharm, Novartis, Merck, Magna, VW, BMW, Daimler-Chrysler, Coca-Cola, Bao Steel, Swiss Life Insurance, Bosch, SCA Packaging, Textron, Schott, BHP Billiton, and the US Armed Forces (all branches).

He has developed bold new business strategies and has personally completed over 30 Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and 15 Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) projects with verified savings (hard and soft) of over 210 million dollars. He has instructed over 330 LSS Belts, and as a Master Black Belt, has coached over 1050 project teams to a successful completion.

Education

As the son of a diplomat, Mr. Rast attended local language schools in the United States, Switzerland and Sweden. During his military career (US Marine Corps and US Air Force) he completed his Associates Degree in Information Systems Technology, his Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering, and in 1999, his MBA. In addition, he passed the Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt exam for process improvement and development with the ASQ (American Society for Quality).

Professional Experience

Mr. Rast's strengths include instructing, coaching, mentoring and supporting clients in the art of proper decision making. The decision making methods and tools he offers assist clients in all areas of the business, from market growth (development of new products and services) to customer satisfaction (reduction of quality variation) and profit increase (improved processes). The basic principle is to increase the probability of making correct decisions.

Sean has a simple philosophy: "Success is directly related to the ratio of right verses wrong decisions."

His core competences are:
  • Unleashing your true potential by the various Secora methods that improve operating margins, top-line progress, product/service quality, market growth and other aspects of the business
  • Developing strategies (START method) that are realistic, measurable, and attainable
  • Spearheading new product and service developments (SIM method) which will increase market share
  • Directing process improvement initiatives (SCIM method) to improve quality and reduce cost
  • Managing efficiency and effectiveness projects (SLIM method) to meet market, customer, and business demands
  • Creating specific managerial guidelines to control the scope and depth for corporations or business units
  • Establishing, reviewing, and examining key performance metrics to ensure the progressive advancement of the business
  • Translating knowledge into action, with the focus on the steps required for successful task completion. These include proper scoping, defining, measuring, analyzing, improving and controlling
  • Demonstrating how continuous improvement methods and tools, in the hands of trained people, can enable corporations or business units to achieve previously unattainable levels of performance
Mr. Rast is a citizen of the United States and can communicate in English, German, Swiss-German, and Swedish.

Preventative Business Care (PBC) - Part 1 of 3

To stay competitive in a fast moving market, companies must work to increase customer satisfaction, gain market share, and at the same time remain profitable. Many enterprises are focusing their efforts in one area hoping that the other two will automatically follow. To survive in today’s market we have to address each of these metrics separately.
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Case Study - Automotive Industry

The project’s purpose was to reduce rail car demurrage for the client’s company. Rail cars are used to move material (parts) from suppliers to the automotive assembly plant and supporting facilities. Demurrages are tariff charges assessed for detaining freight cars beyond their specified time limit. Demurrage charges are billed to the assembly plant from the railroad when rail cars are held at the assembly plant or supporting facilities beyond the contracted amount of time.
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Case Study - Laser Welding (Automotive)

A Tier 1 European automotive supplier had major issues on a newly launched product: Failure to meet customer volume requirements; Failure to meet customer quality requirements; Massive cost overrun. Using the SLIM (Lean) Methodology Secora helped the client to solve its most prominent operational effectiveness issues and reduce internal manufacturing cost to below the original target costing, without capital investment or design change.
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