Our Team

The AYTA Group is an American owned company, creating fundamental and immediate change in organizations. We have been successfully growing and implementing Continuous Improvement Programs using Lean Principles, Six Sigma, Business process reengineering (BPR), Supply Chain Management (SCM) tools, best practices methods and techniques achieving operational and strategic results.

AYTA Group’s influence of positive change in organizations was achieved by going back to the very basics, the people – every manager, every operator, every clinician, every CEO. Using our experience, we act as a conduit for change.

We pride ourselves in bridging the gap between the theory and practice by educating staff to become the problem solvers. We know that no one organization is the same. Our passion is getting into the culture of each of the organization we work with, fast.

AYTA Group knows that every small success and achievement builds the momentum for change. It is like a small snow ball rolling down a hill it grows in size and momentum. In everything we believe that it is through people that the real problems can be identified and solved.

Kutay Ozer, Principal, AYTA Group.

Kutay moved to the USA in 2000 after earning his B.S degree in Industrial Engineering. He joined the automotive world and the Lean principles and practices changed his career path; for the next decade Kutay filled engineering and management roles in a number of first tier suppliers to GM, BMW and other OEM Automotive Companies.

His skills developed as he managed the industrialization of products from door panels to fuel tanks taking them from the design phase to the production phase. Over the years his project management roles would give him experience in a wide range of technologies. A few examples include - developing invisible airbag seams, in mold coating in slush skin, low pressure back injection molding , insert injection molding, regular injection molding, blow molding, paint, gluing, foaming, leather cutting and sewing. Kutay brought his knowledge and strength of automotive exterior parts, interior parts, fuel systems and logistic services to The AYTA Group.

The AYTA Group projects have added a comprehensive understanding of weaving and non-woven textile skills to his experience. With this diverse knowledge base, Lean Supply Chain Management is Kutay’s favorite field. He has built his talent in the Supply Chain pillar of manufacturing with close involvement of multiple ERP systems, EDI systems and in house MRP systems including coordinating a successful Y2K project for one of his past employer’s. He has been responsible for day to day supply chain management as well as several JIT delivery centers. He has had results that include increases in on-time delivery by %95 and the elimination of a 2 year old backlog of service part orders in just 2 months generating an extra $500K in sales. His Supply Chain concepts have moved to the use of lean tools over time, such as implementing a flat storage system, carefully reducing stock level as much as 3 days to 8 hours and implementing a build to order system instead of build to stock system.

Now Kutay relies on lean thinking to improve plant production productivity. In past projects VSM (Value Stream Mapping), TPM (Total Preventive Maintenance), SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Dies), PPSR (Practical Problem Solving Reports), engineering studies & SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) and other continuous improvement tools were used to generate cost savings and reduce waste by %2 or more of annual sales. Simple system procedures and documentations such as those established to support ISO9000/TS16949 certifications were put into place for sustainability of progress.

As a resourceful leader with a focus on cost savings Kutay is able to help top management increase the company’s profit margins with the use of the A3 tool. This management review tool supports all aspects of the company including strategic planning and industrial directions; optimization of plant layouts with planned headcount; sales development for new businesses; improving the management of capital investments and tooling budgets; insuring contingency plans to minimized production downtime; monitoring capital projects including improved safety to reduced recordable accidents and managing engineering changes to cost, quality and timing parameters for a successful on time launch with O Customer complaints. The A3 tool also analyzes the plant financial performance determining the root cause of deviation from target profitability and prepares the action plans to achieve the GOAL.

Joan Corey, Director of Quality, AYTA Group

With a B.S. degree in Business which included a semester course in Statistical Process Control followed by training as a CQE (Certified Quality Engineer) Joan’s 20 year career in manufacturing centered on Quality & Lean Engineering and Management positions. Early years were spent as part of the supplier development team for exterior components used on BMW’s Z3 and X5 cars made in S.C. This gave her a full understanding of AIAG requirements - Process Flow, Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA), Control Plans, Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP), Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) and Initial Sample Inspection Reports (ISIR). She would also hold positions of Production QE and Supplier QE.

Joan played a supportive roll in developing QS9000 and TS16949 systems in several facilities. As Quality Manager she was a customer liaison responsible for the BMW product line. During a 2 year time span the customer delivery PPM was reduced by 80%.

Joan’s lean training was anchored by a month long schedule with an international team visiting multiple plants in France, England and Belgium. The team had hours of class room training on the Toyota Production System tools. And during their travels they supported 5S, SMED, VSM and Kaizen events and toured facilities to benchmark best practices.

As the World Class Manufacturing Manager for 4 US facilities, Joan lead lean activities driven by Value Stream Mapping and facilitate hours of training and simulations for continuous improvement and waste reduction events. The teams had successes in SMED (changeover time reduction), zero forklift & flat storage, VSM & Kaizen events, 5S islands of excellence, line balancing - continuous flow (OBC – operator balance work element time studies)resulting in manpower productivity improvements and material feed optimizations. Joan’s career has given her many opportunities to support Lean Manufacturing at many levels in many companies and she continues to work with the AYTA Group to share this knowledge.

Joan’s most challenging positions took her to Wilmington, Delaware as she took over the role of Interim Manager during the start-up of a new SILS (Sequence in line Supplier) facility in delivering assembled product JIT to GM. After a mid-year SOP (start of production), the facility achieved a yearly CNQ (cost of non-quality) of 0.30% to a 1.0% target, zero missed cars at the customer, zero lost time accidents and maintained a 4th quarter PPM of zero defects at the customer.

Shirrene S. Goss, Quality Manager, AYTA GROUP

After receiving her B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Clemson University in 1997 Shirrene has been highly successful as a Quality Engineer with several world-class tier one automotive suppliers.

She has become a highly experienced QE as her responsibilities linked customer needs with production optimization. Based on a complete and firm understanding of production systems represented by QS/ISO 9000, the European VDA, and TS16949 Shirrene brings an orderly and methodical approach to process standards and continuous improvement.

Her superior problem solving skills have been honed by her close business ties with each of her employer’s internal and external customers. With job duties of maintaining positive customer-supplier relationships, direct responsibility to address the customer concerns and needs in a timely and efficient manner and often responsible for defining specifications for product and process audits based on customer requirements her improvement actions are properly directed. She is well versed in the automotive comprehensive tool PPSR (Practical Problem Solution Report). Shirrene focuses on teaching and utilizing this tool with her AYTA GROUP projects.

Her past knowledge and use of Advance Product Quality Planning (APQP) having been partially responsible for the successful launch of a $50 million project that produced 150,000 units per year as well as many successful submissions of Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) and Initial Sample Inspection Report (ISIR) demonstrates her complete manufacturing system awareness.

Shirrene also brings creative and business skills into her problem solving drawing from her experience as the owner of a small, diverse and well established printing company. With her years of steadfast monitoring and supervision to ensure that monthly goals were met combined with her continuing education in management and leadership skills she is a well-versed and valued member of the AYTA GROUP.