Fellow Facilitators
The SBDC for Enterprise Excellence works with a great group of external facilitators to provide your business with the best assistance possible.
Drew Casani
Drew Casani is the Regional Director of the Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center (TMAC). He also is Group Manager for the Small Integrated Manufacturing Enterprise Group (SIME) at the Automation & Robotics Research Institute of The University of Texas at Arlington. SIME is comprised of three centers working together on behalf of small business.
Drew has over 30 years of progressive experience in strategic planning, business development, total quality and program management. During his 13-year career with the LTV Corporation, Drew held a variety of senior executive positions. He served as President of the Military Aircraft Division where he had profit and loss responsibility for the marketing, engineering, manufacturing and sales of major aircraft structure on programs such as the B2 and C17. As Senior Vice President of Strategic Operations he was responsible for strategic planning, quality management, new business development and domestic and international marketing. Drew had profit and loss responsibility for the aircraft overhaul and modernization business. While at LTV Drew also held positions as Vice President - Planning, Aircraft Products Group; Director - Planning, Vought Aero-Products Division; and Manager - Business Development, LTV Corporation.
He spent 20 years in the US Army, 16 of which were in various technical and management positions in the Department of Defense Weapon Systems Acquisition Process. Drew has hands-on experience with European industrial practices, government relations and foreign military sales.
Drew received his Master of Industrial Engineering degree from Kansas State University and his BS in Engineering from the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York.
Donald Liles
Donald H. Liles is Professor and Chair of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering at The University of Texas at Arlington. He also served as Associate Director of the Automation & Robotics Research Institute for nine years. His primary research interest is in the emerging discipline of Enterprise Engineering. He is principal investigator on numerous research projects including the “Agile Enterprise Templates” project funded by the State of Texas and the “Agile Manufacturing Research Center”(CO-PI) funded by NSF. He is responsible for the development of ARRI’s small enterprise program that includes the Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center (TMAC). TMAC is a part of the NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership. Dr. Liles has supervised thirteen Ph.D. students and has one more in progress. Dr. Liles holds a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from The University of Texas at Arlington. Dr. Liles is active in numerous technical and professional organizations. He is a national officer in Alpha Pi Mu, the National Industrial Engineering honor society.
Randy Bohannon
Randy Bohannon has over 25 years of experience in executive management, curriculum development, training and information services. His expertise includes strategic planning, team facilitation for process improvement (mapping and redesign), and team building and organization.
Since joining TMAC, Randy has worked with manufacturers throughout the Metroplex including Atlan Industries, Global Mail Management, AirBorn, Inc., Christie Manufacturing and Farrow Machine.
Prior to joining TMAC he was a consultant in the use of structured thinking processes and in implementing Total Quality Management (TQM) for a variety of organizations including some Fortune 500 companies. He developed and taught training courses including Project Management; Systems Development Methodology; and Team Facilitation. Randy also has conducted employee and customer surveys and facilitated executive implementation, problem solving and process improvement teams. He delivered the initial training for a standardized system development methodology based on the Shewart cycle for a national information services organization and implemented that methodology in a number of companies.
Randy received his BS in Physics and Math from The University of Texas at El Paso. He pursued graduate studies at The University of Texas at Austin.
Russ Aikman
Russ has more than 10 years’ experience in the manufacturing arena. His expertise lies in performing process improvements, inventory management, and implementing Continuous Flow Manufacturing/JIT systems. Prior to joining TMAC, Russ consulted for Andersen Consulting and The George Group. Russ designed and implemented Continuous Flow Manufacturing systems for customers including Teledyne, ITT, Hill’s Pet Products, and H. B. Fuller. He served as a facilitator on over 20 process improvement teams, developing operators into effective team leaders. Russ has designed and implemented several pull scheduling systems, including one currently used in scheduling production for over 1,000 products at three different plants of a $75M powder paint company. He also worked with an operator team in cutting equipment setup time by over 50%.
Before his consulting positions, Russ worked as a Quality Engineer at Baxter Health Care where he validated existing manufacturing systems and tested new products. Prior to Baxter, Russ worked at AT&T where he performed cost estimation studies, prepared equipment layouts, and worked with a team to design a high purity chemical system.
Russ holds a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering and a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering, both from the University of Arkansas.
Mark Sessumes
Mark Sessumes has 10 years of progressive operations management experience in diverse manufacturing and production environments. Mark has worked in fabrication, assembly, remanufacturing, refurbishment, and processing plants for small companies and branch locations of large, multi-division firms. He has experience in both union and non-union shops.
Prior to TMAC, Mark was Operations Manager for Spring Engineers, a family-owned metal fabrication business producing metal springs, stampings, and assemblies for oil tool and heavy truck applications. As Senior Branch Manager for Greyhound Lines, Mark was responsible for operations and had profit and loss responsibility for a multi-facility, multi-state bus refurbishment operation. Most recently, as Plant Manager for a division of National Linen Service Mark engineered and led the financial turnaround of the operation.
Since joining TMAC, Mark has worked with companies ranging in size from 3 to 300 employees. They include Fort Worth Aluminum Foundry, Plastics Packing, Inc., Farrow Machine & Manufacturing, Hannon Hydraulics, MPA Modular, InterFet, Mortex, Inc., and Alpine Engineered Products. His projects with these companies have included Strategic Business Planning, Cellular Layout; Defect Prevention Systems; Set-Up Reduction; Inventory Reduction/Control; Selection and Implementation of an MRP System; and Production Scheduling Systems.
Mark received his Master of Business Administration at The University of Dallas and his BBA in Production / Operations Management from North Texas State University in Denton, Texas.
