Bishop-Wisecarver Appoints Mike Citro VP, Operations
Pittsburg, CA - - February 19, 2009 - - Today, Bishop-Wisecarver Corporation announced it has appointed Mike Citro, a 40-year veteran in the profession, VP of Operations. Citro will lead the company's manufacturing, quality, purchasing and engineering teams. With an emphasis on Continuous Improvement in all aspects of the manufacturing operations, he will identify opportunities to continually improve and implement strategies to optimize resources and process standards.
After owning his own manufacturing business for 20 years and being the Director of Operations of Micropump for 11 years, Citro became an independent consultant for a few years, working with major corporations using lean principals to implement change and boost plant efficiencies. His extensive experience and achievements utilizing Toyota production principals led to a 9 year role as Director of Operations and General Manager at Tuthill Pump Group, previously a client of his successful consulting practice. Under Citro's leadership, Tuthill's product quality increased many-fold, and on-time orders more than doubled. Tuthill then appointed Citro to improve a specific product line at Tuthill Transfer Systems in Fort Wayne, Indiana, a $95M/year business.
An advocate of career technical education with a desire to mentor promising young students, he also taught Manufacturing Technology evening courses at junior colleges and for the National Tooling and Machining Association, where he was a national officer for 12 years.
"I am encouraged by Bishop-Wisecarver's employees' willingness to embrace change, an attitude I have seldom encountered at previous projects," says Citro. "I am a fanatic about customer service, and I look forward to implementing Toyota production principals to support that conviction, and take the company to the next level."
Citro's distinguished career began as an apprentice tool and die maker for a manufacturer of chemical equipment for the food and petrochemical industries, soon followed by a journeyman tool and die maker position for a contract manufacturer of metal stampings. Along with his partners Ed and Lane Nemeth, he operated a side business, Me Too (so named for Mike and Ed), partnering with Discovery Toys Company. At Me Too, Citro is credited with developing toys such as Stack and Pop, It's a Ringer, and Sunshine Sprinkler. He also designed some of the tooling to manufacturer those toys. His many achievements in Operations capacities are highlighted by the designing of a new manufacturing facility, and moving the entire operation from California to Washington, cell by cell, over an eleven-week period, with no lost production time. He has developed many products including a magnetically coupled miniature molded plastic vane pump for Tuthill, for which he holds a patent.
Citro and Bishop-Wisecarver founder, Bud Wisecarver, met more than 30 years ago. During the 1970s, Wisecarver was a member of the Diablo Valley College (DVC) Machine Technology Board, and Citro frequently hired students to work at his business, Citro Machine Shop. Citro was invited by the board to teach classes at DVC.
"I signed up for the first class Mike taught at DVC, a computer programming course," Wisecarver recalls. "I knew right away that we had a lot in common. He demonstrated a real passion for helping kids develop technical skills and ensuring they had the necessary tools to put those skills to action."
Citro and Wisecarver soon became allies and friends, working together to obtain equipment available through government programs for the school.
"Mike comes to us with a wealth of knowledge and a track record of past successes," says Pamela Kan, President of Bishop-Wisecarver. "He is a hands-on person who thrives on discovery by 'doing', and teaching by example, two ideals he shares with my father [founder, Bud Wisecarver]. We look forward to the benefits of learning from Mike's valuable insight."
