Resume

Michael Yates

Design Engineer ● Product Management

Design Engineer with demonstrated success creating and launching commercial and consumer grade play equipment for domestic and international markets.  Exceptional collaborative and interpersonal skills; dynamic team player with well-developed written and verbal communication abilities. Highly skilled in developing innovative products which focus on use while reducing product costs, and driving overall unit sales.  Accustomed to performing in deadline-driven environments with an emphasis on budget requirements. Numerous patents issued and pending. Strengths include:

●  Commercial product design        ●  Consumer product design                      ●  Project management

●   Conceptualization                        ●  Computer/marker rendering          ●  Able to multi-task

●  Cross-functional team player      ●  Form language development                 ● 3D Modeling, Inventor

●   Model making/Fabrication         ●  Written and verbal communication      ●  Mechanical aptitude

Professional Experience

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ERC, Inc. (NASA Contractor) 2009-Present

Senior Human Factors Analyst 

            Responsibilities

             ●    Develop ideas for Internal Access Ground Support Equipment (IA GSE) for NASA's Ares 1

                  Launch Vehicle.

             ●   Evaluate accessibility of systems and sub-systems for technicians to remove and install

                         Line Removeble Units prior to launch.

             ●   Create full scale mock-ups of Loose Equipment Restraint System for the Instrument

                         Unit and Interstage and present concepts to systems engineers and NASA Design Team.

PlayCore, Inc. 2003-2008

Commercial Design Engineer 

            Responsibilities

                  ●    Responsible for product development for a major manufacturer of playground equipment.

                  ●    Push ideas from concept and ideation through prototype to manufacture.  

                  ●    Actively engage in ideation sessions and develop ideas with fellow Design Team

                         members.

                  ●    Skilled in making presentations to Marketing Department by using techniques such as

                         pencil sketches, marker renderings, story-telling, clay models, foam models, 3D CAD

                         models, and 3D prints.

                  ●    Apply anthropometric data and information provided by field experts, and analyze how

                         children play in order to design age-appropriate playground equipment.

                  ●    Review production drawings for accuracy for all parts and assemblies to be produced in-

                         house or outsourced.

                  ●    Determine materials and methods of production and ensure that they are suitable for 

                         manufacturing and product function .

                  ●    Manage multiple products for development simultaneously, so milestones, deadlines,

                        and deliverables are met. Oversee project interfaces ensuring Industrial Design, Supply

                        Chain Engineering, Marketing, and Manufacturing can produce the desired products at

                        the prescribed costs.

                  ●    Perform first pass FEA on products to ensure that designs are engineered properly and

                         meet or exceed required safety factors.

                  ●    Define and maintain form language for different product lines.

            Major projects

                 ●    New line of 11 rotomolded playground slides + New line of playground nets + New line of

                       injection molded tactile activities + Early childhood product line new product

                       enhancements + Freestanding items including seat spinner (patented), and standing

                       see saw (patent pending.)

                 ●    Co-leader of a Kaizen event which resulted in process improvement and part quality,

                        while reducing $130K in annual expense.

Swing-N-Slide, Inc., 2001-2003

Consumer Design Engineer 

                  ●    Designed a line of Clifford blow molded products that were licensed from Scholastic, Inc.

                  ●    Developed an injection molded toddler car swing + blow molded rock wall + wooden

                  play structures.

                  ●    Created concepts for presentation to buyers at Home Depot, Lowes, and ‘R Us.

                  ●    Developed core products that magnified sales of Swing-N-Slide domestically. Increased

                        planogram to showcase new product.

GameTime, Inc., 1996-2001

Design Engineer

                   ●    Designed Megarock (patented) + Dragon Climber (patented) + Jumbo Flyer + the Wild

                         Slide. Magic bullet products that transformed the image of GameTime, founded in 1929,

                         and doubled unit sales of the company. 

                   ●   Developed KidTime (patented), a modular rotationally molded play system for early

                         childhood, from the ground up. Created layouts for discrete systems and implemented

                         instruction booklets.           

Qualifications

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●    Over 12 years experience in the design industry

●    Results-oriented

●    Technically adept

●    Aesthetically astute

●    Top performer

●    Fast learner

●    Solid communicator

●    Hard and energetic worker

●    Capable of taking on new challenges in dynamic environments

●    Areas of design expertise: rotational molding, injection molding, blow molding, thermoforming,

resin transfer molding, molded-in graphics, purchased parts, numerous plastics, structural foam, rubber, steel, aluminum,punching, forming, casting, machining, laser cutting, welding, and designing for progressive dies.

Software

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●    Autodesk Inventor, Mechanical Desktop, and AutoCAD, Google SketchUp 7, Pro/E Wildfire 3.0

●    Adobe Photoshop CS3, Illustrator CS3

●    MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint

●    Stratasys Insight (3D printing software for fused depostion modeling)

Awards and Honors

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U.S. Patents

D548, 473 Playground seat

D455, 806 Combination balance beam and seat

D449, 363 Play deck

D438, 928 Roof cap for playground deck

D435, 622 Playground deck

D432, 616 Playground structure panel

D430, 255 Decorative barrier panel for a playground

D427, 271 Playground stairs

D419, 633 Playground climbing apparatus

D415, 545 Playground dragon head

See Saw (Design patent pending)

Standing see saw (Design patent pending)

See Saw Platform (Design patent pending)

Spring limiter for a playground teeter totter (Utility patent pending)

Eagle Scout, 1988

Education

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Georgia Institute of Technology, BS Industrial Design, Atlanta, Georgia, 1996

Contact

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------email:  michael@mtyates.com

portfolio: mtyates.com