Chia-Chun Chung

Cadence Process Consulting specializes in helping small (<30 employees), technology-driven companies grow. Companies seeking to develop and refine their physical, hardware-based manufacturing operations are typically a good fit with our expertise.

I love creating and improving processes so that the teams involved and their resulting products perform at their best. As a problem solver, I optimize for success by building short learning cycles and leveraging the right technical tools at the right time. "Go to see" is the foundation of any improvement. I lead diverse teams that deliver results through hands-on experiments, theories, Plan-Do-Check-Act cycles, and consensus building.

Having worked with technical fibers, medical device, and contract manufacturing for more than 15 years, I have experience across all facets of the product life cycle.

Contact me to accelerate your process development efforts.

Cadence Process Consulting is certified as a minority and woman business enterprise (MBE and WBE) with the Supplier Diversity Office in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Capability statement

Mission

To propel value creation and delivery through realizing human, technical, and operational potentials

Optimizing machine settings through process mapping and Design of Experiments

After observing inconsistent surgical mask performance test results, I led a study to optimize settings on an imported surgical mask machine at a collaborator’s facility. Following a deep-dive into the machine’s operation, we mapped each process step, identified associated inputs, outputs, and three factors that likely affected the mask’s functional performance. We then tested the factors in a Design of Experiments. This work took place over three half-day gemba visits by the project team. The in-person observation, experiments, and data analysis resulted in quantitative, reproducible machine settings that enabled production of masks with optimized performance to meet ASTM Level 2 breathability and filtration efficiency requirements.

Reducing cycle time to super-charge scaling

I led a small team to scale up the manufacturing of a novel fiber with semiconductor capabilities developed at MIT and featured in Nature. After learning the initial process in the research laboratory, it became apparent that the long cycle time in step hindered our ability to iterate and learn quickly. We reduced the cycle time by 45% within 2 weeks so that we could do a production run, analyze the results, and plan for the next day’s run all within 12 hours. We optimized equipment settings, built the supply chain, created custom fixtures, wrote procedures, and trained a team of 5 to support the daily manufacturing run. We made four revisions to the fiber demonstrator product, resulting in over 100x improvement in reliability in 18 months. Read more here.

Learn together, grow together

My lean journey started in 2007, when I was a part of a growing medical device start-up*. Aside from growing as an engineer from the ever-growing pursuit for improvements on quality, yield, and cost, the most valuable lesson I learned was the art of working with a diverse team. Leadership and culture are fundamental to sustainable high performance, but neither comes easily.

*read the “origin story” here