Shannon McCutchen is a manufacturing operations and continuous improvement executive with over 30 years of experience driving quality, safety, and productivity across large-scale industrial and automotive environments.
Shannon currently serves as Senior Project Manager at Distinct-Impact Engineering, leading cross-functional teams through the full project lifecycle — from initiation and planning through execution and closure. He applies deep expertise in Lean methodology, Six Sigma (DMAIC), 5S, Total Productive Maintenance, and Value Stream Mapping to help manufacturing organizations reduce waste, improvethroughput, and build lasting continuous improvement programs, while also consulting on ERP-based manufacturing execution systems.
Prior to this role, Shannon served as Senior Production Manager at Omnicell, overseeing KPI performance — safety, quality, cost, productivity, and delivery — for a team of 52 production associates in an autonomous pharmacy manufacturing environment, and leading ISO and OSHA compliance audits. At Tesla, as Senior Quality Engineer for End-of-Line and In-Quality Testing, he directed plant-wide quality performance across stamping, body, paint, and general assembly, coordinating a team of over 380 associates and supervisors across four shifts. Earlier, as Regional Account Manager at Tridim Filtration (Mann+Hummel), Shannon managed critical filtration systems and cost-reduction initiatives supporting automotive production.
Shannon's foundation was built over three decades at Ford Motor Company, where he advanced from Manufacturing Process Supervisor to ultimately Superintendent of Production Operations at Ford's largest production facility. In his final role, Shannon directed safety, quality, delivery, and workforce performance for more than 450 union employees, driving the Ford Production System strategy and leading ISO 9001 and 14001 audits. During his tenure, he earned both Six Sigma Green Belt and Black Belt certifications and was recognized six times with Ford's Higher Achiever performance rating — a testament to his sustained excellence across plant leadership.
Areas of Expertise:
Six Sigma / DMAIC
Lean Manufacturing & continuous improvement
Automotive and defense manufacturing
Paint and Body expertise
Workforce development
Six sigma blackbelt and DMAIC methodology
Project management professional (PMP)
Quality management systems (QMS)
ISO 9001 & 14001 compliance audits
KPI development & and performance management
Process optimization & Standardization
Total Productive maintenance (TPM)
Value stream mapping
Risk Assessment & Mitigation
Budget management & cost control
Stakeholder engagement and Communications
Kanban &PDCA (plan, do, check, act)
ERP-based manufacturing execution systems
