Dave Barrett

Background

About Dave Barrett

Dave started with Cascade Engineering in 1977 as an intern when he was pursuing his degree in plastics technology from Ferris State University. Upon graduating in 1978 Dave went to work for Cascade full-time as a die setter and spent his first 8 years in the technical area as die setter, molding technician, and maintenance supervisor. As a Quality Circle leader in the early 80s Dave became proficient in team problem solving and the basic problem solving tools. In 1986 Dave took a new position at Cascade as Employee Development Coordinator and began to design and teach classes in Teams, Basic Problem Solving, and Statistical Process Control. He also designed Cascade's first new employee orientation and began a maintenance internship program. In 1990 Dave became a Plant Manager in one of the manufacturing plants and started the closest thing to a self-managed work team CE has ever had. In 1992 Dave left the Plant Manager's position and took a new role as Special Project Leader working for the new President of the company, Rich Cook. Dave's projects consisted of leading a 30 person team of CE employees in the total redesign of our order-fulfillment process; facilitating a leadership development program: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People; and his 3rd project was to facilitate an employee group in a redesign of the compensation program for core production operators known today as Pay for Contribution. In 1996 Cascade re-centralized training, added an organizational development component and asked Dave to head this new unit. To prepare for this new role Cascade sponsored Dave in an OD certificate program through the National Training Laboratory (NTL). Dave has also been given the responsibility to be a "keeper of the culture" and work to insure that Cascade Engineering does not lose its people focused culture. Dave retired in 2022 and began doing contract services work in the area of learning and development for leaders.