National Instruments Names New Vice President of Manufacturing
National Instruments today named NI veteran Rob Porterfield as the company’s new vice president of manufacturing effective November 1, 2004. In his new role, Porterfield, who most recently led the expansion of the company’s manufacturing operations into Hungary, will oversee the National Instruments worldwide manufacturing organization, including purchasing, production and operations.
“Rob has served in key roles in the NI manufacturing department since 1992, managing our global supply chain and international manufacturing operations for the last two years,” said Alex Davern, NI CFO and senior vice president of manufacturing and IT operations. “His contributions to the manufacturing organization, including opening our state-of-the-art production facility in Hungary, a software duplication center in Ireland and repair centers in Europe and Japan, have been key to the success of National Instruments. We look forward to Rob’s leadership as NI continues to grow.”
In 2001, Porterfield led efforts to open the first National Instruments overseas production facility, which went from ground breaking to production in just four months and has delivered millions of dollars in cost savings to both National Instruments and its customers around the globe. Porterfield also implemented an inventory expansion system in Europe and Asia and an advanced planning system worldwide that resulted in a reduction in quoted product delivery times and a decrease in material costs. Under his leadership, the company has seen record customer satisfaction ratings and on-time delivery rates.
“I am fortunate to work in a world-class manufacturing organization with such strong leadership and teamwork,” Porterfield said. “With great support from the production and manufacturing engineering side of the business, we have been very successful in increasing quality and efficiency, and the supply chain side of the group has continued to improve customer satisfaction while lowering costs over the past several years. I am pleased to have this opportunity to continue to contribute to the growth and success of National instruments.”
Prior to joining National Instruments, Porterfield was a design engineer at General Dynamics. He holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from Auburn University.
About National Instruments
National Instruments (www.ni.com) is a technology pioneer and leader in virtual instrumentation – a revolutionary concept that has changed the way engineers and scientists in industry, government and academia approach measurement and automation. Leveraging the PC and its related technologies, virtual instrumentation increases productivity and lowers costs through easy-to-integrate software, such as the NI LabVIEW graphical development environment, and modular hardware, such as PXI modules for data acquisition, instrument control and machine vision. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NI has more than 3,100 employees and direct operations in 41 countries. In 2003, the company sold products to more than 25,000 companies in 90 countries. For the past five years, FORTUNE magazine named NI one of the 100 best companies to work for in America.
