Bill Fautch has assumed duties as director of operations at Hendrickson Truck Suspension Systems of Woodridge, Ill. Paul Schouwstra succeeded Fautch as plant general manager for Hendrickson Spring operations in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, announced Gary Gerstenslager, Hendrickson president and chief operating officer.
Also, Jon Jeffries assumed duties as director of trailer OEM sales, and account manager Pat Brandt came to the Hendrickson sales group from Dana Corp. following the acquisition of Dana’s trailer axle assets.
Fautch maintains responsibility for manufacturing operations at the truck suspension systems plants located in Kendallville, Ind., and Lebanon, Ky. Richard Mudd, Lebanon plant manager, and the Kendallville staff report to Fautch until a new plant manager is named. Fautch will relocate to truck division headquarters at Woodridge after recruiting a new plant manager for Kendallville.
Fautch served as plant general manager for spring plant operations in Stratford for the past two and a half years. He joined Hendrickson from Kaiser Aluminum – Flat Rolled Products (FRP), in Spokane, Wash., where he acquired an extensive background in operations and maintenance.
A two-year veteran of Hendrickson, Schouwstra served as manufacturing manager for the past year with responsibility for the maintenance department in addition to the daily operations and the manufacturing excellence departments. He joined the Stratford facility after 18 years at Tenneco Automotive at Lake Forest, Ill., where he held positions of increasing responsibility leading to manager for the Japanese Original Equipment Business Unit, directly responsible for all major supplier functions to customers such as Toyota, Honda and Cami.
In his new role, Schouwstra will be responsible for manufacturing engineering, operations, quality, materials, human resources and health and safety. He joins Craig Kerr, divisional engineering manager, and Michael Binns, divisional controller, in reporting to Doug Sanford, vice president and general manager of Hendrickson Spring.
Jeffries provides direct supervision to the trailer account managers and maintains ongoing working relationships between Hendrickson Trailer Suspension Systems and OEMs in the United States and Canada, says Baine Adams, vice president of North American sales and marketing for Itasca, Ill.-based Hendrickson.
