Sooner or later, every manufacturer with a global network of factories needs a turnaround artist -- a manager who can diagnose and fix the ills that plague a particular plant.

Meet David Guaresimo, director of operations and program management at American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc.

He built his reputation as a turnaround artist in 2012, when he was put in charge of the company's struggling plant in Araucaria, Brazil.

The factory -- American Axle's only one in South America -- made front axles, rear axles and transmission housings, but quality and productivity were not up to snuff.

Guaresimo had managed factories in Mexico and Poland, but the Brazilian assignment "was the toughest situation I came into, in terms of the improvement that we were looking for," he said.

The plant's workers did not respond well to blunt, top-down supervisors.

"They got more out of it when you suggested something to them, instead of giving them directions," Guaresimo said. "It allowed them to work as a team instead of blindly following directions."

His new approach worked. As a reward, in 2014 Guaresimo was named director of operations and program management, overseeing manufacturing in Mexico, Brazil and Thailand.

Guaresimo's initial contact with American Axle came when he was an engineering student at Purdue University. Company founder Richard E. Dauch, a Purdue grad, was on campus to make a presentation, and Guaresimo introduced him to the class. "Sitting in the audience and listening to his passion about what he did, I was ready to quit school and go to work for him," Guaresimo recalls.

After Guaresimo got his degree in 1998 and joined American Axle, he was assigned to a Detroit factory. "It was really fast-paced," Guaresimo said. "There was a lot happening every day. It was easy to understand whether you won or lost on any given day. I really thrived in that environment."

Subsequent foreign assignments required him to pick up local languages, which he did with the help of his multilingual wife, Maggie.

Today, Guaresimo lives in the Detroit area with Maggie and their three children. He enjoys skeet shooting with former Purdue classmates.

-- David Sedgwick