Contributors

Kevin Meyer

Kevin has over twenty-five years' experience in manufacturing and general business executive leadership roles, primarily in the medical device and telecom equipment industries. He has led multiple lean transformations primarily through a focus on long-term culture change and embracing the oft-forgotten second pillar of lean: respect for people. Kevin started and later sold a contract manufacturing company, was a volunteer vice president at the Association for Manufacturing Excellence, and is owner and partner in a variety of leadership knowledge providers including Factory Strategies Group LLC and Gemba Academy LLC. He is currently President of Specialty Silicone Fabricators and serves on the board of directors or advisors of three technology companies. Kevin is the owner and editor of Lean CEO.

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Art Byrne

Art Byrne is currently an Operating Partner with J. W. Childs Associates L.P.. Prior to joining Childs he was the CEO of the Wiremold Company, a Group Executive at The Danaher Corporation and held General Manager Positions at The General Electric Company. Wiremold won a Shingo Prize under Art’s leadership and Art was inducted into The Shingo Academy. Recently he was inducted to the Industry Week Magazine Manufacturing Hall of Fame and his book The Lean Turnaround was published by McGraw-Hill.

Art Smalley

Art Smalley was fortunate to have been one of the few Americans to work for Toyota in Japan for an extended period of time. From working on assembly lines to maintaining precision equipment to project management he experienced all facets of production life in Toyota. Combined with his proficiency in reading and writing the Japanese language he has keen insights on TPS that few in America possess. Subsequent to Toyota, Art was also director of lean for a large U.S. company that underwent a successful lean implementation program. Additionally he spent several years as a lean expert for the international management consulting firm of McKinsey & Company. “There is a decided over-emphasis in the west on simply using the tools of TPS. More attention needs to be applied on solving systemic manufacturing problems that will generate business results”.

Bill Gaw

Bill Gaw is the founder of Business Basics, LLC and a "been there, done that" lean business advocate. He is the developer of 7-lean management training packages and 8-training modules published to help individuals and companies realize their full growth and earning potentials. He is a graduate of Milwaukee School of Engineering and has earned professional certifications from both the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and American Production and Inventory Society (APICS). As a prior Associate Professor at San Diego State University, he helped structure and successfully launch their Operations Management Program. Bill Gaw’s lean management experience spans more than 35 years. During those years, Bill has held positions as a shop expeditor, business planner, buyer, manufacturing manager, vice president, president and lean-management consultant/educator.

Bill Waddell

As a consultant Bill has worked with manufacturers of all sizes throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico, as well as in Europe, Asia, New Zealand and Australia. As an author, Bill has written Simple Excellence and Rebirth of American Industry, as well as others, has published numerous articles, and is the most widely read manufacturing blogger on the Internet. As a speaker Bill has addressed professional, academic and military groups on five continents, and has spoken and taught in virtually every leading manufacturing forum in the United States. Bill is a global supply chain expert, one of the original Lean Accounting 'thought leaders', has served as a technical chairman for various manufacturing quality forums, and is regarded as a leading expert in lean manufacturing.

Bob Emiliani

M.L. “Bob” Emiliani is a university professor, researcher, author, historian of progressive management, and executive trainer. He has over 20 years of experience in aerospace, consumer products, and service industries, and has had front-line responsibility for implementing Lean principles and practices in the manufacturing shop floor, supply networks, and in higher education. Bob is a leading figure in the Lean movement and is dedicated to helping people correctly understand and implement Lean management. Bob has pioneered the application of Lean principles and practices to the design and delivery of his courses. He was also the first professor to facilitate kaizens in higher education to improve a 10-course executive M.S. degree program. Bob is one of the most prolific authors on Lean leadership and Lean management, having written ten books and 18 peer-reviewed papers. He has also written 16 peer-reviewed papers on Lean supply chain management and e-business, 10 peer-reviewed papers in materials science and engineering, and numerous non-refereed technical reports and magazine articles. Several of these works have won awards for excellence.

Brian Maskell

Brian H. Maskell has more than 25 years' experience in manufacturing and distribution industry. He has held a variety of management positions from the shop-floor of an electronics company to Manager of European Inventories for the Xerox Corporation to Vice President of Product Development and Customer Service of the Unitronix Corporation. A sought after speaker, Brian Maskell is the author of six books including; one in 2003 on the practical aspects of implementing Lean Accounting, Performance Measurement for World Class Manufacturing (1991), Software and the Agile Manufacturer (1993), New Performance Measures (1994), Making the Numbers Count; the accountant as an agent of change (1996), and the software product Putting Performance Measurement to Work (1999) from Productivity Press. Mr. Maskell conducts seminars and workshops around the world on such subjects as Lean Accounting, Performance Measurement for World Class Manufacturing, Lean Manufacturing, Software and the Agile Manufacturer, Value Stream Cost Management, and Agile Manufacturing. Mr. Maskell has an engineering degree from the University of Sussex, England. He is certified with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants in London, and is a Fellow of the American Production and Inventory Control Society.

Bruce Hamilton

Bruce Hamilton brings hands-on experience as a manager, teacher, and change agent. He has spoken internationally on Lean Manufacturing, employee involvement, continuous improvement and implementing change, and has contributed to numerous texts on reliable methods ranging from visual control to variety reduction.Prior to joining the Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership, Mr. Hamilton was General Manager of United Electric Controls Company, recipient of the coveted Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing. He led efforts at United Electric to transform its production from a traditional batch factory to a single piece flow environment that has become an international showcase. His expertise covers both the technical side of lean manufacturing and the equally important soft skills needed to engage and inspire employees and managers.

Cash Powell

Cash Powell is Associate Director, Center for Competitive Change at the University of Dayton. He has thirty-five years in industrial manufacturing, government logistics, and lean manufacturing systems. He was Director of Materials for a Fortune 50 company, and spent twenty years as consultant to industry and government in materials, production management, organization planning and teambuilding, cost controls, lean logistics, software evaluations, and university teaching. He has managed lean programs, kaizen events, and worked with Fortune 100 companies on lean transformation. He has performed turnaround projects for two companies, from 40% on time delivery to 96-100% through planning, scheduling and inventory management. Powell was a consultant for Booz, Allen Hamilton, President of C.S. Powell, Inc. a management consulting firm, and serves as Associate Director, Center for Competitive Change, University of Dayton. He has contributed to the lean curricula for manufacturing excellence for industry at the Center for Competitive Change.

Dan Markovitz

Dan Markovitz is the founder and president of TimeBack Management, and is a faculty member of the Lean Enterprise Institute. He has worked with Qualcomm, WL Gore & Associates, the University of California, American Express, Merrill Lynch, the law firm of Fenwick & West, the NYC Department of Health, and Planned Parenthood of New York City, among other clients. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal and Time.com, written for the Wall Street Journal, Industry Week, The Manufacturer, Superfactory, and the Journal of Accountancy. He is also a regular contributor to Evolving Excellence, the LeanBlog, and the New York Enterprise Report. Prior to founding his own firm, Mr. Markovitz held management positions at Sierra Designs, Adidas, CNET and Asics Tiger. He also has experience as an entrepreneur, having founded his own athletic footwear company. He holds a BA from Wesleyan University and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Don Kivell

Don Kivell is President of Lean Manufacturing Solutions Inc. With over thirty years of industry experience, he has gained the reputation as a catalyst to effect positive change in any manufacturing environment. From the shop floor to plant management, Don has extensive experience in a variety of industries, and he has successfully implemented lean manufacturing solutions with a proven track record for creating profitable, flexible, customer-focused manufacturing environments with highly motivated employees. His diverse background includes experience in operations management, lean manufacturing, plant layout, cellular manufacturing, quick changeover, training & development, Kaizen/rapid improvement, manufacturing strategies and cultural change. His work was also the focus of the Canadian Government's video on Advanced Manufacturing Technologies.

Drew Locher

Drew is currently Managing Director for Change Management Associates. CMA provides various Business Improvement Consulting and Organizational Development services to industrial and service organizations. CMA will assist organizations to successfully implement Systems and Quality Management principles within their operations to improve business performance. Since 1986, Drew has been working to implement innovative Business Management strategies in a wide spectrum of business environments. From 1986 to 1990 he worked to develop and deliver Business Improvement programs for General Electric. During this time, he had the opportunity to gain first hand experience in significant business improvement initiatives throughout a large industrial and service company. In 1990, Drew left GE to form CMA.

George Taninecz

As vice president of research for The MPI Group, George Taninecz applies more than 20 years of experience in studying manufacturing and management to develop the research tools that enable organizations to assess their performances, gauge best practices and define roadmaps for success. He also oversees the creation of thought-provoking white papers and reports that clearly outline research findings, industry trends and areas of opportunity. Prior to joining The MPI Group in 2003, Taninecz worked at McKinsey & Company as a knowledge developer and communications specialist for the firm’s manufacturing practice. Taninecz’ background also includes a decade as a journalist covering best practices, strategy and management for IndustryWeek (IW). During his tenure as the magazine’s managing editor, he was a director for the America's Best Plants program and launched numerous research initiatives for the magazine, including the IW Value Chain Survey and the IW Census of Manufacturers. Taninecz also works independently with the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) to develop books and workbooks about lean manufacturing, including Lean Solutions by Jim Womack and Dan Jones (Free Press, 2005), The Gold Mine by Michael Ballé and Freddy Ballé (LEI, 2005), and Getting the Right Things Done by Pascal Dennis (LEI, 2006)

Harry Kenworthy

Harry is a Lean Six Sigma (LSS) Master Black Belt and also Principal & Manager of the Quality and Productivity Improvement Center (QPIC, LLC and www.leangovcenter.com). He was VP, Manufacturing for Rogers Corporation and, in concert with GE, developed and deployed Lean Six Sigma throughout Rogers in the US, Europe, Japan and China. He worked with Dr. W. Edwards Deming in 1983-85 on a series of seminars throughout the US. He has spoken at over 80 conferences on Leadership, Quality, Productivity, Lean, and Six Sigma, and has been published in numerous magazines. Harry also had extended relationships with Dr. Joseph Juran and Dorian Shainin.For 9 years, he was on the Board of Directors of a Japanese Joint Venture based in Nagoya, Japan. The JV was a key supplier to Toyota and Harry studied Lean from the Toyota perspective. From 1989-1991 he was a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Examiner. Harry was one of the first practitioners to apply LSS in the Government sector in the mid-90s. His work is focused on partnering with leadership to change the culture of organizations with Lean Six Sigma. His clients have included numerous Local, State and Federal Government agencies that have been improved by removing wastes and reducing costs while also reducing overall process cycle times and improving customer service. Achieving 20-30%+ improvements applying Lean in Government are normal.

Jamie Flinchbaugh

Jamie Flinchbaugh is co-founder and partner of the Lean Learning Center, bringing successful and varied experiences of lean transformation as both a practitioner and facilitator. Prior to founding the Center, he worked at DTE Energy, parent to Detroit Edison, as a lean thought leader to help transform the operations, leadership and thinking of the utility industry towards a philosophy of lean systems. Earlier in his career, Flinchbaugh was part of the development, training and implementation of the Chrysler Operating System, a widely-benchmarked lean change program. He also has a wide-range of operational experiences, including product development production, maintenance, quality, materials and manufacturing engineering, and has worked at every level from the board room to the shop floor. Flinchbaugh co-authored with Andy Carlino The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean: Lessons from the Road, a best-selling lean book.

Jean Cunningham

Jean is widely recognized as one of the pioneers of lean accounting and lean beyond manufacturing having led the lean transition in those environments since the early 90’s. She has given lectures and consulted on lean back office application since the mid-90s. With JCC, Jean travels world-wide presenting lean workshops, consulting on lean strategy, and facilitating kaizens. Jean is the former Vice President and CFO at Lantech, Inc. and Marshfield Door Systems. She is currently the CFO and a Director-at-Large for the Association for Manufacturing Excellence. Jean was an original Thought Leader for the Lean Accounting Summit and presents there annually. Jean has published two books of practical application based on her corporate lean journey. Real Numbers won the Shingo Prize for research in 2004 and has become an essential lean accounting text. Easier, Simpler, Faster won the Shingo Prize for research in 2008 and is already recommended reading for lean IS/IT efforts. Jean has a BS in Accounting from Indiana University and an MBA from Northeastern University’s Executive Program.

Jim Patton

Jim Patton is founder of KPAC Solutions and author of Life in the Turn Lane: A Story of Personal and Corporate Turnarounds and the Principles that Make Them Happen.

John Henry

John Henry, CPP, is a 20-plus-year veteran of packaging and plant operations, giving him real-world experience with equipment issues. He spent almost a decade in operations positions with Alcon Laboratories in Puerto Rico, ultimately becoming Manager, Facilities Operations. In 1996, he formed his consulting practice, changeover.com, where he focused on efficiencies in packaging operations issues. He developed and wrote operational procedures and manuals for automated machinery clients. As a result of that work, John became an author and speaker on packaging topics. Audiences at Pack Expo shows and other trade shows have heard him speak, and his regular column in Food & Drug Packaging magazine delivers machinery insights to industry professionals. He has been published in Beverage World, Food Engineering, the Journal of Packaging Professionals and Advanced Manufacturing magazines and other journals. He teaches in the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico’s graduate industrial engineering program. He has an MS in Business Education from Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester, NH. He also has an MBA and a BA from InterAmerican University, San Juan PR.

John Rubio

John Rubio has over 25 years experience in Lean and Six Sigma implementations/Lean Transformations. Credited with 7 Lean Transformations and working from Supervisor, Manager, Continuous Improvement Mgr., GM, Plant Manager, Director, and Vice President positions during those transformations. For the last 11 years of consulting experience as Snr. Consultant, Director, Vice President and Regional Director levels of Simpler Consulting. His experience is in Lean Transformations in Service, Manufacturing/Commercial , Public/Administration and Health Care sectors. John’s Lean journey began in 1989 under the guidance Toyota, NUMMI and Hyashi Telempu Sensei. In 1991 John started working with the Kaizen Institute of America and World Class Manufacturing. During this time he became part of the team that led the company’s first Lean transformation in Amtex with several others following. John was a founding member of the Detroit Automotive Manufacturers Association (DAMA) and a contributor to the development of the FORD Production System (FPS).

Karen Martin

Karen is a highly-rated speaker who wows her audiences with high-energy presentations containing practical takeaways. She’s also an instructor for the University of California, San Diego’s Lean Enterprise program and an Industry Advisor for the University of San Diego’s Industrial and Systems Engineering program. She’s the author of The Outstanding Organization, which addresses the missing fundamentals that are key success factors in organizational transformation (McGraw-Hill, 2012), and co-author of The Kaizen Event Planner: Achieving Rapid Improvement in Office, Service and Technical Environments and Metrics-Based Process Mapping: An Excel-Based Solution (both by Productivity Press).

Mark Graban

Mark Graban is a Senior Fellow with the Lean Enterprise Institute and the author of the book Lean Hospitals: Improving Quality, Patient Safety, and Employee Satisfaction (Productivity Press), winner of a 2009 Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award. He is the founder and lead contributor of LeanBlog.org, started in January 2005. Mark is an experienced consultant and change agent, with a background in Industrial and Mechanical Engineering, with an MBA from MIT Sloan Leaders for Global Operations Program (previously known as Leaders for Manufacturing). Mark has worked in automotive (General Motors), the PC industry (Dell) , and industrial products (Honeywell). At Honeywell, Mark was certified as a “Lean Expert” (Lean Black Belt). Since August 2005, Mark has worked in the “lean healthcare” world, where he coached lean teams at client sites in North America and the United Kingdom, including medical laboratories and hospitals.

Michael Ballé

Michael is associate researcher at Telecom ParisTech, and holds a doctorate from the Sorbonne in Social Sciences and Knowledge Sciences. For the past fifteen years, he has focused on lean transformation as part of his research on knowledge-based performance and organizational learning. He has written several books and articles about the links between knowledge and management (Managing With Systems Thinking, The Effective Organization, Les Modèles Mentaux), and more recently, co-authored two business novels published by the Lean Enterprise Institute, one about lean turnaround, The Gold Mine and one about lean transformation, The Lean Manager. He is a leading expert on lean transformation initiatives, and an engaging and colorful public speaker, experienced in running interactive workshops with large audiences. Michael is co-founder of the Projet Lean Entreprise and the Institut Lean France.

Michael Bremer

Michael Bremer is President of The Cumberland Group – Chicago, an Adjunct Senior Engagement Manager for Motorola University, and lecturer for the University of Chicago and Loyola University. He is a nationally recognized speaker on six sigma, process improvement, lean manufacturing, leadership, and leadership team effectiveness. He has over 25 years experience including director of the information systems group for a Fortune 25 company, former Chief Financial Officer for the Association of Manufacturing Excellence and President of several new business start-ups. He was responsible for creating a global based continuous improvement process for a conglomerate that owned more than 400 separate profit centers. This was one of the models used to establish the Baldrige Quality Award criteria. Michael initially studied quality improvement with Dr. Deming and Dr. Juran in the early 1980s.

Michel Baudin

Michel Baudin has 29 years of industrial experience, including 23 years of consulting in lean implementation Since 1987, Michel has consulted in industries ranging from automotive, aerospace, and electronics to food and personal products, for European, American, and Japanese companies. Michel has a long, multicultural experience of providing solutions that work in both technology and management, while coaching implementation projects to success. Starting from the principles behind automotive lean practices, Michel redeploys these principles in appropriate tools and methods to support the ambitions of clients in other industries and markets. Since 1995, he has taught short courses on the details of lean manufacturing, the management of lean manufacturing implementation, the lean approach to quality, and information technology for lean, as well as customized in-house seminars for clients. These courses have been offered to the public through UC Berkeley Extension, the University of Dayton, and the Hong Kong Productivity Center. Michel has written four books on manufacturing and many articles and papers in various journals. His academic background includes a Master’s Degree in Engineering from the Ecole des Mines de Paris, and research at the Hahn-Meitner Institute of Berlin and the University of Tokyo. He is a senior fellow of the University of Dayton, and was a member of the IMSE External Advisory Board of OHIO UNIVERSITY. He is a member of the AME, SME, IIE, and IEEE. He is fluent in French, English, Japanese and German, and is learning Spanish.

Mike Micklewright

Mike Micklewright is a dynamic speaker, actor, author, motivationist, business and quality consultant and trainer based in the Chicago area. Mike provides a unique look into the application of business and quality theories into our everyday lives. In 2010, Mike published two new books, "Out of Another @#&*% Crisis!...Motivation Through Humiliation" and "Lean ISO 9001...Adding Spark to Your ISO 9001 QMS and Sustainability to Your Lean Efforts". Mike is a Midwest Board Member of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME), an AME Manufacturing Excellence Award Assessor. Mike is also a member of the US TAG to ISO/TC 176, the organization that writes the ISO 9000 set of standards. Mike specializes in Leadership, Business Principles, Lean Culture, Continuous Improvement, ISO 9001, Root Cause Analysis, and Quality. Mike is an ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt, Quality Auditor, Quality Engineer, and Manager of Quality/Operational Excellence, and Supply Chain Analyst. Mike holds an Engineering degree from the University of Illinois.

Norman Bodek

Norman has been a frequent keynote speaker at major conferences and teaches companies on employee empowerment, Lean/TPS, customer service, productivity, quality and process improvement for many organizations including the Institute of Industrial Engineers, American Society for Quality, APICS, ISO 9000, Institute for Lean Systems, FAA, Ortho-Clinical Diagnotics, BAE, Gulfstream, St. Francis Hospital Indianapolis, Dakota MEP, the Shingo Prize, and many others including in plant training events. Mr. Bodek attended the University of Wisconsin and graduated with a bachelor's degree from New York University. He also attended the New York University Graduate School of Business and the New York University College of Education.

Richard Schonberger

Richard Schonberger, Ph.D., is president of Schonberger & Associates of Seattle, providing seminars and advisory services to industrial and service organizations worldwide. He is author of over 170 articles and papers, a 12-volume video set, several books, including: Best Practices in Lean Six Sigma Process Improvement: A Deeper Look . . . with Telling Evidence from the Leanness Studies, Let's Fix It! Overcoming the Crisis in Manufacturing: How the World's Leading Manufacturers Were Seduced by Prosperity and Lost Their Way, World Class Manufacturing — The Next Decade: Building Power, Strength, and Value, Building a Chain of Customers: Linking Business Functions to Create the World Class Company, World Class Manufacturing: The Lessons of Simplicity Applied, Japanese Manufacturing Techniques: Nine Hidden Lessons in Simplicity. Among his current activities, Dr. Schonberger is director of The Leanness Studies, an on-going tracking of inventory turnover data for more than 1,400 companies in 33 countries, and an international benchmarking research project called World Class by Principles (WCP), with assisting research partners in leading nations globally.

Robert Hall

Robert W. “Doc” Hall is Professor Emeritus, Indiana University, frequently called “Doc” by industry friends. He now lives in Hondo, TX. Hall is a founding member of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence, and has long background in manufacturing as well as academia. He’s been involved with what is now called lean operations since the late 1970s, and has written a great deal about it, including cases of some of the best companies practicing it.

Steve Bell

Steve is the author of Lean Enterprise Systems, Using IT for Continuous Improvement which first introduced the term "Lean IT" in publication. He is the co-author of Lean IT: Enabling and Sustaining Your Lean Transformation which received the 2011 Shingo Prize for Research and Professional Publication. Steve is a Lean Enterprise Institute faculty member and co-founder of Steady Improvement, a Lean leadership coaching firm dedicated to the development of people, the improvement of processes, and the appropriate adoption of information technology – in that order. In addition to his work in Lean IT transformation, Steve is actively involved in the Non-profit and NGO community. His mission is to make Lean Thinking accessible to humanitarian aid organizations, improving NGO operational efficiency (use of scarce resources) and effectiveness (improved outcomes) to benefit the 3 billion people living at the "bottom of the pyramid" on less than $2 a day.

Terence Burton

Terence T. Burton is President of The Center for Excellence in Operations, Inc. (CEO), a consulting firm with offices in Bedford, NH and Munich, Germany. Burton has nearly four decades of executive industry and management consulting experience, working on thousands of improvement initiatives with over 300 clients in the Americas and Europe. Terry is best known for his "hands-on" approach to consulting and his executive leadership savvy in executive development and transforming organizations. Terry holds a B.S. and M.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of New Haven and an MBA from Boston University. He is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt, and has held several national positions with APICS, AME, ASQ, and PDMA.

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