There are many challenging goals.
How do you get there?

Gerd Aulinger has worked as a researcher, consultant, seminar leader, production manager and speaker for the past 12 years. After research work at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation in Stuttgart Gerd became an internal lean consultant for DaimlerChrysler AG, where he managed various lean projects and won two MPS prizes and an MPS award.  From 2007 to 2011 he was a production manager at Festool’s prize-winning Neidlingen plant, where he worked with his team to develop a highly-motivated, learning organization.  Gerd currently coaches managers in the application of the Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata, with a view to achieving exceptional results.

Barb Bouché is Director of Continuous Performance Improvement at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Her consulting practice and leadership efforts focus specifically on the tools, systems and principles that lead to lean transformation within the healthcare environment. Barb has been a key principle in the strategic plan and implementation of lean (CPI) management at Seattle Children’s since 1997. Barb has a BA from Chico State University in Family Studies and an M Ed. in organizational development from Seattle University.

Beth Carrington is an independent consultant who works with client Advance Groups on their Toyota Kata management-routine learning, practice and deployment. Since 1999 Beth has been leading organizations in lean implementation, and has helped a diverse group of clients; small and large, repetitive and custom processors. Prior to consulting, Beth has over 20 years experience in leadership roles in the personal care, furniture and automotive industries. Beth is one of the University of Michigan and LEI Toyota Kata instructors.

Bill Costantino was one of the very first employees at Toyota's Georgetown, KY auto plant where he worked as a Group Leader for seven years. He has subsequently worked for the last 17 years as an independent consultant, supporting companies making the transition to more lean ways of operating. He has consulted extensively across a wide range of clients in diverse industries. For the last 2 years, Bill has been collaborating closely with Mike Rother, author of "Toyota Kata". Mike & Bill have developed and now co-lead a three-day professional development workshop with the University of Michigan, teaching the underlying philosophy and critical routines of the Toyota Kata approach to management.  Bill is also an LEI Toyota Kata instructor.

Håkan Forss is a lean/agile coach, public speaker and author with a system architecture and software development background. Håkan coaches, mentors and teaches Lean and Agile thinking, methods and tools to organizations, teams and individuals. He develops people’s ability to continuously learn and improve how work is done. Håkan is an LKU Accredited Kanban Trainer and is an active member of the Kanban, Lean and Agile communities.

Dennis Gawlik is a teacher, speaker and Lean coach. He has taught sustainable operations at several universities – the last 9 years at Bainbridge Graduate Institute (BGI), the nation’s first sustainable MBA program, where he worked with H. Thomas Johnson and Bill Costantino. Toyota Kata is an integral part of the educational program in sustainable operations there. Dennis acquired extensive Lean knowledge during 20+ years in operations, logistics and supply management, initially as a logistics supplier to Toyota in Georgetown, KY. Dennis has worked in Lean and Toyota Way process developments at a variety of Fortune 500 organizations, most recently as an internal Lean consultant at Liberty Mutual Insurance. Dennis has a BA from Northwestern University and an MS from Penn State. He lives on Bainbridge Island, WA with his family.

Craig Kennedy is Vice President North American Manufacturing Operations and Consumer Care for Merck & Co. Craig has worked for Merck for 15 years in various manufacturing, planning and operations improvement roles. Craig has a Bachelor of Science in Pure Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Sydney, Australia. Craig enjoys his wife and children, flying, cooking, photography and karate in his spare time. Craig has been working with the IK and CK since early 2010.

Tyson Ortiz is a Lean Project Specialist at Aerojet in Sacramento, CA, where he focuses on the application of lean to transactional systems (versus traditional manufacturing environments). His background is in Quality Engineering for defense programs and he has a BA in Applied Mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley. After being introduced to lean and Toyota Kata in 2012, he is now devoted to studying lean and practicing the Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata in support of Aerojet’s transformation into a learning organization. At home, Tyson and his wife are kept busy raising two young children and have found the patterns of Toyota Kata to be valuable in that endeavor as well.

Tadas Puksta

Tadas Puksta is an Improvement Kata trainer and coach in Lithuania. He is a founder of the Lean Academy Lithuania and works with companies on practicing and deploying Toyota Kata management routines. In 2003 Tadas started practicing Lean thinking with sensei from Japan and for the past three years he's been coaching owners, CEOs and managers in Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata almost every day. Tadas has experience in Furniture, Textile, Shipbuilding, Construction, Electronics, Banking, Biotechnology and other industries.

Mark Rosenthal has been teaching and leading continuous improvement across diverse industries, including heavy industry, consumer products, process industries and the service sector for over 20 years. Today he is an independent consultant to companies who are striving to shape their internal culture to drive improvement every day. Mark shares what he is learning on theleanthinker.com.

Mike is an engineer, a researcher, teacher and speaker on the subjects of management, leadership, improvement, adaptiveness, and change in human organizations. He is co-author of two LEI workbooks, Learning to See: value-stream mapping to add value and eliminate muda, which received a Shingo Research Prize in 1999 and Creating Continuous Flow: an action guide for managers, engineers and production associates, which received a Shingo prize in 2003. He co-developed the accompanying Training to See kit that teaches facilitators how to run value-stream mapping workshops. His latest book is Toyota Kata (McGraw-Hill), which received a Shingo prize in 2011. Mike's affiliations have included the Industrial Technology Institute (Ann Arbor), the University of Michigan College of Engineering, the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (Stuttgart), and the Technical University Dortmund. Mike began his career in the manufacturing division of Thyssen AG.

Meryl Runion is an author, speaker, researcher, and the creator of "The SpeakStrong Method". She wrote ten books on effective communication and is currently writing "Perfect Phrases for Lean and Continuous Improvement". She applies her communication principles and techniques to leadership and leadership development, management, administration, teamwork and improvement through collaboration.

Jeff Uitenbroek

 

Jeff Uitenbroek is the Director of Modine Operating System at Modine Manufacturing Company, where he leads the ongoing development and use of the Modine Operating System for Modine worldwide. Jeff joined Modine in 2003 as Continuous Improvement Manager, and became the Director, Modine Operating System in July of 2009. Prior to joining Modine, Jeff was in the optical media industry, including 15 years at 3M Company, in a variety of engineering, technical service, operations and management positions. Jeff received a bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a member of ASQ and an ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt.

 

Emiel van Est is a Toyota Kata ambassador based in The Netherlands. He is an independent consultant who works with clients on their Toyota Kata management-routine learning, practice and deployment. In 1997 Emiel started improving and designing processes for Hewlett Packard and has since then helped a diverse group of clients in many different industries with their Lean efforts. Prior to consulting, Emiel was engineering special equipment to make new production processes feasible. Emiel has a bachelor's degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Hogeschool Haarlem, Netherlands.

Todd Weston is the Director of Manufacturing Engineering for Amtrol Inc. in West Warwick, Rhode Island. Over his 22-year career with Amtrol Todd has held numerous positions ranging from machine operator to his current role as a Director. Todd was an initial member of the Kaizen Promotion Team when Amtrol first embarked on its Lean journey in 1999. Todd is currently learning and practicing the Improvement Kata & Coaching Kata, and working to define Amtrol’s Kata for Continuous Evolution in both the U.S. and Portugal.