James Morgan, PhD

Jim is a senior advisor at Lean Enterprise Institute and a board member at Adrian Steel. He has a unique blend of industry leadership experience and rigorous scholarship, which he draws upon to improve organizational performance at a select group of companies. 

Jim’s most recent industry experience was as Chief Operating Officer at Rivian, an electric vehicle manufacturer on a mission to keep the world adventurous.

Before joining Rivian, Jim spent a little over ten years at Ford Motor Company. He began by leading the development of the Global Product Development System (GPDS). He then served the last nine years as Director of Global Body and SBU Engineering and Tooling operations, where he and his team contributed to the company’s historic, product-led revitalization under then-CEO Alan Mulally.   

Prior to Ford, Jim served as Vice President of Operations at Troy Design and Manufacturing (TDM) during a period of dramatic growth. TDM is a tier-one global automotive supplier of engineering services, prototype tools, and low to medium-volume production parts and subassemblies. 

Jim holds a Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Michigan, where his original research into Product Development won two Shingo Prizes for Research Excellence. In addition, he co-authored (with Professor Jeffrey Liker) the award-winning books The Toyota Product Development System (2006) and Designing the Future (2018). He has also authored or co-authored several book chapters and articles on product development for the Sloan Management Review, The Engineering Management Journal, and other publications.