CONSULTING GROUP

Mr. Anderson is a Gold Certified (SME/AME/ASQ/Shingo) lean senior management and training professional with over 30 years of experience.. He has a strong lean manufacturing and Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) improvement background that includes a variety of functional experience. A people-oriented leader with a bottom-line focus, he possesses exceptional motivational skills.

As principal of Anderson and Associates, Mr. Anderson consults for small and mid-size businesses implementing world-class management techniques. His services include directing organizations in developing a vision and mission, choosing applicable tools, and implementing the world-class transformation. In addition, he provides process and management improvement training for divisions of major corporations and develops college courses. His accomplishments include establishing a Total Quality-Based Technology curriculum for an associate’s degree credit program for North Central Texas College and providing lean manufacturing, total quality, and statistical process control instruction for Collin County, North Central Texas, and Richland community colleges.

From 2001 through 2003, Mr. Anderson served as vice president of operations for American Excelsior Company, a 15-site, $60 million national foam fabrication firm. Recruited as a member of a senior team tasked with turning around the company’s finances, he established operational accountability of site general managers and implemented corporate reorganization to create a focus on operational results. In addition, he implemented lean manufacturing concepts and restructured the MRP system to support the company as a national entity.

Previously Mr. Anderson was employed by Beckett Corporation, a privately-held company providing condensate and specialty pumps to the HVAC industry and OEM customers. As president of the Industrial and OEM division and corporate vice president of Operations, he implemented the separation of the business into two autonomous divisions. Through the application of lean manufacturing techniques and MRP system restructuring, he achieved quality and manufacturing performance improvements that led to a 15% sales growth and 2.6% increase in operating profits. As vice president of Operations, he spearheaded a transformation to flow and just-in-time manufacturing, achieving inventory reduction of more than 50%, on-time delivery improvement of over 95%, and sales growth of 1.8%.

Prior to joining Beckett Corporation, Mr. Anderson held management positions with Snyder General Corporation, Packless Industries, and American Standard Trane, where he implemented team-based manufacturing and numerous quality and productivity improvement programs. Earlier in his career, he was employed by General Electric Company in a series of increasingly responsible management and engineering positions.

Mr. Anderson serves as a team lead/examiner for the Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence and is a member, and past chair, of the Oversight and Appeals Committee for the SME/AME/ASQ/Shingo lean certification process.  He is a registered Professional Engineer.

Education:

Masters program in Engineering Management, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky

Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas

Mr. Carlberg has over 35 years of experience in operations management in the electronics, telecommunications, and defense industries. This includes more than 25 years of executive leadership with profit/loss responsibility for leading high-technology commercial and defense firms. His areas of expertise include directing all lean manufacturing aspects of product development, production, supply chain management, sales, and service. He is president of Carlberg Consulting Group LLC, an executive coaching and lean consulting group that is helping companies achieve greatness through the development of more humanistic and high preforming workplaces.

Previously Mr. Carlberg served as President and CEO of M2 Global Technology Ltd. which provided high-performance microwave components and value-added aerospace contract manufacturing services. Prior to M2 Global he was a senior vice president of worldwide operations of Harris Corporation’s Microwave Communications Division, which produces a broad range of microwave radios and microwave components for world markets. During his tenure at Harris, he contributed significantly to the Microwave Communications Division moving from a potentially “going out of business” posture to a number one position in US markets and a number four position in world markets. Under Mr. Carlberg’s leadership, the division’s San Antonio operation and M2 Global earned numerous awards and recognitions including the Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing, the Texas Business of the Year Award, the Organizational Excellence Award by the Association for Quality and Participation, and Clemson University’s 21st Century Organizational Excellence Premier Award, the San Antonio operation was selected by Industry Week as one of the Top 25 Best Plants in North America, M2 Global received the U.S. Air Force Teaming to Succeed Award, the Association for Manufacturing Excellence Manufacturing Excellence Award, the Texas Manufacturing Star Award in 2012, a Lockheed Martin Top 25 Performing Supplier 2015, Top 10 Veteran Owned San Antonio Businesses 2019, and 2022 SBA National Small Business Government Contractor of the Year.

Mr. Carlberg serves on the Utah State University Executive Advisory Board for the Shingo Prize, the world’s highest standard for operational excellence and the SW board of directors for the Association for Manufacturing Excellence, an international nonprofit educational and benchmarking organization.

Education:
Graduate, Arizona Executive Program, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona

Graduate, Defense Systems Management College, Fort Belvoir, Virginia

Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona

Bachelor of Technology, Wentworth Institute of Technology. Boston, Massachusetts

Associate of Science, Aerospace Engineering, Wentworth Institute, Boston, Massachusetts

Bob Cartwright, a certified Senior Professional of Human Resources (SPHR) through the National Society for Human Resources Management, is president and founder of Intelligent Compensation, a compensation and human resources consulting firm located in the greater Austin, Texas area. Since 1996, Mr. Cartwright has managed numerous assignments for a wide variety of clients in all areas of compensation, including the development of total compensation strategies, wage and salary plans, executive compensation strategies, stock plans, customized surveys, performance-based sales, balanced score-cards, incentive and team-based compensation plans, and performance management systems. In addition, he has provided human resource management, strategic planning and employment relation’s advisory services for an array of companies in Texas. He has over 20 years of diversified experience in compensation and human resource management.

Intelligent Compensation clients are from all size organizations and include high technology manufacturing and services, information technology, health care, retail, telecommunications, legal, energy, publishing, non-profits, municipalities, financial services and aerospace. A partial client list includes Harris Corporation Microwave Communications Division; Southern Union Gas Company; Energy Worx, Inc.; Americair, Inc.; Seniors 2000; Thermon Manufacturing Company; Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Inc.; Resource Financial Group; Bracewell & Patterson; Dee Howard Aircraft Maintenance, L.P.; Tracor Aerospace, Inc.; Trilogy Development Group; CCI / Triad; the City of Georgetown; EZ Corp; Datum, Inc.; National Western Life Insurance Company; M2 Global Technology, LP; Ascension Health; Diocese of Austin; and DTM Corporation.

Mr. Cartwright’s professional affiliations include the Society for Human Resource Management, American Compensation Association, Austin Human Resources Management Association (steering committee chair for the Austin Area Pay and Benefits Survey), Williamson County Human Resource Management Association (President Elect), Central Texas Compensation and Benefits Association, San Antonio Compensation Association and the Employment Relations Committee and Health Care Task Force of the Texas Association of Business and Chambers of Commerce. He is also a Rotary Club member.

For the past 18 years, Mr. Cartwright has been an active community leader and has served on various boards, committees, and task forces, including the Texas Supreme Court’s Jury System Reform Task Force and Jury Compensation Subcommittee, Texas State Technical College’s Performance Management Review Task Force, Texas State Comptroller’s Task Force on Welfare Reform, and the Board of Directors of the Texas Association of Business and the Austin Chamber of Commerce. In addition, he is listed as a life member in the National Registry of Who’s Who for Executives and Professionals and he has recently been accepted as a member of the International Who’s Who of Entrepreneurs.

Previously, he served in management at Tracor, Inc. in Austin, Texas, where he had corporate-wide responsibility for the company’s executive, incentive, base, expatriate, reward, and team-based compensation programs, as well as employee performance assessment and management systems. Mr. Cartwright also was responsible for all aspects of human resource management for Tracor’s Austin, Texas Operation.

Education:

Bachelor of Arts, St. Edward’s University, Austin, Texas

Post-graduate studies in Business Management

Ms. Cunningham is a management consultant with over 16 years of experience applying lean concepts to a variety of organizations. Co-author two books, Real Numbers: Management Accounting in a Lean Organization, and Simpler, Faster: Systems Strategy for Lean IT, she received the Shingo Prize for Research in 2004. Her areas of expertise include business strategy development, process improvement, and growth and acquisition planning.

As owner and principal of Lean Accounting and Business Strategy in Arlington Heights, Illinois, Ms. Cunningham assists clients in developing strategic solutions, streamlining processes, and planning for growth.

Previously, as chief financial officer and vice president of Company Services at Lantech LLC, a Louisville, Kentucky manufacturer of packaging equipment. Ms. Cunningham was responsible for accounting, human resources, information systems, and telecommunications. From 1991 through 2004, she was a leader in Lantech’s evolution of a small, family-owned business to a lean industry leader. Lantech’s lean journey was chronicled in the bestseller, Lean Thinking. Ms. Cunningham joined the continuous improvement effort at Lantech from their first kaizen, and took the revolution of lean from the manufacturing floor to the business office. She was actively involved with Lantech’s product expansion efforts through acquisition and product development.

Prior to joining Lantech, Ms. Cunningham was a finance professional with Digital Equipment Corporation and Westinghouse Electric. Her business experience and training began early in life, when she assisted in her mother’s business from age 12. Later she taught school and managed a restaurant, which provided a base of practical experience.

In addition to co-authoring two books, Ms. Cunningham has contributed to several publications related to lean accounting and lean operations. She has extensive experience lecturing on lean accounting and operations management.

MBA, Northeastern University, School of Professional and Continuing Studies

BS in Accounting, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana

Dr. Adrian Guardia has more than 30 years of experience in Human Resources. His expertise spans diverse fields including financial services, electronics manufacturing, soft drink bottling, and high-end retailing. His career assignments have included nationally recognized firms such as JPMorgan Chase, Harris Corporation, Dr. Pepper Bottling Company, and Federated Department Stores.

Dr. Guardia is president and principal consultant for Applied GroupDynamics, a San Antonio–based consulting practice focused on the development of high-performance organizations. The practice is an affiliate of the Architecture for Excellence™.

From 1988 through 2000, Dr. Guardia served as manager of Human Resources for Harris Corporation, Microwave Communications Division, where he was personally involved in the San Antonio operations’ journey for high performance. Beginning with a “cellular factory” pilot, the experience rapidly evolved from just-in-time and demand flow manufacturing to supply chain management. Total Quality integrated the experience and featured quality initiatives based on Phillip Crosby, W. Edwards Deming, Toyota Quality, ISO 9000 certification, and the Malcolm Baldrige Award. Completing the total integration of the high-performance journey was the development of self-directed, self-managed work teams and the deployment of the Architecture for Excellence.

These experiences resulted in numerous awards and site recognition including:

IndustryWeek Top 25 Finalist in the annual search for America’s Best Plants (1996 and 1997),

Harris Corporation Gold Award recipient for Total Quality – Malcolm Baldrige Quality Systems Review criteria (1997 and 1998), the Association for Quality & Participation’s Organizational Excellence Award (1997), Clemson University’s 21st Century Organizational Excellence Award (1997), the North American Manufacturers’ Association Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing (1996), and the Texas Association of Business & Chambers of Commerce Business of the Year Award (1996)

Dr. Guardia is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management and has received Professional in Human Resources (PHR) and Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR Lifetime) accreditations. He is a member and former president of the San Antonio Human Resource Management Association (SAHRMA) and a member of the San Antonio Manufacturing Association (SAMA).

Education:

BBA, St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, Texas

MBA, Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, Texas

Ph.D. in Leadership Studies, Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, Texas

Christopher James is a finance professional with over 20 years of experience in fast-paced, high technology manufacturing environments. His areas of expertise include cost accounting, general accounting, and financial planning. Mr. James is proficient at developing accurate financial models and markedly improving the accuracy and efficiency of planning, reporting, and forecasting processes. With his superior organizational skills, he is adept at successfully managing financial operations throughout challenging periods.

Since 2001, Mr. James has served as an independent consultant providing financial services and interim finance support to a variety of firms. His recent projects include acting as part-time controller for a start-up company in the San Francisco Bay area, reinstalling general ledger and financial reporting systems for a small multi-product manufacturing company in the Bay area, and serving as interim controller for a manufacturing company in San Antonio, Texas.

Previously, Mr. James was controller for KeraVision, Inc. in Fremont, California, where he managed the operational accounting area (accounts payable, credit and collections, payroll, cost accounting, clinical study accounting, and financial planning). His achievements included developing a fully integrated financial model of the company and providing projected business scenarios. As acting vice president of finance, he reduced the monthly cash loss from $ 3.0M to $.4M in two months and managed the company through the Chapter 11 process, sale of assets, and transition to new owners.

At Silicon Graphics, Inc. in Mountain View, California, Mr. James served as finance manager of the Customer Support and Remanufactured Products Division. He was responsible for management reporting, planning and forecasting, inventory reserve analysis, and supervising a staff of six to eight financial analysts. Mr. James developed and implemented product line reporting by geographic region, reduced the closing and reporting cycle by three days, and led the division’s finance organization through a major reorganization.

As acting controller for Cylink Wireless Communications Division of P-Com Corporate in Campbell, California, Mr. James successfully managed the consolidation of Cylink Wireless Communications Division with the P-­Com core company, consolidating two discrete business units with minimal interruption to the business. As cost accounting manager for P-Com, he developed a standard costing process for the manufacture/buy environment, reduced month-end closing to three days, and implemented a cycle count program.

Mr. James’s previous positions include manager of cost accounting for the Microwave Communications Division, Harris Corporation; finance business manager for two divisions of Maxtor Corporation; and financial analyst and cost accounting positions for a variety of firms.

Education:
M.B.A., Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho

B.S. in Marketing, Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, Connecticut

Mr. Thomas Longmire is a senior executive with over 30 years of diverse domestic and international experience. He is proficient at strategy development and execution, procurement and asset management, logistics, financial and program management, planning, scheduling, manufacturing, and marketing. Mr. Longmire has a solid history of achieving substantial cost savings and directing challenging projects that are completed on time and within budget.

As principal of Strategic Quality Initiatives, Mr. Longmire serves as a consultant to industry and educational institutions for supply chain and operations management. His accomplishments include training the administrative staff of a large urban school system in process management, team building, problem solving, and customer service. He served as co-leader of the ChevronPhillips Chemical strategic sourcing process, achieving significant savings and supply chain process improvements. As contract chief operations officer for a publishing company,
Mr. Longmire directed supply chain improvements, technology upgrades, operations, and sales and marketing.

Prior to founding his own company, Mr. Longmire held a senior executive position with a Top Five consulting firm, Accenture, at their Houston office. As senior experienced executive (supply chain service line), he provided strategy, leadership, process improvement and knowledge transfer for Fortune 100 clients such as ExxonMobil, DuPont, Huntsman, and National Grid.

As director of materials and chief procurement officer for IFCO Systems, Mr. Longmire led a decentralized procurement team responsible for 102 facilities in the U.S. and Canada. His accomplishments at IFCO include developing and implementing a corporate materials strategy, establishing national agreements that achieved savings of over 30 percent, and implementing process improvements that led to multimillion-dollar cost reductions. Previously he was director of corporate materials at FSI International, where he directed a materials organization that supported multiple U.S. and international locations. He led an enterprise resource planning design and implementation team that completed the project on time and within budget. In addition, he achieved double-digit reductions in inventory with a materials availability rate of over 95 percent.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Longmire was employed by Texas Instruments for over 17 years, where he held increasingly responsible management positions in materials, procurement, manufacturing, operations, and finance. His talent for developing new strategies and implementing efficient procurement and manufacturing processes led to a series of frequent promotions.

In addition to his professional achievements, Mr. Longmire is currently a senior examiner for the Texas Award for Performance Excellence and served as an examiner for the Defense Logistics Agency Commander’s Cup Award; an internal auditor for ISO 9000 processes at Texas Instruments, Allied Signal, and FSI International; a Junior Achievement counselor and an adjunct instructor at Grayson College. He is a member of the board of directors for the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (Southwest Region).

Education:
MBA (Acquisition and Contract Management), University of Dallas, Dallas, Texas

BSBA, Texas A&M University, Commerce, Texas

Mr. Mariotta is an accomplished executive with over 35 years of domestic and international experience in general management, operations, new product development, manufacturing, and quality management. His career highlights include managing joint development of products with AT&T and a startup company, developing an offshore software contractor, completing technical due diligence for acquisitions and equity investments, and obtaining ISO 9001 certification. He is fluent in English, German, French, and Italian.

As a consultant and board advisor to Omnisec AG, Switzerland, Mr. Mariotta participated in due diligence for the prospective buyer and developed recommendations for the purchase of the company. As interim chief executive officer (CEO), he restructured the company, achieved profitability in 14 months, and recruited and trained the new CEO.

At Gigatronics Instrument Division in San Ramon, California, Mr. Mariotta served as vice president of engineering and chief operating officer (COO) before being promoted to president and general manager. His accomplishments included releasing a critical new product, dramatically improving operational efficiency, and managing the division through a difficult period that included a severe downturn in business and cancellation of a major order.

Previously, Mr. Mariotta was president and CEO of Fusion Communications in San Francisco, California, a startup company in the voice-over IP business. He recruited the management team and key engineers, developed the business plan, and established contacts to secure initial funding. At SSE Telecom in Fremont, California, he served as executive vice president of Product Development as well as COO and chief technology officer. He was responsible for product development, engineering, manufacturing, and quality; established operational infrastructure; resolved product issues; and developed a production planning process and metrics for yields, suppliers, on-time deliveries, and quality.

At Harris Corporation Farinon Division in San Carlos, California, Mr. Mariotta served as vice president of Engineering and was responsible for the design and development of point-to-point microwave radios for a $180M international microwave transmission business. He implemented a multifunctional process for the development of new products that achieved a fivefold improvement in quality, cost, and schedule; introduced a common platform design concept; developed new technologies that made the company a market leader; and achieved a tenfold improvement in the cost of scrap, rework, and labor variances in one year. Previously, he was director of Quality Processes for Farinon Division, where he established and managed quality-related functions including test, digital production, and manufacturing engineering; introduced an automated product configurator; and played a key role in redesigning the first digital radio.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Mariotta held positions as an engineer for Farinon Electric in San Carlos and a communications engineer for Chevron USA in San Francisco, California.

Education:
Graduate courses in Microprocessors and Artificial Intelligence, University of California

Graduate studies in Business, University of Florida

Master of Science in Electrical Engineering, San Jose State University, San Jose, California

Diploma in Electrical Engineering Swiss Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland

Mr. Pankey has over 30 years of experience in business, quality, and manufacturing management.  His areas of expertise include facilitating change through consulting, coaching, education/training, assessments, and the use of a wide variety of tools and techniques.  He is proficient in the use of numerous improvement techniques including ISO 9000 and 14000, QS 9000, customer satisfaction and loyalty surveys, total quality system assessments, Kaizen, process redesign, strategic planning, councils, and conferences.

For the past 11 years, Mr. Pankey served as Director of Quality for Harris Corporation, a global Fortune 500 company in Melbourne, Florida, where he was responsible for guiding the company’s total quality improvement efforts worldwide.

During his tenure at Harris Corporation, he implemented customer satisfaction and loyalty processes that impacted sales by $600 million over a ten-year period. This was achieved through a 30% reduction of variation between division performance and improving the overall corporate performance by 15%. The implementation of a Baldrige-based assessment improved the average division performance by 110%. The use of statistical techniques helped reduceinventory in European business segments from 60 million D/M to 15 million D/M.  The use of process redesign techniques on numerous projects resulted in significant cycle time reduction and quality improvement (15% to 285%).

Prior to joining Harris, Mr. Pankey was employed by Westinghouse Electric Corporation for approximately 20 years.  He served as Director of Total Quality for Westinghouse Science and Technology Center where he facilitated, coordinated and implemented a total quality program in an R&D environment; Manager of Quality Resources for Power Systems Company where he facilitated total quality efforts worldwide; Manager of Quality for Westinghouse Underground Transformer Division in Jefferson City, Missouri; and also held positions of responsibility in both manufacturing and engineering fields during his tenure with Westinghouse.

Mr. Pankey was appointed an Examiner for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 1992 and 1993.  He served as a Senior Examiner for the State of Florida Governor’s Sterling Award, assisted Brevard County, Florida with implementing total quality improvement initiatives, and was an Examiner for the International Benchmarking Clearinghouse Award.  A member of the American Society for Quality since 1974, he has held several offices in that organization and has made presentations at their annual congress.  He also maintains membership with Manufacturers’ Alliance, has served as chairman and vice chairman, and frequently makes presentations at their biannual meetings.

Education:
B.S., Industrial Engineering, University of Tennessee

Economics, University of Georgia

Mr. Puckett has over 40 years of experience in manufacturing, including industrial engineering, program management, production operations, material management, and executive management operations. His areas of expertise include business development, team-based manufacturing, lean manufacturing, and supply chain management. Mr. Puckett’s experience in lean manufacturing includes training and facilitation in production demand flow, Kaizen process improvement, process improvement tools, and strategic planning.

Founder and president of Visions of Excellence Consulting, Mr. Puckett currently serves on the board of directors of M2 Global Technology. He is a senior examiner for the Shingo Prize in Enterprise Excellence

Mr. Puckett was co-founder and vice president of manufacturing for XEL Communications Inc. of Aurora, Colorado, a manufacturer of private line and special service telecommunications equipment for telephone companies and other companies that maintain their own telecommunications networks. Recognized by Industry Week magazine as one of America’s Top 10 Plants in 1995, XEL was an industry leader in the development and implementation of major cultural change through the philosophies of lean manufacturing and self-directed work teams in the manufacturing environment. During his 13-year tenure at XEL, Mr. Puckett was responsible for all manufacturing operations including purchasing, material management, production, manufacturing engineering, and test engineering. He facilitated the implementation of just-in-time manufacturing and surface mount technology and the integration of total quality control and world-class manufacturing philosophy into XEL’s manufacturing operation. He also was responsible for the development and management of an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) business segment within the corporation.

Prior to joining XEL, Mr. Puckett held manufacturing management positions at GTE Communications Systems, Storage Technology Corporation, Teledyne Microelectronics Corporation, and RCA Corporation.

Mr. Puckett has been a member of the Association of Manufacturing Excellence for over 30 years and has served as president of the Southwest Region, vice president of Products and Internet Development, and vice president of Alliances. In 2005 he was recognized with AME’s Lifetime Achievement award. He is a senior member and former president and director (Rocky Mountain region) of the Institute of Industrial Engineers. Mr. Puckett served as a judge for IndustryWeek’s Top 10 Plants for five years. He belongs to the Alpha Pi Mu engineering honor society and was listed in Who’s Who in Finance and Industry.

Education:
Bachelor of Industrial Engineering (BIE), Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia

Mr. Randle is a senior management professional with over 38 years of experience in corporate, educational, and entrepreneurial environments. His areas of expertise include supplier development, supply chain management, sourcing, education, training, strategic planning, program management, team building, supplier and customer relations, communication, and customer satisfaction. He is proficient at developing, implementing, and presenting innovative and effective training programs in a variety of fields.

In his 23-year career at Lockheed Martin, Mr. Randle held a series of increasingly responsible positions and received numerous awards and recognitions. As senior manager of Small Business Programs for LM Aero in Fort Worth, Texas, he administered more than $1B subcontracted to small businesses, consistently achieving a rating of “highly successful” from customers. His accomplishments included developing and implementing the Joint Strike Fighter Small Business Strategic Plan. As weapon system small business programs manager in Marietta, Georgia, he developed and implemented the F-22 Weapon System Small Business Strategic Plan, earning the Secretary of the Air Force’s Small Business Achievement Award.

In the role of small business administrator at Lockheed Martin’s Marietta location, Mr. Randle was voted Georgia Minority Supplier Development Council (GMSDC) Advocate in 1990. He served on the GMSDC board of directors from 1986 to1991 and the executive board from 1991 to 1994. He also was chairman of the GMSDC Business Opportunity Fair for two years, earning a record surplus. As training coordinator of the Materiel Branch, Mr. Randle developed, coordinated, and presented training programs for procurement and engineering that were commended by the Air Force as “Best of the Best” in 1985. He also developed a small business training program that was adopted corporate-wide.

Prior to joining Lockheed Martin, Mr. Randle served as a marketing education teacher-coordinator in Fulton County, Georgia, where he developed a competency-based curriculum that was adopted system-wide. Earlier in his career, he was a sales representative for Dun & Bradstreet in Atlanta.

Mr. Randle’s community activities include developing and presenting training courses for various community organizations and writing a weekly Small Business Q & A column for the Fort Worth Business Press. He was named one of the “Outstanding Men in Minority Business” by the Minority Business News in 1999.

Education:
Education Specialist, Vocational & Career Development degree, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia

Master of Education in Administration & Supervision, West Georgia College, Carrollton, Georgia

Bachelor of Science in Marketing Management, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Dr. Shunk has over 30 years of experience in industrial engineering and has been recognized in the semiconductor, electronics, and automotive communities for his innovative approaches to product development and productivity improvement. A professor of industrial engineering at the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University, he is pursuing research into global new product development, model-based enterprises, and the global supply chain. His latest book is Integrated Process Design and Development.

For the past three years, Dr. Shunk has been working with major electronics companies as the principal investigator on a $1.5M DARPA project developing a strategy and achieving a reduction of their times and costs by 20% to 80%. The publication of the lessons learned from this research won the Best Paper award from the Agility and Global Competition Journal. Dr. Shunk has traveled to Europe, Latin America, and Asia to present his global product development and supply chain integration methodologies to semiconductor, electronics, and automotive audiences.

Dr. Shunk is the former director of the Center for Intelligent Machines (CIM) Systems Research Center, which in 1990 won the Society of Manufacturing Engineers LEAD Award as the best CIM research center in the world. He was cofounder of the US Air Force Integrated Computer Aided Manufacturing (ICAM) program, where he launched such industry standards as IDEF and IGES. Previous positions include manager of industrial engineering at Rockwell, manager of manufacturing systems at International Harvester, and vice president and general manager of the Integrated Systems Division of GCA Corporation.

Dr. Shunk helped Motorola conceive Motorola University and has served on their faculty since 1984. He is on the editorial board of the Agility and Global Competition Journal and the International Journal of Flexible Automation and Integrated Manufacturing. He is an active member of the International Federation of Information Processors (IFIP) Committee 5.3 on CIM and is a senior member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE). He has served as a consultant to the United States Army, Motorola, Digital Equipment Corporation, SUN Microsystems, Transcript Communications, Level One Communications, Intel, Oracle, and Avnet.

Awards won by Dr. Shunk include the 1996 SME International Award for Education, the 1991 I&MSE Faculty of the Year award, the 1989 SME Region VII Educator of the Year award, and the 1982 SME Outstanding Young Engineer award. He has served on the board of advisors of CASA of the SME, the board of directors of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence, and the Manufacturing Studies board of the National Research Council. In addition, he participated in the creation of the Next Generation Manufacturing Project.

Education:
Ph.D., Industrial Engineering, Purdue University, Indiana

M.S., Industrial Engineering, Purdue University, Indiana

B.S, Industrial Engineering, Purdue University, Indiana

Ms. Stopher is a management consultant with over 16 years of experience in applying lean concepts to a variety of organizations. Her areas of expertise include lean assessments, implementation, training, strategy deployment, leadership, and tools (5S, value stream mapping, total productive maintenance, pull systems, and more). With a proven ability to strategically analyze and capitalize on business, product, and growth opportunities, she has a track record of developing and executing strategic and tactical solutions that have markedly improved competitive performance for numerous businesses and government organizations.

As owner and principal of Ultimate Lean Inc., Ms. Stopher works with diverse groups of change agents, motivators, and team builders to streamline processes and optimize performance. Her clients include the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Atlantic Management Center, Perdue Farms, Pactiv (Hefty Bag), Astra Zeneca, Dade Behring, and ILC Dover.

Prior to founding Ultimate Lean Inc., Ms. Stopher served as manager of the National Lean Initiative of NIST in Maryland, where she was responsible for the development of a national strategy to deploy Lean Enterprise training across the U.S. to over 2,000 engineers and thousands of businesses. She designed and managed the curriculum development, training, and deployment strategy; coordinated seven nationally-recognized lean training courses and a series of implementation events; and created and led a national lean network of engineers.

Previously, as vice president of Product Development at the Lean Enterprise Institute, Ms. Stopher organized workshops and developed training materials and curricula. As director of the National Lean Initiative, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, she was responsible for the first national U.S. government-sponsored program to introduce and implement lean principles into U.S. manufacturers’ operations to improve their global competitiveness.

As engineering manager at Danaher Motion (formerly American Precision Industries) in Buffalo, New York, Ms. Stopher successfully used Pre Production Preparation (3P) and Design for Manufacturability, Assembly, and Leanability tools to dramatically reduce overall product cost and bring offshore business in-house. Earlier in her career, Ms. Stopher served as a manufacturing engineer for Xerox Corporation, where she used lean principles and tools to design remanufacturing lines, tooling, and equipment to meet quality, cost, delivery, and service targets.

Ms. Stopher’s recognitions include the U.S. Department of Commerce Bronze Medal Award for outstanding leadership in developing unique lean manufacturing training opportunities for all centers in the Manufacturing Extension Partnership’s nationwide system. She has been a featured speaker for events at the Kellogg School of Business, MIT, George Washington University, the Industry for Industrial Engineers, and the Association for Manufacturing Excellence.

Education:
MBA in Operations Management, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York

B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York