Lean Accounting Summit Presenters
The Lean Accounting Summit has a reputation of drawing the world's most recognized lean and lean accounting thought-leaders.

Bruce Baggaley

Bruce Baggaley, Senior Partner, BMA, Inc., specializes in the development and implementation of management processes that incorporate Lean Accounting and lean performance management systems. His functional expertise includes the development of management information for operational and financial planning and control, in implementing financial accounting control systems, and in applying activity-based management principles to reengineering operating processes. He has extensive experience in aerospace and defense, public utility, telecommunications, semiconductor manufacturing and service industries. Prior to forming his own firm Mr. Baggaley was a Accounting and Audit partner at KPMG responsible for strategic planning for the firm and a managing associate in the management controls consulting practice of Coopers & Lybrand in New York, and was a Professional Accounting Fellow at the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Mr. Baggaley received an AB in Economics from Dartmouth College and an MBA in Finance from Columbia University Graduate School of Business, where he was a member Beta Gamma Sigma honorary society and is a Certified Public Accountant. Mr. Baggaley is a frequent speaker on lean accounting and the management of lean companies and is co-author of the book Practical Lean Accounting about implementing Lean Accounting.

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Terry Begnoche

Terry presently serves as a Member and Industry Relations Manager at the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) www.sme.org. SME is a non-profit professional development society serving the manufacturing community. Terry works with manufacturing professionals in product and process design & management, lean manufacturing, quality, and supply chain focusing on collaborative learning and improvement. Terry’s career interest has evolved from responding to environmental emergencies to managing liabilities through controlled compliance and on to proactive prevention and creative re-design to eliminate problems and improve performance. Terry approaches work as an opportunity to help create win/win/win outcomes for people, their economy, and the supporting environment. Terry worked to help SME, AME, and the Shingo Prize collaborate to create a meaningful Lean Certification and the related Lean Registry. 

Prior to joining SME, Terry had over 20 years of environmental, management, safety, training and regulatory experience. He began studying quality and management systems design and improvement because he perceived that the accomplishment of environmental, safety, and general business aims was frequently hindered by management system conflicts. Simultaneously, he developed and began teaching classes at Oakland University combining Lean, Quality, Business, and Environmental Management in courses such as Pollution Prevention and Environmental Management. 

Terry received a BS in Environmental Science from the University of Michigan at Dearborn and an MSBA in Quality and Operations Management from Madonna University. Terry is belongs to Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME), American Society for Quality (ASQ), SME, and the Michigan Association of Environmental Professionals (MAEP past President and recipient of the 2001 Outstanding Environmental Professional Award).

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Michael Bremer

Michael Bremer is a managing partner of the Chicago office of The Cumberland Group, and an Adjunct Senior Project Manager for Motorola University and Oriel/Stata-Matrix.  He is a nationally recognized speaker on process improvement, lean manufacturing, leadership, and management team effectiveness.  He has thirty years experience including director of the information systems group for a Fortune 25 company, Chief Financial Officer for an international association and President of several new business start-ups.  

Michael has been a speaker for the American Quality & Productivity Center, the Association Manufacturing Excellence and spoke at the White House Conference on Productivity. He serves on the national board of the Association Manufacturing Excellence and is a past board member of the Strategic Management Association and Board President of Old Town School of Folk Music. 

Michael has a Bachelors of Science Degree in Business from the University of Missouri – St. Louis, he is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Lean Bronze level certified (SME), CPA, and CMC.  He has published a number of articles on process improvement, corporate strategy and performance metrics. He co-authored the “Six Sigma Black Belt Handbook,” was lead author for “Six Sigma Financial Tracking & Reporting” both published by McGraw-Hill; his new book (2007) is on Innovation.

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Mark Carpenter

Mark Carpenter has been the Controller for Parker Hannifin's Quick Coupling Division for 17 years.  The Quick Coupling lean journey started in 2001 and lean accounting was introduced shortly thereafter.  Mark has been leading the lean accounting efforts at Quick Coupling and has been a frequent trainer at other Parker divisions for lean accounting as well as other classes.

In 2004, Sales Operations & Financial Planning was introduced at Quick Coupling Division.  Mark has been the project leader for this effort since inception.

Mark has a BS in Accounting from Western Illinois University.

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Frank Celmer

Frank Celmer is the controller for TC Industries, Inc. in Crystal Lake, Illinois.  Since 2005 Frank has helped spearhead his company’s Lean journey and serves on several Lean steering committees.  He holds “Accounting for Lean” seminars for local and national companies and also collaborates with a lean manufacturing consultant to promote the early involvement and integration of accounting into the Lean process.  Frank had the privilege to help organize and present TC Industries as a 2007 tour site for the AME Conference last October.  

Frank also serves as an instructor at Judson University and McHenry County College in the Business and Accounting departments.  Frank holds a MBA with a certificate in Project Management and was featured in the April 2007 issue of “Lean Accounting News.”

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David Cochran, Ph.D.

Dr. David S. Cochran is the founder of System Design, LLC (2003). He was on the Mechanical Engineering faculty at MIT from (1995-2003). He established the Production System Design (PSD) Laboratory at MIT (1995) and his company (2003) to advance the science of system design and integrated performance measurement which provides a roadmap for advancement beyond the success of “lean” and the Toyota Production System. He is a two-time recipient of the prestigious Shingo Prize (2002 and 1989) for manufacturing excellence for his work in the design of “lean” systems. He received the Dudley Prize for best paper from the International Journal of Production Research in 2000 for his work to integrate system design theory. A special issue of the Journal of Manufacturing Systems (v. 20, No. 6 2001/2002) highlights his work in developing the MSDD (Manufacturing System Design Decomposition) and case study research with the Automotive and Aerospace industries.

Dr. Cochran has developed the Collective System Design (CSD) methodology for advancement beyond the results achieved with lean and six-sigma (while not replacing the fundamentals of lean or six-sigma). CSD codifies the leadership and technical principles that bring success to companies like Toyota, Honda, GE and Southwest airlines through a language for system design. It integrates change leadership through dialogue, a diagnosis to design process to identify and resolve problems, principles for designing effective systems, a language for system design and tools to take thinking from structure to action in many applications including government, industry, service and cross-sector systems in scope.

Dr. Cochran is facilitating system design change with major Aerospace, Automotive and Consumer Products companies. His work is presently focused on the Collective System Design of enterprise, and integrated product design and delivery systems with THAAD, Lockheed Martin, Visteon and Hewlett Packard.

Dr. Cochran has consulted Lockheed Martin (F-22, JSF, Space Systems, Missiles and Fire Control: PAC-3), NASA, Visteon Automotive (6 divisions including Electronics, Plastics, Climate Control, Glass, and Chassis components), Robert Bosch Corp.(2 divisions: AB and AP), Ford Motor Company, Dell Computer, and Kinetic Systems. Prior to joining MIT, he worked for Ford Motor Company (Electronics and Automotive Components Division), Lord Aerospace and the US Army Corps of Engineers, Systems Engineering Division.

Dr. Cochran is adjunct faculty at Meijo University in Nagoya, Japan in the Production Engineering - Management Program and is guest lecturer to the Production Engineering Institute (TUT), Tampere, Finland. He is a Board Member of the Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership and is affiliated with the Society of Organizational Learning founded at MIT. Dr. Cochran received his Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Auburn University and M.Sc. in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University.

For articles by Dr. Cochran and more information click here

Learn more about Dr. Cochran's Cost Management and Lean System Design Simulation bonus event on day 2 of the seminar

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Jean Cunningham

Jean Cunningham, founder of Jean Cunningham Consulting (JCC), is internationally recognized as a pioneer in the Lean Accounting field.  In addition to an extensive speaking schedule, Jean also currently serves as the CFO of the Association of Manufacturing Excellence as well as the CFO for Stiles Associates, an executive retain search firm focusing on Lean and Six Sigma.

Jean is the co-author of the acclaimed book, Real Numbers: Management Accounting in a Lean Organization, an essential text for learning Lean Accounting.  She has also recently co-authored another book, Easier, Simpler, Faster – a book about Lean and Information Systems.  Both books have been awarded the Shingo Prize, which Newsweek magazine referred to as the “Nobel Prize of Manufacturing.”

Jean was previously the former Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Company Services at Lantech, LLC and Marshfield Door Systems, Inc..  It was during these tenures that Jean launched her Lean career, driving Lean from the manufacturing floor into the backoffice functions to include Finance, Information Systems, Human Resources and Telecommunications.  

Prior to joining Lantech, LLC, Jean was a finance professional with Digital Equipment Corporation and Westinghouse Electric, holding a number of senior Controllership and Treasury positions.

Jean has a BS in Accounting from Indiana University and an MBA from Northeastern University’s Executive Program.  She and her family reside in the Chicago area.

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Bob Dean

Bob Dean is a co-founder of TBM Consulting Group, Inc. and has developed most of TBM’s training and new products, a role that keeps him on the leading edge of trends in business improvement. Bob has been instrumental in the incorporation of lean business techniques and Six Sigma – creating LeanSigma® – and in taking the improvement tools that traditionally belonged to manufacturing and applying them to service industries.

Bob is a frequent contributor to the Managing Times quarterly journal where he writes on developments in lean philosophies and, most recently, he has been helping companies integrate their value chains beyond manufacturing.

For nearly 20 years, Bob has been consulting with companies from the manufacturing and service sectors worldwide such as Allied Signal, Ames True Temper and Pella Corporation. He continues to have close ties with the Japanese team responsible for the legendary Toyota Production System, and has worked extensively with the core group of men who worked under Taichii Ohno, recognized as the father of just in time. Bob is a graduate of Clarkson University with a degree in Engineering.

TBM Consulting Group, Inc. has been instrumental in bringing lean business principles to the United States, Europe and South America over the past decade. From its Connecticut beginnings, TBM has branched out to include offices on three continents, while growing at a rate of about 30 percent annually. Profiled in several publications, TBM has been credited with turning around hundreds of companies worldwide in the manufacturing and service sectors.

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Orry Fiume

Orest (Orry) J. Fiume was vice president of Finance and Administration and a director of The Wiremold Company, West Hartford, CT, which gained international recognition as a leader in lean business management in “Lean Thinking,” by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones. Orry was Wiremold’s senior financial officer from 1978 until his retirement in 2002. Before that, he was an audit manager with Coopers & Lybrand.

Orry led Wiremold’s conversion to lean accounting in 1991 and developed alternate accounting systems that supported the company’s entire lean business efforts. He went on to install lean accounting at more than 20 Wiremold acquisitions. Orry has studied lean production in both the U.S. and Japan and has been a guest speaker at many conferences throughout the U.S. In addition, he has taught courses on management accounting in a lean business at The TBM Institute, The University of Dayton Center for Competitive Change, The Center for Lean Business Management, MEP’s in five states, and numerous companies. He also was a member of the People to People Program’s Economic Management Delegation to China to discuss U.S. financial management practices. More recently, Orry has co-authored the 2004 Shingo Prize winning book, Real Numbers: Management Accounting in a Lean Organization and was inducted as a Life Member of the Shingo Prize Academy, which has been referred to by Business Week as the Nobel prize in manufacturing.

Orry has an MS in Management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a BBA in Accounting from Fairfield University. He is a certified public accountant, and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and Financial Executives International, where he is a past president of the Connecticut Valley Chapter. He also serves on the Board of Directors of several companies.

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Janice Frampton

Janice Frampton is a Senior Lean Consultant with Jean Cunningham Consulting (JCC), a financial and process improvement consulting firm with clients throughout the United States. The firm specializes in “Lean Beyond Manufacturing” offering a full range of services that redesign business processes into a lean framework that sustains waste elimination and supports ongoing and long-term improvements.

Prior to joining JCC, Janice was the Director of Finance Excellence for Solectron Corporation, where she was responsible for designing and disseminating a Lean Six Sigma Program across Solectron’s worldwide Finance organization. Her focus was on the education and development of functional lean leaders around the globe while simultaneously driving and measuring the impact of lean events across a decentralized and diverse team of 800 professionals worldwide. Some of the major processes that were leanified across the organization included:

• Monthly and Quarterly Close
• Legal Entity Structure
• VAT Tax Recoveries
• Customer Profitability Statements
• Rolling 12-Month Forecast Process
• Business Metrics and Reporting Requirements

While at Solectron, Janice was also the General Manager of a New England based manufacturing operation with an expertise in new product introduction and high mix/low volume as well as Director of Finance, I/T, H/R and Administration for a self-contained subsidiary.

Prior to joining Solectron, Janice spent fifteen years with Digital Equipment Corporation/COMPAQ Computer Corporation in various financial roles, including OEM Divisional Controller, European and Asian Internal Audit Manager, International FP&A Manager as well as multiple positions in the Corporate Controller’s office.

Janice has a BS in Accounting from Rochester Institute of Technology and is a Certified Public Accountant. Janice resides with her family in the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts.

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Rosemary Fullerton

Rosemary Fullerton is an associate professor in the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University (USU) where she teaches undergraduate cost accounting and graduate advanced management accounting, focusing on lean principles and lean accounting. During her tenure at USU, she has been affiliated with the Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence, serving as an applicant reviewer, site examiner, and team leader.  

Dr. Fullerton’s research is centered on the relationships among Lean manufacturing, cost accounting and performance measures, and firm profitability. Her current research interests include investigating the prevalence of Lean accounting and the impact of cost accounting practices in Lean manufacturing environments. Dr. Fullerton has published her research in some of the top academic accounting and operations management journals. She has also presented her research at numerous universities and conferences throughout the U.S. and in Canada, Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands, and Italy. Dr. Fullerton has received awards for outstanding teaching and research. She co-authored with Jerry Solomon the Shingo Prize winning book, Accounting for World Class Operations. Her manuscript, The Role of Performance Measures and Incentive Systems in Relation to the Degree of JIT Implementation, co-authored with Dr. Cheryl McWatters from the University of Alberta, also received a Shingo Research Prize in 2004.  

In 2007, Professor Fullerton completed a year-long sabbatical where she worked with leading Lean consultants at various U.S. manufacturing firms, helping managers transition their accounting systems to become more relevant in Lean environments. She has presented workshops on Lean accounting to both professional and academic audiences around the country.  

Dr. Fullerton has a Ph.D. from the University of Utah. She also earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Brigham Young University and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting from Utah State University. In addition to USU, Professor Fullerton has taught at McGill University, University of Utah, and Weber State University. Prior to her academic career, she worked as a CPA. She is a member of the American Accounting Association, the Institute of Management Accountants, the American Institute of CPAs, and the Utah Association of CPAs, where she currently serves on the Business and Management Council.

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Debbie Gavin

Debbie is the Vice President of Finance and Controller for Boeing Commercial Airplanes.  Named to the position in June 2005, she is responsible for business operations, accounting, financial planning and reporting, estimating and cost management activities.  She leads the Finance Process Council and Skill Teams.

Her prior roles at Boeing include Vice President Airplane Production Finance and Program Management Office, Vice President of Supplier Management for Business Operations and Finance, Director of Finance for Supplier Management, Director of Finance and Information Systems for the Fabrication Division, Director of Revenue Management for sales activities in Asia, and Director of Finance for the 757 Airplane Program.  She has also held positions in Corporate Internal Audit, Corporate Planning, and Information Systems.  Debbie joined Boeing in 1986 after working in Management Consulting for Deloitte and as a Special Agent for the U.S. Department of the Treasury. 

Debbie received her bachelor of science degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo and her master’s of business administration degree from Seattle University.  She is a Certified Public Accountant.

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Larry Grasso

Larry Grasso is a professor of accounting at Central Connecticut State University, where he has developed a course on lean accounting.  Larry's primary research interests are performance measurement, performance evaluation and incentives to support lean management and environmental and social sustainability. Larry has authored or co-authored several cases and articles appearing in journals such as The Accounting Review and the Journal of Cost Management.  Most recently his case Aero Gear, Inc.: Performance measurement, cost management and product costing in a lean transition, is forthcoming in the September 2008 issue of IMA Educational Case Journal.  Larry has presented at numerous conferences nationally and internationally. He has also served as a consultant for firms in the aerospace and metal finishing industries.

Larry participated in an extensive field study of The Wiremold Company, exploring Wiremold's transition to Lean business practices over a ten year period. Larry wrote one chapter, co-wrote another chapter, and contributed financial analysis and tables to a third chapter in Better Thinking, Better Results: Using the Power of Lean as a Total Business Solution, the book reporting the results of the study. He also contributed a chapter to Lean Accounting: Best Practices for Sustainable Integration. 

Larry earned a BS in Accounting from Utica College of Syracuse University and began his career in public accounting, earning an MBA in Management from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute while working as a CPA in Connecticut.  He then earned a DBA in Accounting with a minor in Information Systems from Boston University, and taught at the School of Accounting and Information Management at Arizona State University and the Lally School of Management at Rensselaer at Hartford before joining the faculty at CCSU.

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Dustin Hostetler 

Dustin Hostetler is a business consultant and Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt for Rea & Associates, Inc., a top 100 accounting and business consulting firm with offices in Ohio. He helps clients implement lean and six sigma concepts in their office and service functions. Industries where he’s applied his talents include: manufacturing, retail, food service and professional services. In addition, he is a pioneer in helping accounting firms apply lean concepts to their unique functions like tax return and payroll preparation, pension administration, bookkeeping and governmental auditing.  

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Nick Katko

Nick joined BMA in 2002 as a senior consultant after a career as a manufacturing CFO & controller. As CFO for E.D. Bullard Company, a privately held manufacturer of personal safety equipment, Nick led the company in the implementation of lean accounting techniques – this includes implementing performance measurements, value stream costing, lean decision making and the elimination of Bullard’s traditional standard cost system.

Nick is a featured speaker on lean accounting at the University of Kentucky’s Lean Manufacturing Leadership Institutes and the Lexington, KY APICS Chapter.

Nick has a BS in Accounting and MBA in Finance, both from the University of Kentucky

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Frances Kennedy

Dr. Frances Kennedy teaches managerial accounting at Clemson University in the School of Accountancy and Legal Studies. She earned her Phd in Accounting from the University of North Texas in 2001 and has been at Clemson ever since. Dr. Kennedy’s 13 years of experience in public accounting and at industry enriches her teaching as well as informs her research. Her experience at Rubbermaid includes plant financial and inventory management, corporate reporting and new product team analyst. 

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Mark Kohler

Mark is a 28-year veteran of operations management and lean manufacturing leadership. He has spent his career transforming global manufacturing operations, including the development and execution of policy deployment at TRW Automotive, Rexnord Industries, and most recently at Snap-On Tools. In addition to his leadership in these roles, Mark has also dedicated the time to earn his Six Sigma black belt and to become a certified Shingijutsu leader and Certified Lean Technician. 

Mark earned a master’s degree in 1981 from the University of Missouri in Columbia and has bachelor’s degrees in finance from Washburn University, Topeka, KS, and in manufacturing engineering from Lawrence Technical College, Southfield, MI.  Mark is also a graduate of the Eliyahu Goldratt Institute TOC (Theory of Constraints).

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Glenn Marshall

Glenn Marshall brings over 30 years of hands on experience in the development and deployment of a  Value Stream Management  approach to leading and sustaining a Continuous Improvement System (CIS). CIS integrates Lean and Six Sigma methodology, principles, with other CI tools to sustain ongoing continuous improvement cycles.

At Northrop Grumman Newport News, Glenn is the Sector Benchmarking Champion  and  works at all levels of the corporation to develop cross functional teams that take a value stream approach to identify and eliminate waste, defects, variation, and performance gaps from core business processes. Benchmarking is use as a key CI tool to identify “best practices” and then share knowledge to rapidly close gaps in value stream performance.

The goal of these teams is to use value stream mapping and management to identify key constraints and use Lean Six Sigma to drive continuous improvement results. In addition, he has help design and deploy CIS  to achieve higher efficiency and maturity levels across the enterprise. Glenn is both Lean and Six Sigma Certified.

Glenn was an Operations / Site Manager with Texas Instruments Defense Systems working at multiple sites including supporting international partnerships. In that role he championed continuous improvements initiatives, led the design and deployment of integrated factory systems. Glenn was one of the leaders in TI becoming the first defense company to win the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

Glenn is actively involved with professional and learning organizations:

• Association for Manufacturing Excellence - National  Director at Larger

• US Senate Productivity and Quality Award Examiner for Virginia 

• Hampton Roads Quality Management Community Steering Council - Community of Practice

• AME National Chair – Growth and Visibility Committee

• Lean Accounting for Defense Industry - Community of Practice

• Virginia Business Excellence Consortium – Steering Committee

• Northrop Grumman Corporation - Process Excellence  Community of Practice

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Brian Maskell 

Brian H. Maskell, President of BMA Inc., 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. Over the past fifteen years Mr. Maskell's consulting practice has taken him to many manufacturing and distribution companies in the United States, England, Mexico, Australia, South Africa, and Europe. In recent years BMA Inc has specialized in the changes required to accounting, control, management, and measurement methods for companies pursuing lean transformation. Mr. Maskell is regarded by many as a leading expert in Lean Accounting.

A sought-after speaker, Brian Maskell is the author of six books including; Practical Lean Accounting (2003), 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 Life's Little Lean Accounting Instruction Book (2006).  Mr. Maskell's works address the needs of manufacturers as they move into the increasingly competitive 21st century. Mr. Maskell conducts seminars and workshops around the world on such subjects as Lean Accounting, Performance Measurement for World Class Manufacturing, Value Stream Cost Management, Target Costing, and Lean Accounting Processes; Transaction Elimination.

Mr. Maskell has an engineering degree from the University of Sussex, England. He is certified with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) in London, and the American Association of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). He is a Fellow of the American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS). Mr. Maskell also teaches at the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA. He is the author of numerous articles and papers and regularly presents papers at national and international conferences.

For articles by Brian Maskell and more information, click here

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Carl Mason

Carl has responsibility to “coach” the Boeing Commercial Aircraft Headquarters on implementing Lean as a management system.  He leads a group of consultants that are responsible for helping the Executives to develop Strategies and Plans that lead to a dramatic transformation of the business.

The changes that have taken place to date have enabled record sales in both 2005 & 2006, along with changes to the financial processes used within Boeing Commercial Airplanes. 

Carl has been with Boeing for 21 years and has managed various support & manufacturing organizations within BCA giving him a well rounded knowledge of the Boeing production system.  

Carl co-authored the tactics that led to the “moving line” for the 737 program, and has supported numerous special projects that have dramatically reduced the expenses associated with designing, building, certifying, and delivering aircraft and services for Boeing Commercial Aircraft Company. 

Carl grew up in a small town in Montana, and attended Montana State University receiving a degree in Finance.

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Ed Miller

Edward B. Miller is currently a principal of Strategy Development Services, LLC, a consulting company he founded to help companies along their Lean transformation by developing corporate and go-to-market strategies based on Lean Business Principles as well as deploying them (using Hoshin Kanri) through the entire enterprise and to the customer.   

Ed is a senior-level executive who is experienced with developing, leading, and executing successful business strategies including enterprise-wide lean transformations.  Ed has over 32 years of industry experience as an executive in marketing, sales, and engineering with the practical know-how of applying Lean principles to win in the marketplace.  Ed has co-authored several articles and case studies on Lean strategies in marketing and sales. He is a member of the Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) Business School Advisory Council and a member of the Connecticut Shingo Prize Advisory Board.   

During his 10 years at one of the early adopters of Lean in North America, The Wiremold Company, Ed was Vice President of Marketing & Sales.  He was a member of the leadership team that transformed the company applying lean principles throughout the enterprise.  Ed’s leadership helped Wiremold leverage the company’s lean capabilities with all customers in the buying chain.  This allowed Wiremold to achieve strong market position, expand its markets and realize significant and sustainable double digit growth.  Results were dramatic, during 1993 to 2000, sales grew 4.5X while operating profits increased 14 fold.  

Previously, Ed served three years at GS Edwards, a unit of General Signal, as the Vice President of Engineering, and almost 15 years at The General Electric Company holding several key management positions.  At GE, Ed was Manager of Product Marketing at GE Electrical Distribution & Control, Manager of Engineering for GE Wiring Devices, Engineering Manager of the GE PLC Venture, and a Research Electronics Engineer at the GE-Corp Research & Development Center.   

Miller holds a B.E. in Electrical Engineering from The City College of New York and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Union College.  Ed also attended many GE business management training programs at Crontonville, NY and Globally including, MDC, BMC, AAMS, et al.  He has been awarded 20 patents, and was named “Inventor of the Year” in 1980 by the New York Patent Law Association.

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Peggy Neale

Peggy Neale is Controller for Landscape Forms where she has worked since 1993.  Her 30 plus year accounting career has been in both private and public accounting, most of which has been in the manufacturing sector.  Peggy received her BBA in Accounting from Davenport University.

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David Paino

Prior to joining BMA, Inc., David was the Vice President of Operations with an auto-parts remanufacturing company in Philadelphia.  David was the driving force behind the introduction of lean manufacturing and other lean methods that – according to the company’s President – saved the company in these increasingly competitive times.  David has also served as President of an industrial parts distribution company and is very experienced with warehousing, distribution, and inventory planning methods.  Prior to moving into production operations, David did his MBA work at Villanova University as a finance major and worked as a plant and corporate controller.

David is currently working on Lean Accounting projects with the Boeing Commercial Aircraft Company, a multi-national defense equipment manufacturer; a Maryland pre-fabricated building products company, and a division of the Ingersoll Rand Corporation.  David also specializes in quick & easy kaizen methods that are used to motivate and empower the entire workforce for lean improvement.

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Steve Player

Steve Player, CPA, serves as the North American Program Director for the Beyond Budgeting Round Table, an international network focused on improving planning and control, and Managing Director of The Player Group. He has over 20 years experience in implementing cost and performance management, strategic planning and process improvements. Some of Steve’s clients have included American Express, Colgate Palmolive, Hewlett-Packard, The Covey Leadership Center and World Vision. He is the co-author/editor of four books on Activity-Based Management including, Lessons from the ABM Battlefield. He founded and runs the Activity-Based Management Advanced Implementation Group, whose members include Bell South and Bell Canada. Steve has served on the Board of Directors of the Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing - International (CAM-I) and provided insight for the AICPA Industry and Management Accounting Executive Committee. Steve is a frequent speaker and media resource.

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Richard J. Schonberger, Ph.D.

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Jerrold M. Solomon

Jerry Solomon has had a unique opportunity to implement Lean accounting and manufacturing techniques as he’s simultaneously held the positions of Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Manufacturing at three middle market manufacturing companies.  In his dual role he was able to cast aside traditional departmental barriers and galvanize the accounting and manufacturing areas to develop timely and actionable information. 

While CFO and VP of Manufacturing at PACE, Inc., an electronics manufacturing firm providing equipment to the telecommunications, consumer electronics, automotive, computer and medical industries, Mr. Solomon led PACE’s Lean transformation resulting in customer lead-time reductions of 75%, productivity improvements of 64%, space reductions of 50%, quality improvements of 100%, and a doubling of inventory turns.  In addition to the improvements taking place in manufacturing, the cost accounting system was simplified and the use of MRP for executing the production plan was eliminated in favor of a pull system with electronic links to all suppliers.  As a result of these efforts, PACE, Inc. was certified as a World-Class company by the Maryland World Class Manufacturing Consortium, the first and only company to be awarded this distinction in the Consortium’s twelve year history. 

Currently Mr. Solomon is the Vice President of Operations – Hunt Valley, for MarquipWardUnited, the largest division of the Barry-Wehmiller Companies Inc., the Western Hemisphere’s leading packaging automation and converting group.   

Mr. Solomon has a B. S. degree from Clarkson University, an M. S. degree from Michigan Technological University and an M. B. A. degree from the University of Chicago.  He’s served on the Board of Directors of Vermont Castings Inc. as well as the Green Mountain Economic Development Corporation and currently is on the Board of Directors of the Maryland World Class Manufacturing Consortium.  

Mr. Solomon teaches Lean Accounting in association with a number of Universities and has delivered keynote addresses to a variety of companies and organizations.  He has also been featured on the Lean Accounting video published by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and has presented Lean Accounting on a national web cast sponsored by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. 

Mr. Solomon is the author of the Shingo Award winning book, Who’s Counting?, a highly acclaimed business novel focusing on the interaction of the manufacturing and accounting functions during a Lean transformation, and Leading Lean, a novel about a three day Lean event.  In collaboration with Professor Rosemary Fullerton, Mr. Solomon has also written, Accounting for World Class Operations, which has also won the Shingo prize.  

Mr. Solomon brings a truly unique perspective to the requirements of manufacturers in their quest to achieve World-Class performance.

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David Strothmann

Dave Strothmann is the Manufacturing Value Network Director for SAP America, the worldwide leader of business management software. In his role, Dave is responsible for building customer communities, providing thought leadership, and influencing product strategy for SAP.  Advancing the state-of-the-art of software support for lean manufacturing is an area of special interest.  

Dave joined SAP in 2006.  Dave brings 24 years of experience in industrial manufacturing management and software product management to SAP.  Prior to joining SAP, Dave spent 8 years in product strategy, product management and marketing within the ERP software industry.  Prior to joining the software industry Dave spent 15 years in the industrial manufacturing industry in a variety of different roles of increasing responsibility including Manager of Contracts and Pricing for an aerospace company and Director of Operations for an industrial equipment manufacturer. 

Dave holds a bachelor of science degree in marketing from Northern Illinois University.  

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Conrad Sutter

Conrad has had over 30 years experience in accounting in manufacturing companies.  He has been the CFO for Landscape Forms, Inc. for the last ten years.  Conrad has an undergraduate degree in accounting from Western Michigan University and an MBA from Drake University.

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