GBMP

Bruce Hamilton brings hands-on experience to GBMP 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 GBMP, 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. Read Bruce's blog at www.oldleandude.org

Patricia (Pat) Wardwell has over 20 years of experience in manufacturing. Prior to joining GBMP, Pat was Vice President of Operations at United Electric Controls Company, a 1990 winner of the Shingo Prize for Manufacturing Excellence. Pat has been involved with continuous improvement efforts on the shop floor and in support areas since 1987 and has been a speaker at many regional and national conferences on related topics. In the mid 1990's, when United Electric stepped up its emphasis on the use of the Toyota Production System, Ms. Wardwell coordinated much of the education program. In 1997, Pat became the manager for the company's Office of Continuous Process Improvement. In this role, she led a group of employees who were 100% focused on training and helping operators to make improvements. She has led numerous cross-functional improvement teams in areas ranging from shipping to assembly to machining. She also led the team that successfully implemented a new, company-wide business information system, which had to support a company in transition from batch to lean manufacturing. Pat was co-leader of a successful ISO9001 implementation team and is an experienced ISO lead auditor. She holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Maine and an MBA from Bentley College. She is APICS Certified in Integrated Resource Management.

Lela Glikes holds a BS in Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management from Penn State University and has completed all of her coursework towards an MA degree in Psychology from Harvard University. Prior to joining GBMP, Ms. Glikes held positions in Operations Management and Marketing in the hospitality and medical device industries. As Program Manager for GBMP, Lela works to promote GBMP's mission to help New England companies become more productive and competitive through superior educational events and resources. She is also the Conference Coordinator for the annual Northeast Shingo Prize Conference.

Tracy Reardon comes to GBMP with many years of manufacturing experience both on the plant floor and in front office and HR management. She is working towards her B.S. in Business Management. At GBMP, Tracy is responsible for making sure that GBMP runs smoothly at all times - working closely with Lela & Jamie - and to ensure GBMP clients, customers and members receive the best possible service we can provide.

Jamie Millman comes to GBMP with an intensive background in SaaS, high tech, print marketing and internet sales. He brings to GBMP over a decade of experience at all levels of the sales cycle in high level inside and outside corporate sales as well as brokering strategic business partnerships within a diverse set of industries. Jamie works to introduce new prospects to GBMP's services and to help facilitate their introduction to Lean/Continuous Improvement. He is primarily responsible for new business, client service and business retention.

Dan has over 25 years experience in engineering and operations including over 20 years of Continuous Improvement experience. Dan has been involved with continuous improvement efforts on the shop floor and in support areas since 1986 and has been a speaker at many regional and national conferences. Prior to becoming a Continuous Improvement Manager at GBMP in 2002, Dan was Director of Operations at United Electric Controls Company, where he was a recipient of the Shingo Prize for Manufacturing Excellence. Dan has worked with hundreds of companies in many industries, including consumer, missile and defense systems, medical device, pharmaceutical, equipment manufacturers, food and food processing, machine shops, contract manufacturers, warehouse and distribution, and healthcare organizations. Mr. Fleming holds a Bachelor's Degree in Engineering Technology from Northeastern University.

Bruce McGill has over 25 years of experience in manufacturing. Prior to joining GBMP, he spent 11 years at the executive level implementing lean manufacturing methods in 3 different companies, each of which had significant improvements in service levels, inventory, and profitability. Bruce was employed by United Electric Controls for seven years and was instrumental in getting their "Lean Journey" going. Bruce has been involved with continuous improvement efforts on the shop floor and in support areas since 1983. As one of GBMP's hands-on trainers, Bruce is very comfortable communicating at the executive level as well as with shop floor personnel. Bruce holds a BSBA degree from Norwich University

Prior to joining GBMP, Ron spent twenty years in manufacturing starting his career as a Cymbal Smith at the Avedis Zildjian Company and moving up the ranks to Director of Manufacturing. He left Zildjian and was Director of Operations for Warerite Distributors, a high volume countertop manufacturer, for 7 years where he became a practitioner of the Toyota Production System. Ron has a Black Belt in Six Sigma from the Juran Institute and his Master Black Belt from 6Sigma.us in Austin Texas. He received his BS from Northeastern University. All of our Six Sigma Programs can be specifically designed for you company's needs and culture. Each skill from the Six Sigma "road map" can be taught individually or on site with as many employees as desired.

Prior to joining GBMP, Bob Elliott spent 25 years in manufacturing implementing lean during his tenures at several manufacturing companies where he held shop floor positions such as manufacturing machining manager, manufacturing engineer and operations manager. Bob has been a speaker at the Eastec tool show and an examiner for the Northeast Shingo Prize. He has also been very active with APICS as a board member for "Seminar 1", the training seminar for the Northeast. Bob holds a BS in operations technology from Northeastern University in Boston.

Dave has spent over 25 years in various manufacturing industries including software, hardware, wire & cable, metal machining/assembly and promotional products. He has held progressive positions in manufacturing, engineering, quality, operations management and staff leadership positions. His initial lean exposure was in 1988 with a set-up reduction effort yielding an 85% improvement and has been a student of TPS ever since. In addition to being Lean Certified, Dave has experience driving ISO9001 implementations and was a RAB certified lead auditor and mgmt rep in two companies. He has a Black Belt in Six Sigma and has held ASQ certifications as CQE and CQM/OE. He has also been an instructor for ASQ delivering the CQE/QEIT Exam Refresher Course for several ASQ chapters. Dave is CPIM certified since 1986 and has been teaching all APICS CPIM Review Course modules since 1987 for several APICS chapters and local colleges. Dave holds a BS Degree in Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Lesa Nichols is uniquely suited to coach top managers seeking to develop and implement TPS at a strategic level within their organizations. During her 20 year career with Toyota North America she served in leadership roles, both on the shopfloor and in an internal consulting role to Toyota sites and Toyota supplier sites. She has led high level improvement initiatives at major North American companies., developing in leaders a deep understanding of how to lead their organizations according to the principles of TPS. The leaders Lesa worked with included the top management of Toyota's Manufacturing and Engineering headquarters as well as the leadership teams at each plant in North America. Her main approach is to support development of a good hoshin focused on attacking the most beneficial initiatives to grow the business through appropriate TPS leadership principles and application. Her innovative TPS development programs are designed to marry deep functional process knowledge needed within each "shop/department" with the logic of TPS. For example, conceptually the principles of Standardized Work are the same for all operations but the application is quite different due to the nature of the processes. Lesa developed and managed several initiatives aimed at making this a more effective and efficient process.

Read more about Lesa.

Read Lesa's blog at www.thinkingpeoplesystem.com

Michael Scarpone specializes in strategic planning, organizational development and change management. His customized programs target key people within organizations such to increase productivity, build skills and help organizations manage change and improve quality. Topics include Team Building, Front Line Supervisory Training, Cultural Diversity, Managing your Team in a Lean Culture, Communications Skills and many more complimentary topics. Mike has earned a Bachelors Degree in Psychology and a Masters of Science Degree in Counseling Psychology. He has also completed graduate work in Organizational Behavior and Administration. He has numerous certifications including Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Yale University Training of Trainers, Xerox Selling Skills and Kepnor-Tregoe Decision Making Process.

Oscar Gutierez is a UMB Associate Provost and Professor with 25 years of business and academic experience. Mr. Gutierrez' background includes many years as businessman and researcher in the United States, Europe and Latin America in the areas of information management and logistics. Since 1992, he has specialized in business reengineering. Mr. Gutierrez contributes to the multilanguage offerings of GBMP by presenting and collaborating in Spanish for companies that wish to do Lean training in Spanish. He has published widely and presented at numerous conferences in the United States and Europe on information requirements analysis and information technology. He holds a Ph.D. in Information Systems from the London School of Economics and Political Science.