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 Patricia
V. Bierley received her bachelor of science in psychology from
Purdue University. She has 13 years of consulting experience in the areas
of knowledge engineering and expert systems development, training development
and delivery, team facilitation, and program and product evaluation. Ms.
Bierley co-developed one of the largest expert systems ever built for microcomputers
(7,000 rules). She has conducted skills training sessions serving over 300
technicians and professionals and train-the-trainer courses to teach clients
how to deliver their own skills development programs. She also has led over
40 "workout" problem solving sessions tackling a wide variety
of business improvements affecting both top and bottom line results. She
has designed and conducted evaluation studies to determine the content,
effectiveness, and cost efficiency of training products and programs. Recently,
she co-developed and delivered the Kaizen Facilitator Training Course to
assist in the development of new Kaizen leaders. Ms. Bierley is the co-author
of the Working With Others Training Program. She is currently a consultant
and trainer for Vital Enterprises. |
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 Chris
Bujak is President of Continual Impact, a consulting group providing
consulting and training in continuous improvement and the application of
lean thinking. Chris is a mechanical engineer by formal training with extensive
postgraduate training and experience in the application of lean manufacturing
and Six Sigma methodologies and tools. As Global Director of Continuous
Improvement (CI) for Air Products, Chris was one of the principle developers
of a truly integrated CI Model including Lean Enterprise, Six Sigma™,
and other critical enabling elements such as learning and people involvement.
His program was featured in a Business Excellence article in July
2007. His current focus is on developing networks of continuous improvement
change agents equipped with the skills needed to lead Kaizen events. |
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 James
S. Byron is the founder and head of Byron Consulting Group, a firm
specializing in empowering human potential. Jim has a graduate degree in
Organizational Psychology and Advanced Certificate in Organization Design.
He has over 30 years of experience in leading global organizational and
personal performance improvement projects. Jim has worked with every leadership
and employee level across several industries, including the world’s
largest pharmaceutical and chemical businesses and information and financial
services organizations. Jim has recently completed an organizational transformation
project with a large health care system in the U.S. While his current focus
is human performance improvement, Jim is experienced in accomplishing large-scale
organizational assessments and change initiatives, leadership and employee
development projects, and the design of high performance work systems. Projects
he has led have consistently produced an impressive range of bottom line
results with returns on investment (ROIs) ranging from of 10:1 to 21:1.
Equally important, they have generated dramatic improvements in employee
involvement and satisfaction. In addition to his corporate work, Jim provides
services and products to community agencies and to individuals and families
who seek to improve their effectiveness and performance in dealing with
life’s challenges. |
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 Joe
Cirafesi has a BS in Genetics from Cornell University and an MBA
in Finance, Accounting and Information Systems from the Pennsylvania State
University. He has expertise in change management, work process re-design,
business planning and strategy development, communications, human resources,
finance, accounting, joint ventures and acquisitions. Joe has held a variety
of key leadership positions, · Division Controller for a $500 MM
business of a Fortune 200 chemical producer; · Business Manager and
Process Owner for a $1 billion work process; · Lean Enterprise Manager
· Regional Director of Continuous Improvement in Europe for a Fortune
200 company. |
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 Scott
Harrison is founder and President of The Harrison Group, LLC. He
has 17 years experience in Human Resources, 10 years specializing in performance
and pay systems design. He did his bachelors work at the university of Maryland
in Human Resources/Labor Relations and Operations Management and obtained
his MBA at the University of Southern Maine. Scott is a Certified Compensation
Professional (CCP), Professional in Human Resources (PHR), and Certified
Performance Compensation Administrator (PCA). He has extensive experience
in designing, implementing, and supporting performance management and scorecard-based
variable pay systems that tie business-level, group-level, and person-level
achievement to incentive payouts. He has mated his systems with continuous
improvement "workout" sessions that enable employees to advance
business success thereby achieving greater person and team success. He has
audited the functionality of human resources systems from the perspective
of supporting high performance organizations like Lean Enterprises. Scott
is also an instructor at the University of Southern Maine. |
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 Mark
Reed is a senior CI consultant and Vital Enterprises associate.
He has 34 years of experience in manufacturing and service areas including
26 years in management positions. During his career, Mark has implemented
Statistical Process Control and other Quality management methods to continuously
improve the operations he managed. He has implemented Lean since 1999
and has conducted Value Stream Analysis, Kaizen, and other Lean tool events
in the U.S., the Middle East, and throughout Asia. He is a certified Tool
Master in Value Stream Analysis, Kaizen, Workplace Organization and Visual
Controls, Quick Change, Mistake Proofing and team facilitation skills.
He led the implementation of Lean/Continuous Improvement(CI) for the Asian
segment of Fortune 200 global business. It established Lean/CI within
just 11 months in a business unit operating in 8 countries with over 1.3
billion dollars (USD) in revenues and 4,500 people. During that period,
he engaged, energized and trained personnel to master plan the implementation
of Lean/CI and implement 145 Lean improvement events. The savings in the
first year (while he was still training personnel) were over $30 million
(USD). This first year included six weeks during which the project was
on hold due to SARS.
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 Don
Roll has been immersed full time in the CI environment for nearly
a decade now. He is a CI Tool Master who has lead over 100 CI events in
shop (both discrete and continuous manufacturing) and office settings and
trained people in CI tools in Canada, Scotland, United Kingdom, Spain, and
Hong Kong, as well as in the U.S. While specializing in implementation of
Workplace Organization and Visual Control (WOVC), Don is also certified
in Kaizen, Work Process Mapping, Quick Change, in addition to a large variety
of root cause and foundational CI tools. What he enjoys the most about CI
is the exchange of knowledge, the energy associated with people striving
for excellence, and the measurable improvement such people can make. |
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 Joseph
P. Vitalo is a lean manufacturing consultant and trainer with over
ten years experience in planning and leading lean improvement events. Through
these events, he has improved businesses in the United States, Canada, Europe,
and the United Kingdom. He is the coauthor of the Kaizen Desk Reference
Standard, and has trained and developed Kaizen leaders in automotive, pharmaceutical,
electronics, machinery manufacturing, and process industries. Joseph is
currently a lean consultant and trainer with Vital Enterprises. |
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 Raphael
L. Vitalo received his doctorate in psychology from the University
of Massachusetts at Amherst. He has authored over 50 professional articles,
technical reports, and chapters in the areas of psychology, organizational
consulting, work process improvement, information systems, and artificial
intelligence. Over his 25 years of consulting experience, he has designed,
managed, and implemented over 350 projects serving public and private
companies in the areas of organizational effectiveness, performance management,
workforce productivity, business process reengineering, knowledge engineering,
information systems design, and expert systems development. Dr. Vitalo
has trained Kaizen leaders in the United States and Europe. He has been
the lead consultant in designing and implementing a number of multi-year
CI projects in human services and the private sector. One such project
was a 10-year CI initiative using Working With Others productivity improvement
sessions that yielded a return on investment of 9.6 to 1 in just its first
year and was credited by the business itself for adding 5% productivity
improvement every year of its operation. Another multi-year effort applied
Lean/CI approaches in mental health treatment. This initiative improved
the success of treatment outcomes by 31% (from 70% to 92%), reduced dropout
from treatment by 50%, expanded the number of people served with the same
level of staff by 20%, and produced a per unit cost of care that was 56%
below the national average. Most recently, he was the lead consultant
in designing and supporting the implementation of Lean/CI initiative in
a 4 billion dollar (USD) business component of a Fortune 200 company.
This global initiative yielded $7.6 million dollars (USD) in savings during
its first year of implementation, $21.1 million in its second year, and
over $40 million in its third year. Dr. Vitalo is currently the president
of Vital Enterprises.
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