THE LEAN WAY CONSULTING - Key Persons
The Lean Way Consulting is led by Managing Partner, Ankit (ahn-kit) Patel. Ankit's personal vision is to help people, organizations and communities flourish by using the proven thinking and methodology associated with Lean Transformations.
With his primary focus on companies between $1 million and $100 million in revenue, Ankit has worked with companies in a wide spectrum of industries from high tech to healthcare.
Prior to founding The Lean Way Consulting, he was a Lean consultant with computer giant Dell, where he helped guide strategic planning at its multi-billion-dollar manufacturing and re-manufacturing production plant in Lebanon, TN. As part of his job, he coached plant executives, facilitated Kaizen events and trained Lean leaders at all levels of the organization.
Equally at home in healthcare, he has also worked with the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic, where he helped improve culture and processes in its internationally ranked Heart and Vascular Department.
One of his favorite accomplishments came in the field of human resources, when he helped Teknetex, a technology professionals recruitment firm, be named to the "2012 Inc. 500" list of the fastest growing companies in America.
Job Titles:
- Plant Manager, Americhem, Dalton, GA
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer, the Christie Cookie Company, Nashville, TN
Lean is a set of management principles based on the premise that every business can be changed to produce better customer value with fewer resources. In other words, expending resources on anything other than creating a product or service a customer is willing to pay for is wasteful and a target for elimination.
As a way of thinking and acting, Lean can apply to both manufacturing, healthcare and services by eliminating wastes of time, effort and materials and optimizing the flow of products and services throughout all segments of an organization. Lean is not a tactic or a set of rules. It is an ever-evolving process - a way of thinking that changes everything.
John Mark Davis specializes in consulting to corporate clients providing business process improvement solutions, strategic planning and leadership development training.
John draws on over 20 years of leadership experience in the business military sectors.
We don't tell people what to do. Using positive psychology, we inspire them to figure it out for themselves. Since we're talking about changing a company's culture, it's critical for learning and change that the people doing the fixing are the people doing the "real work."
Job Titles:
- Senior Consultant
- Professor of Management
- Retired United States Air Force Officer
- Senior Consultant With
Dr. Richard M. (Rick) Franza is a Senior Consultant with The Lean Way Consulting and also serves as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for Kennesaw State University's Coles College Business. In this role, Dr. Franza is responsible for the day-to-day operations of a business school with over 5000 students and over 120 full-time faculty members. He is also responsible for the strategic planning, budgeting, accreditation management, and faculty development for the Coles College. Prior to his current position, Dr. Franza spent over six years as the Chair of the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship and also served concurrently as the Interim Chair of the Department of Information Systems for one of those years. In addition to his academic duties, Dr. Franza also serves as the Chair of the Kennesaw State University Athletics Board.
Dr. Franza is also a Professor of Management with primary areas of expertise in Operations Management (OM), Management of Technology (MOT), and Project Management (PM). His main research areas are process improvement, the strategic investment in production facilities, the intersection of operations and marketing, new product development, and technology transfer. He also teaches, conducts research, and provides consultation in the areas of business process improvement, supply chain management, and technology strategy. He has taught at the Air Force Institute of Technology and Bentley College (now Bentley University) prior to his arrival at Kennesaw State.
Dr. Franza is a retired United States Air Force officer who managed research and development programs for the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) or "Star Wars" program. Dr. Franza earned a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Notre Dame, an M.B.A. from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, and a Ph.D. in Operations Management from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has published articles in leading OM and MOT journals has had made numerous presentations in national and international forums of OM and MOT. Dr. Franza resides in Kennesaw, Georgia with his wife, Lorie, and their two daughters.
Dr. Franza has provided business process consultation in the construction, fabrication, and food services industries, resulting in significant cost savings and higher quality output.