OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE SOLUTIONS - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Senior Process Improvement Specialist

Chuck Ward's experience in lean manufacturing began in 1986, when he worked on the Production Line in the Toyota Plant in Georgetown, Kentucky, and then moved to a highly advanced level when he was selected as one of the first two U.S. members of the team at the Toyota Supplier Support Center (TSSC) in 1992. TSSC was formed specifically to help U.S. based companies learn how to implement lean so they could become better suppliers of components to Toyota. The training that Chuck and his peers received was unparalleled, with direct, relentless involvement from some of Toyota's most accomplished lean practitioners. He has helped to establish Kaizen offices and teams in a number of organizations. In 1995, Chuck was among the individuals from Toyota, Georgetown that John Beakes, Jr. recruited to form an elite team of lean implementation practitioners that could bring lean to American industry. From 1995-1998, Chuck helped Ford develop the Ford Production System (FPS), which has made an important contribution to the increasing quality of Ford automotive products. Chuck was promoted to the position of Director, Ford Production System at John Beakes, Jr.'s consulting organization in 1997. Chuck is currently the principal lean specialist for OPS leading process improvement projects in Behavioral Health, Primary Care, and Community Based Outpatient Clinics for a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Job Titles:

• Senior Process Improvement Specialist

Deb Liefer is a "hands on" implementer of Lean Manufacturing Systems. She was a Plant Floor Supervisor at Donnelly Corporation for over fifteen years, and her first intensive training in lean was during the highly successful transformation led by Russ Scaffede when he was Donnelly's world-wide manufacturing executive. This project is described in the book "The Leadership Roadmap," co-authored by Russ and Donnelly's CEO at the time, Duane Baumgardner. Her mastery of all aspects of lean implementation on the plant floor at Donnelly led to her promotion to Manufacturing Manager and then her selection as one of the senior corporate leaders of the Donnelly Production System (DPS.) Deb left Donnelly in 2005 and began providing lean consulting services to a diversified list of international manufacturing clients. She has also taught lean at Ohio State University and the University of Michigan. She has worked with the OPS leadership team on a number of lean implementation projects. Deb is deeply knowledgeable in plant floor lean tools, and works exceptionally well with people on the plant floor. She is highly effective at helping build strong operational teams and achieving lean project goals with excellence, on time and within budget.

Job Titles:

• Executive
• Physician
• Senior Process Improvement Specialist

Dr. Rachel I. Mandel is a physician executive with over 23 years of clinical practice experience with a focus on aligning the medical staff with healthcare strategies through major quality initiatives.At OPS, she works with process improvement teams to help clients achieve operational excellence, with a specific focus on interfacing with physicians and other healthcare professionals. In her career, Dr. Mandel has concentrated on integrating administration and medical staff to adopt changes in healthcare, including population health and total cost of care models. She is experienced in evaluating key dynamics and issues on both a healthcare system and service line level. She focuses on clinician communication to positively impact patient experience and quality outcomes as well as provider satisfaction and resilience. She develops and coordinates effective teams that help drive high reliability, performance improvement and efficiency. Board Certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology, Dr. Mandel worked within the Frederick Memorial Healthcare System, Frederick MD from 1998 through 2018, beginning as a Private Practitioner, and serving in various management and physician leadership capacities, including Vice President of Medical Affairs in 2018. Her experience at Frederick Memorial included engagements in Population Health, Quality Improvement, Physician Quality and Alignment,Emergency Preparedness, Women's Health, Patient and Family Centered Care, and the Advanced Directive/Palliative Care Initiatives.Specific assignments have included: Actively participating in the senior leader team that guided the consistent provision of value driven health care for the community. The success of these initiatives resulted in continuing improvement in readmissions, mortality, LOS and hospital acquired conditions. Implementing the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's 4M framework for the care of the complex and resource intensive geriatric population, sparking a move towards care redesign in all populations. Creating and chairing the Procedure Review Oversight Committee (PROC), whose mission is to assess the hospital's surgical scope in relation to the Maryland's Global Budget Revenue reimbursement model. PROC recommendations have resulted in significant cost savings by identifying procedures best done in lower cost settings,while providing the same quality outcomes. Engaging as a senior leader sponsor for the Advance Care Planning committee.The percentage of admitted patients with advance directives on file rose from single digits to over 25%, which improves the patient experience, decreases Length of Stay, increases hospice use and appropriately decreases the cost of care. LEAN methodology was employed to streamline the process used across the system to acquire the patient's advance directive for inclusion in the electronic health record for provider reference. Oversight of the implementation of an evidence based algorithm for the diagnosis and management of sepsis, resulting in >80% adherence to the sepsis core measure which decreased mortality and morbidity In addition to her work with Frederick Memorial Hospital, Dr. Mandel worked at Washington County Hospital in Hagerstown, Maryland from 1996-1998; and at the U.S. Army's Womack Community Hospital at Fort Bragg,North Carolina from 1991-1995 and Darnell Army Community Hospital at Fort Hood, Texas from 1990-1991.Dr. Mandel received her Doctor of Medicine from the Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago. She did her residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii. She also holds a Master's Degree in Health Administration from Mount St. Mary's University located in Emmitsburg, Maryland.

Job Titles:

• Associate
• Senior Process Improvement Specialist

Dr. Ronald Kelley is an associate of OPS that has over 25 years of experience in innovation, operations, advanced technology, process improvement, quality, and business development. He served as Program Manager for ten years at Motorola, where he mentored and trained Lean Six Sigma Black Belts and Green Belts at various locations including Brazil, Israel, and the US. He led successful Lean Six Sigma projects in manufacturing, R&D, finance, and sales resulting in millions of dollars in savings. He is on the Executive Board and is past Chairman of the Washington DC Section of the American Society for Quality (ASQ). He also serves as Deputy Regional Director for ASQ National. Dr. Kelley has a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and is a Motorola and ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt. Dr. Kelley left Motorola to become co-founder and CEO of Gecko Energy Technologies, an advanced energy technology company. He has since served in executive management roles at companies where he used the "Lean Startup" methodology, Agile, and Lean Six Sigma to develop new products, reengineer key business processes, reduce risk, eliminate security vulnerabilities, and improve engineering throughput and quality. Dr. Kelley is also an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland and Montgomery College. At Operational Performance Solutions, Dr. Kelley works with clients in industry and government to assist in their Lean transformation journey.

Job Titles:

• S Tenure at Johnson Controls, the Plant Won Chrysler's Pentastar Award, Toyota 's Pinnacle Award, and the Highly Regarded National Lean Award, the Shingo Prize

Ron was recruited by John Beakes, Chairman of OPS, then the President and Co-Founder of RWD Technologies, to join the 150-person Lean team that was working on the global transformations of Ford, Jaguar Chrysler, and other Fortune 100 organizations. Ron quickly earned a leadership role on the team that was implementing the Ford Production System at all of their factories world-wide. Ron then formed Value Stream Production Systems, where he serves as President. Most recently, he is working with OPS on the Lean Transformation at the U.S. manufacturing operations of a German manufacturer of vacuum pumps. Ron worked with OPS Chairman John Beakes on the highly successful transformation of several manufacturing plants at J. B. Poindexter & Company. Ron works with OPS on select assignments, and with other high-quality Lean consulting organizations. Ron has assisted dozens of organizations, either directly or as a subcontractor to other Lean firms in: Strategy Deployment; Operating System Development; Organizational Structure; Level Scheduling; Material and Information Flows; Plant Layout; Planning; Internal Logistics; Supply Chain; Standardized Work; Problem Solving; Error Proofing; Total Productive Maintenance; Leadership Standardized Work; and Leadership Coaching. Ron earned the internationally recognized designation of Certified-in-Management from the Canadian Institute of Management. This certification required extensive course work in all aspects of business at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario. He holds a Certificate in Electronics Engineering from Fanshawe College, London, Ontario

Job Titles:

• Senior Process Improvement Specialist

Mr. DeCaro's thirty-nine year career in automotive manufacturing culminated in his assignment as Global Manager, Industrial Engineering for the $12 Billion Energy and Chassis Division of Delphi Automotive Systems, where he was responsible for all Industrial Engineering activities at 22 wholly owned subsidiaries and 17 joint venture operations. His extensive experience with lean process improvement began in the early 1980's, when he managed the implementation of Eliyahu Goldratt's "Optimized Production Technology" in the Hyatt Division of General Motors in Bristol, Connecticut. His involvement with the design, development and implementation of lean process improvement methods expanded from that early base to his world-wide responsibility for the implementation of Delphi's lean system throughout the Energy and Chassis Division. John formed J&S DeCaro in late 2002, where he has specialized in assisting organizations develop and implement lean process improvement tools and the culture to sustain high-performance operations. John is part of the team at Operational Performance Solutions that has been integrating the expertise of experienced lean practitioners with the knowledge of physicians and other medical professionals to develop a customized approach to process improvement in healthcare. He is the Project Manager for the Lean Process Improvement Project in Sterile Processing for a 411-bed hospital in Virginia, and he is a Principal Instructor for the Introductory Lean Training being delivered to 200 Directors and Managers of a 5,000 person regional healthcare organization.

Job Titles:

• SENIOR PROCESS IMPROVEMENT SPECIALIST

Ken Roey has over forty years of experience in the Federal, State and local government arenas achieving dramatic improvements in organizational performance, using a variety of process improvement tools. Ken began his development as a leader in Lean methodology with his involvement in the United States Navy's Lean Shipbuilding Initiative, which focused on achieving dramatic performance improvements in the Navy's private sector shipbuilding and ship repair sectors. One of his more notable achievements was leading a large Navy industrial activity in a wave of process improvement activities culminating in its recognition as the best maintenance unit in the Navy and Ken's receipt of the 1997 Claud A Jones Award for making significant contributions to maritime readiness. Upon retiring from the Navy, following a short stint in the private sector Ken became the Executive Director, Facilities and later the Chief Facilities Officer for the Howard County Public School System, where he served from 2006-2014. He introduced Lean to the school system, and led projects that achieved breakthrough performance in areas ranging from Transportation services to FMLA administration. Service outcomes were improved dramatically by increasing employee engagement and evaluating processes based on customer values. Recognized as a leader throughout the state of Maryland, he was awarded the 2014 Lean Leadership Award by the Maryland World Class Consortia. He has led many successful process improvement events, and is widely respected as an extremely effective instructor of Lean systems, processes, and tools. As a member of the OPS team, Ken supports Lean training and consulting projects for federal, state and local governments. In addition to his Lean training and facilitation skills, Ken has been trained as a Baldridge Examiner and a Covey Facilitator. Ken has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Engineering Management from the United States Naval Academy and a Master of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the United States Naval Postgraduate School in Monterrey, California. He is a graduate of the Advanced Program Management Course at the Defense Systems Management College and is a retired Navy Captain.

Job Titles:

• Corporate Support Manager
• Director, Leadership Development

Kevin's career spans over 35 years as a leader, manager, and advisor to senior management. He is a certified Project Management Professional, a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, and a retired Naval Officer. After retiring from the Navy, Kevin joined RWD Technologies where current OPS Chairman John Beakes, Jr. was the Chief Operating Officer. RWD specialized in human performance improvement and training solutions to Fortune 100 corporations, and while there Kevin led several small business units, as well as taught the corporate leadership and project management courses. Subsequently, Kevin served as a Federal employee, leading a team providing training materials and training program support for the Navy's implementation of SAP. For the past several years, Kevin has provided project management and executive management support to Federal and local agencies in Washington, DC and Maryland, as well as facilitating leadership development and executive coaching through the company he founded, Angelus Learning, LLC, which is a franchise of Academy Leadership. OPS and Angelus Learning partner on client engagements where their capabilities combine effectively to meet client requirements. During his career, Kevin has implemented Lean concepts and tools to project management and project invoicing processes. The invoicing project resulted in a 3-fold increase in productive capacity, a 79% reduction in data input errors, and a 19% decrease in invoice creation cycle time. The project management process was redesigned, new tools were developed to increase productivity and collaboration between Project Managers. The project management project was selected by the American Society for Quality (ASQ) for presentation at an annual conference, as well as winning an Excellence in Practice Award from the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD).

Job Titles:

• Supervisor at Donnelly Corporation

Job Titles:

• Chief Administrative Officer
• Vice President
• Principal, Muscat Consulting

Ray's corporate career has spanned over 37 years with a variety of global experiences in the Automotive, Defense Electronics, Aerospace and Office Furniture industries. His experience includes engineering, manufacturing, program management, global manufacturing strategy development and execution, and the implementation of the Toyota Production System/Lean Manufacturing principles. Ray's Lean journey began in 1996 at Herman Miller's Integrated Metal Technology subsidiary, where he worked with the Toyota Supplier Support Center (TSSC) in the transformation of the subsidiary to a world class sheet metal fabrication facility. He led the Lean transformation of the Herman-Miller organization globally from 2001 through 2015. Herman Miller is today considered one to the leading examples of the successful implementation and sustainment of Lean. Currently Ray serves as the Industry Director for the Tauber Institute for Global Operations at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he is responsible for the development of industry partnerships with world class organizations who are interested in the development of the next generation of operations leaders. Ray's corporate career began in 1978 at Ford Motor Company in Dearborn MI in their Automotive Assembly Division which included projects at several Ford assembly plants. In 1980, he joined Raytheon Company's Submarine Signal Division where he held a variety of manufacturing engineering and program management positions working on surface ship sonar programs. From 1984 - 1986 he worked at Ball Aerospace in Boulder CO developing manufacturing operations for military aircraft antennas. He joined Knoll-Shaw/Walker in Muskegon MI in 1986 and held the positions of Project Engineer, Product Engineering Manager and Director of Engineering - Midwest Operations. Ray joined Herman Miller in 1991. He was responsible for engineering, new product development, operations management, corporate quality, mergers and acquisitions, and global facility strategy. Ray oversaw all new North American product launches in Operations from 2001-2015, and also researched the development of new materials and manufacturing processes for the factory of the future. His responsibilities included all North American facilities along with numerous facility construction projects, consolidations and upgrades internationally. Ray serves on the University of Michigan Industrial and Operations Engineering Academic Advisory Board, and has served on the College of Engineering Alumni Society Board among others. Additionally, he has lectured and consulted on the application of Lean principles at the University of Michigan, Michigan Lean Consortium, Maryland World Class Consortia, American Manufacturing Strategies Summit and for State of Michigan employees. Ray currently serves as Principal, Muscat Consulting, LLC, a Lean Manufacturing, Engineering and Operations consulting firm. He is a member of the OPS Board of Advisors and consults on OPS Lean transformation projects for industrial, healthcare, and government organizations. Ray has a BSE in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the University of Rhode Island.

Job Titles:

• Chief Executive Officer
• Manager
• President
• SENIOR PROCESS IMPROVEMENT SPECIALIST

Like many of the industry's finest Lean Facilitators, Robert was given thorough training an all aspects of Lean systems, processes, and tools while rising through the ranks as an employee at Toyota Motor Manufacturing in Georgetown, Kentucky. Robert performed successfully on the front-line in the paint shop, and then won promotions to Team Leader and Group Leader. Toyota's leadership training for those supervisory roles is a thorough and transformational as their Lean system training. During his nine years at Georgetown, Robert was involved in three new model launches, which always require mastering complex new systems and technical processes. He was regularly engaged in training his team and developing standardized work. He led a number of process improvement events, one of which eliminated a JD Powers defect and led to savings of $1.25 million. As the U.S. automotive industry began to adopt Lean, Robert became the Manager, Competitive Manufacturing Group for General Motors Corporation (GM) at Pontiac, Michigan. In this capacity, he served as a coach and mentor for the leadership teams of 21 Powertrain plants across North America, focused on helping those teams develop and execute strategic Lean Manufacturing implementation plans. He participated in the Lean Manufacturing Assessment Program, and evaluated the status of implementation and performance at Powertrain facilities in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Australia. During his eight years at GM, Robert trained over 1,000 employees in Lean Simulations and Problem Solving. Some of the key improvements that were developed at GM under Robert's leadership included: 32% improvement in First Time Quality; 48% increase in hourly production at an engine plan in Australia 27% reduction in finished goods inventory; 13% increase in daily production at an engine plant in Romulus, Michigan In August, 2005, Robert formed the Barek Group, LLC, to provide his knowledge and skills, plus those of his team to a variety of organizations. His clients and examples of the associated improvements have included:

Ron is a highly experienced Lean Process Improvement Facilitator and Leadership Coach who has helped many organizations in manufacturing, healthcare, and government achieve Operational Excellence by implementing the principles, systems, and tools of the Toyota Production System. Ron began his career at the Johnson Controls factory in Ontario, Canada, a leading supplier to the Toyota plant in Cambridge, Ontario. Like all top Toyota suppliers, this Johnson Controls plant was deeply committed to operational excellence based on the Toyota Production System, which is the basis for Lean. Ron lived in a culture of continuous improvement and learned the Lean tools in the high-performance environment at this plant. Ron began his career at Johnson Controls as an Electrician Tradesman. During his years at this plant he progressed to the roles of Controls Engineer, Maintenance Supervisor, Engineering Manager, Production Manager, Launch Leader, and finally, Facility Manager. His outstanding performance in all of these roles gave him a thorough and practical knowledge of all aspects of industrial operations. His hands-on, front-line experience with Lean forms the basis for his exceptional ability to work with all levels of any organization, from line workers to the C-suite to teach and coach Operational Excellence. His focus on the front line; his inherent respect for people; and his humble, respectful, yet deeply knowledgeable approach enables him to work successfully with each individual, no matter their role in the organization..

Job Titles:

• Director, Leadership Development

Stormy Hicks' background is a unique blend of extensive front-line corporate leadership experience and a PhD. in Organizational Communications from Wayne State University, focused on leadership and successful implementation of transformational change. He was involved in the lean transformation of Ford Motor Company as a senior manufacturing executive in the Electronics Division in the early 1990's and was later the Executive Director of Worldwide Logistics Planning, Procurement & Operations. Ford's transformation included extensive bench-marking with Toyota, which provided Dr. Hicks and other executives with a unique and early opportunity to study and understand a successful lean enterprise. Since retiring from Ford in 1998, Dr. Hicks has had CEO/Presidential leadership roles in several manufacturing organizations where he successfully led the implementation of lean principles and processes. In periods when he has not been engaged directly in front-line manufacturing leadership responsibilities, he has consulted with a variety of organizations in leadership development, management of transformational change, and implementation of lean processes and principles.