IndustryWeek’s elite panel of regular contributors consists of these top experts in the areas of operations, government, supply chain, technology, talent and leadership. Combined, they have more than 300 years of manufacturing know-how. To learn more about contributing to IndustryWeek, check out our guidelines.
Rick Bohan
Rick Bohan is principal, Chagrin River Consulting, LLC. He has more than 25 years of experience in designing and implementing performance improvement initiatives in a variety of industrial and service sectors.
Bohan has a bachelor of arts in psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master of science in organizational development from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He has published articles in National Productivity Review, Quality Progress and ASTD's Training and Development Journal. He is also co-author of People Make the Difference, Prescriptions and Profiles for High Performance.
Michael Collins
Michael P. Collins is President of MPC Management, a consulting company that focuses exclusively on the problems and challenges of small and midsize manufacturers (SMMs) of industrial products and services. His consulting clients range from small family-owned machine shops to large machinery manufacturers.He has worked with a wide variety of job shops including foundries, machine shops and fabrication shops on a wide variety of management, marketing and manufacturing issues. He is the author of "Saving American Manufacturing" published by Vantage Press in Chicago. The companion handbook "The Growth Planning Handbook" for small and midsize manufacturers (SMMs) which was published by NIST MEP's MEP University.
John Dyer
John Dyer is president, JD&A—Process Innovation Co. He has 32 years of experience in the field of improving processes. He started his career with General Electric and then worked for Ingersoll-Rand before starting his own consulting company. John has an electrical engineering degree from Tennessee Tech University, as well as an international master's of business from Purdue University and the University of Rouen in France.
Larry Fast
Larry Fast is founder and president of Pathways to Manufacturing Excellence and a veteran of 35 years in the wire and cable industry. He is the author of The 12 Principles of Manufacturing Excellence: A Leader's Guide to Achieving and Sustaining Excellence which was released in 2011 by CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, as a Productivity Press book. At Belden Inc., where he spent his first 25 years, Fast conceived and implemented a strategy for manufacturing excellence that substantially improved manufacturing quality, service and cost. He is retired from General Cable Corp, where he was senior VP of North American Operations and a member of the corporate leadership team. Fast holds a bachelor of science degree in management and administration from Indiana University and is a graduate from Earlham College’s Institute for Executive Growth. He also completed the program for management development at the Harvard University School of Business.
Jamie Flinchbaugh
Jamie Flinchbaugh is a lean advisor, speaker and author. In addition to co-founding the Lean Learning Center, he has helped build nearly 20 companies as either a co-founder, board member, advisor, or angel investor. These companies range from high-performance motorcycles to SaaS tools for continuous improvement. He has advised over 300 companies around the world in lean transformation. Flinchbaugh co-authored the popular book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean. He holds degrees from Lehigh University, University of Michigan, and MIT, and continues to teach and mentor on campus. Flinchbaugh is best known for helping to transform how we think about lean from a tools-centric model to one based on principles and behaviors. His passion for lean transformation comes from seeking to unlock the great potential that people possess to build inspiring organizations.
Stephen Gold
Gold is President and CEO, Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation (MAPI)
He has an extensive background in business-related organizations and has represented U.S. manufacturers for much of his career. Prior to MAPI, Gold was senior vice president of operations for the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) and a vice president at the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). During his tenure at NAM, he helped launch the Campaign for the Future of U.S. Manufacturing and served as executive director of the Coalition for the Future of U.S. Manufacturing.
Gold holds a Juris Doctor (cum laude) from George Mason University School of Law, a master of arts degree in history from George Washington University, and a bachelor of science degree (magna cum laude) in history from Arizona State University. He is a Certified Association Executive (CAE).
Carolyn Hendrickson
Carolyn Hendrickson, Ph.D. is CEO and founding partner of Tandem Group, a firm that specializes in strategy, organization, and leadership. She has over 30 years of experience in working with senior executives and their boards to achieve and sustain breakthrough results in their businesses through accelerated growth and change. Her primary areas of expertise are in strategic planning, senior leadership team alignment, and cultural transformation.
Stefan Liozu
Liozu is Chief Value Officer of Thales Group and an adjunct professor and research fellow at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management. He co-authored Monetizing Data: A Practical Roadmap for Framing, Pricing, and Selling your B2B Digital Offers.
Dan Markovitz
Markovitz is president of Markovitz Consulting, a firm that helps organizations become faster, stronger and more agile through the application of lean principles to knowledge work. He is a faculty member at the Lean Enterprise Institute and teaches at the Stanford University Continuing Studies Program. His book “Building the Fit Organization” has received the Shingo Research Award.
Lauren Pittelli
Pittelli is the founder and principal of Baker Logistics Consulting Services, a consulting firm focused on addressing the international trade and transportation needs of industry. Her consulting services focus on 3PL selection and management, international air and sea transportation and customs and trade compliance. Prior to starting Baker, Lauren spent 30 years at leading international freight-forwarding companies managing their transportation, customs and contract logistics business in the Midwest. She is a graduate of Harvard College and a licensed U.S. Customs House broker.
W. David Stephenson
Stephenson, principal of Stephenson Strategies (Millis, Massachusetts), is an IoT consultant and thought leader. His The Future Is Smart (HarperCollins Leadership), is one of the first books on IoT strategy.
Christopher S. Tang
Christopher Tang is a distinguished professor and the holder of the Carter Chair in Business Administration at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Tang focuses his current research on social innovation in developing countries, identifying how companies operate in the environment to do good while doing well at the same time — “where corporate responsibility, social justice and environmental stewardship can go hand in hand.”
Tang’s interest in his field began in the private sector when he worked for IBM to solve internal production planning problems. Exposure to real-life industry projects motivated his academic research, where he developed teaching cases on a variety of concerns such as microfinancing for the poor, mobile platforms for developing economies, creating shared values and direct procurement of agricultural products, response management in disasters and new business models in the age of the Internet. These cases exceeded the traditional topics of operations management, addressing the trendy and pressing issues faced by supply chain executives, as well as innovations that industry leaders use to create higher values in the global market.
He has published six books, 30 book chapters, over 100 online blogs and over 160 research articles in various leading academic journals. He has written for the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s,Financial Times (UK), China Daily, Fortune, Bloomberg Law,Los Angeles Times, SanFrancisco Chronicle, Business Times (Singapore) and The Guardian (UK).
Andrew R. Thomas
Thomas is associate professor of Marketing and International Business at the University of Akron, and a member of the Core Faculty at the International School of Management in Paris, France. He is a bestselling business author/editor, whose 23 books include, most recently, American Shale Energy and the Global Economy: Business and Geopolitical Implications of the Fracking Revolution, The Customer Trap: How to Avoid the Biggest Mistake in Business, Global Supply Chain Security, The Final Journey of the Saturn V, and Soft Landing: Airline Industry Strategy, Service and Safety.
Ashleigh Walters
Walters is president of Onex and author of Leading with Grit and Grace.