Development Team
Gemba Academy draws upon an exceptionally experienced team to develop course materials.
Ron Pereira
Ron has more than 15 years experience in various manufacturing, supply chain, and senior leadership roles. Ron has held the titles of process engineer, engineering manager, master black belt, and director of manufacturing & continuous improvement. In 2002 Ron was the first American to win the Nokia Global Six Sigma and Overall Quality award in Helsinki, Finland. Ron also writes the popular blog LSS Academy where he focuses on the topics of leadership, lean manufacturing, and six sigma. Ron holds a bachelors degree in automated manufacturing and an MBA in technology management.
Kevin Meyer
Kevin has over 20 years of manufacturing leadership experience in the automotive lighting, telecom electronics, and medical device industries. He has been responsible for lean transformations at Sylvania, Abbott Laboratories, Newport Corporation, and is currently President of Specialty Silicone Fabricators. He started and later sold a specialty contract manufacturing company, Agilonics, which leveraged lean to provide rapid production services for military robotics components during the early stage of the Iraq war. Kevin is also currently President of Factory Strategies Group, which provides a variety of lean manufacturing knowledge products such as the Superfactory website and Evolving Excellence blog.
Jon Miller
Jon is the co-founder of Gemba Research. Since 1998 he has led dozens of Lean transformation projects in a wide range of industries. He has taught kaizen to thousands of people across 15 countries. Jon has 15 years of experience in the field of kaizen instruction. Today Jon leads development efforts at Gemba, including consulting solutions for clients, training materials, and establishing consulting standards for both Gemba consultants as well as clients’ internal consultants. He is a frequent contributor of articles to a variety of publications and written over 800 articles on Lean manufacturing, kaizen and the Toyota Production System on Gemba’s blog.
Brad Schmidt
Brad is a founding member and a Managing Partner of Gemba Research. He brings over ten years of kaizen consulting and training experience across a wide variety of industries in many countries. He is based out of Gemba’s Japan office in Tokyo and directs consulting efforts there working with both Japanese and Global companies’ Japan operations. Brad trained directly with Japanese consultants who were the original disciples of Taiichi Ohno while working as an interpreter. Through this experience Brad gained valuable insight on how to effectively teach Toyota Production System principles in culturally appropriate ways.
Steve Burkhalter
Steve has 20 years of experience practicing and teaching lean manufacturing. He began his career in lean manufacturing with his 12 years of experience at Toyota Motor Manufacturing in Georgetown, Kentucky. Trained in all aspects of TPS in Japan and in the U.S., Steve served as Team Leader in Trim/Chassis Vehicle Assembly, in Engine Assembly & Machining and as Group Leader in Engine Machining & Tooling Regrind areas. Most recently Steve served as Rapid Continuous Improvement Manager for HNI, Inc. (HON Industries) for one of a 1.5 million square feet facility manufacturing case goods & seating with annual sales of nearly $100 million.
Chris Schrandt
Chris brings deep first-hand understanding of the Toyota way through his 20 years of international experience on the front lines of lean manufacturing, quality improvement, and supplier development, first at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky and then General Motors. Chris spent six years as Lean Manufacturing Advisor General Motors Latin America, at the Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil facility where he developed Lean training courses, materials and methods, and then selected and trained their “Lean Implementation Team”. Chris was also instrumental in the green field start up of the Rosario, Argentina manufacturing facility, designed on the Toyota Production System model. Chris worked for nine years at the TMMK (Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky) facility in Georgetown, Kentucky, USA.
Mike Wroblewski
Mike Wroblewski brings over 25 years of manufacturing management experience, strong technical skills and a passion for teaching kaizen, lean manufacturing and Six Sigma to the Gemba team. Mike’s journey into lean manufacturing began in the early 1980’s while working as an Industrial Engineer for the Hill-Rom Company. Under the watchful eye of Shigeo Shingo, Mike successfully improved a die changeover from 45 minutes to less then 5 minutes. Mike learned first hand from the master, Shigeo Shingo, the techniques of the SMED system along with the early teachings of eliminating waste from manufacturing operations.
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