Terry Krauss, MBA founded Forward Motion Associates, dedicated to providing education and support for continuous improvement and economic development in the business communities of North Carolina and the United States of America. Terry served for over six years as a Business Extension Specialist for North Carolina State University’s Industrial Extension Service, preceded by 20 years of experience in manufacturing engineering, plant engineering and production management with such firms as Armstrong World Industries (now Armacell), AKG of America, Hubbell Inc., and Federal Mogul Corporation. He holds a BS of Engineering from DukeUniversity and an MBA from Virginia Tech. Memberships include the American Society for Quality (ASQ), North Carolina Association for Healthcare Quality (NCAHQ), Sustainable North Carolina and the Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED).
Wes Wall of New Perspectives is the primary developer of The Lean Experience®. He has over twenty years experience with helping businesses become more productive. Wes has led many productivity improvement events and facilitates Value Stream Mapping and Lean Implementation Events with Forward Motion Associates. Having experience in such industries as textiles, synthetic fibers, housing components, metalworking, ceramics, plastics, medical equipment and others, he has an extraordinary grasp of most industrial processes. He has assisted many companies with achieving ISO registration and implementing Lean Manufacturing in their quest to pursue continuous improvement initiatives. Wes has developed new products and participated in projects involving control systems, recycling processes, medical devices, and chemical products for private, educational and military clients. During his tenure with NC State University Industrial Extension Service, Wes co-developed and participated in the roll out of Lean Manufacturing training across North Carolina and the USA. He holds a BS in Engineering Operations from NC State University.
Sean Lewis, MS of Leannovation, a Master Lean Practitioner, provides proven, effective applications for Lean Manufacturing, Lean Office, Lean Health Care, Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) and Lean Leader training. With over a decade of focus on lean applications of all kinds, he has trained organizations as small as 12 persons and led a Lean Initiative at a major corporation of 20,000 employees. Sean provides a unique Lean Office training program via a one day office simulation, rich with examples that are easily assimilated and put into practice for improving any administrative process, such as accounting, customer service, and purchasing. His work with numerous health care providers includes his addressing conferees at the 2006 Australasian Redesigning Health Care Summit where he discussed applying Lean to several hospitals and emergency department settings, resulting in millions of dollars in savings and drastic reductions in wait times. His Lean Healthcare workshop touches on many of the issues in healthcare. Sean’s experience includes Ford Motor Company, Boston Gear, Collins and Aikman and MichiganManufacturingTechnologyCenter. He holds a BS in Engineering from KetteringUniversity (General Motors Institute) and a Master of Manufacturing Engineering from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor.
Susan Malette is the developer of the Six Steps to Leading Effective Organizations®. She has 20 over years experience working with all levels of organizations -- facilitating the successful development and implementation of strategies in the areas of quality, training and program implementation. During her 20 years at Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC) and Compaq, Susan held various staff level positions in quality and training. Susan participated in Compaq’s Black Belt Program and performed as senior examiner for New Hampshire’s Granite State Quality Council for the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria. She facilitated team activities resulting in two corporate Continuous Improvement Awards at DEC. She was Management Representative responsible for DEC’s becoming one of the USA’s first companies to attain ISO 14001 Certification for their Environmental Management System. She has a BS in Mathematics from Worcester State University. She is a member of the International Society for Performance Management, and the Triangle Organizational Development Network.
Nancy L. Smith, MSN, APRN, BC, an expert in Change Management, brings over 20 years experience in working with health care organizations including hospitals, out patient practices, home health agencies and long term care, as well as industrial organizations. She specializes in training organizations to sustain Continuous Improvement Initiatives through successful culture change by integrating principles of Transactional Analysis with Lean. Her training program consists of effectively contracting for change, understanding employee personality types and working styles to maximize their unique strengths and avoid pitfalls, building and supporting effective teams, and integrating change from the staff to the organizational level- critical to success in continuous improvement initiatives. Her workshops are packed with information and presented using an interactive style in a relaxed and fun atmosphere. Nancy is a member of International Transactional Analysis Association. She holds a Master’s Degree in psychiatric mental health nursing from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and a Post Master’s Certificate as a nurse practitioner from DukeUniversity.
J. Andrew Lauber, MS, MBA specializes in quality system implementation and management assessmentsfor improving efficiencies. Andy has 25 years of industrial background and fifteen years consulting experience in quality systems and ISO programs, including ISO 9001:2001, TL 9000, TS 16949, QS 9000, ISO 17025, and ISO 13485. His experience includes extensive work in implementation and development of quality departments, training and mentoring of quality managers and quality engineers, and assessing and improving quality programs of all kinds. He is an RAB ISO 9000 Quality System Auditor, a senior member of ASQ, and an experienced trainer and facilitator. Andy is an examiner for the NCAfE -- North Carolina Award for Excellence (Malcolm Baldrige) assessment program. Mr. Lauber has assisted over thirty firms with ISO 9000 training and preparation of their Quality Management Systems, including facilitating their successful ISO registration. He teaches ISO 9001:2000 internal auditing classes, SPC tools, problem solving, root cause analysis, corrective action, and six sigma topics. He is an active member, organizer and speaker at local quality events and has participated actively in the North Carolina Quality Conference. Andy holds a BS Chemical Engineering from TuftsUniversity, Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI).
Ted Karr, MBA, CQE, CQA, CMfgE of Compass Training and Consulting is a Master Practitioner of Six Sigma Methodology and Methods for Process Variation Reduction. This is a higher level of knowledge and experience than the conventional Black Belt or Master Black Belt.He has over 20 years of experience with three Fortune 500 companies that produced Power Generation, Railroad and Rapid Transit, and Electromechanical products, followed by 12 years of consulting experience. He has served as plant manager, manufacturing engineer, quality manager, supplier quality manager, and purchasing engineer. Ted develops and teaches courses that are customized to clients’ products, services, processes, and culture. Typical applications involve Design of Experiments, process flow, root cause analysis, corrective action, and a toolbox of statistical applications. Ted was involved with developing the criteria for the NC Quality Award for Excellence and was one of the original Award Examiners. He holds a B.S. Industrial Engineering from NC State University, an MBA from East Carolina University, and is pursuing a Masters of Engineering from NCSU. He lectures at EastCarolinaUniversity’s School of Business and School of Technology. An active member of the Eastern Carolina Section of ASQ, Ted is an ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt.
J R Garcia brings extensive industrial experience and fluency in Spanish to Forward Motion Associates. Over the past 25 years he has been involved in supporting world class manufacturing environments through implementing process improvements and cost reduction initiatives in such industries as automotive components, rubber and plastics products and electric motors.He has served in various capacities including Quality Engineer, Supplier Quality Engineer, Plastics Technical Manager, Laboratory Elastomer Manager, Manufacturing Manager and Purchasing. Along the way he has implemented ISO quality management systems, led teams in cost reduction initiatives and lean implementation, acted in customer support positions and managed daily operations. JR holds a degree in Industrial Management Technology. He translates and delivers the Lean Experience® to Latino audiences.
