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Member biographies

• Michel Baudin



Michel Baudin has 29 years of industrial experience, including 23 years of consulting in lean implementation Since 1987, Michel has consulted in industries ranging from automotive, aerospace, and electronics to food and personal products, for European, American, and Japanese companies.

 Michel has a long, multicultural experience of providing solutions that work in both technology and management, while coaching implementation projects to success. Starting from the principles behind automotive lean practices, Michel redeploys these principles in appropriate tools and methods to support the ambitions of clients in other industries and markets.

Since 1995, he has taught short courses on the details of lean manufacturing, the management of lean manufacturing implementation, the lean approach to quality, and information technology for lean, as well as customized in-house seminars for clients. These courses have been offered to the public through UC BERKELEY EXTENSION, the UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON, and the HONG KONG PRODUCTIVITY CENTER.

Michel has written four books on manufacturing and many articles and papers in various journals. His academic background includes a Master’s Degree in Engineering from the ECOLE DES MINES DE PARIS, and research at the HAHN-MEITNER INSTITUTE of Berlin and the UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO. He is a senior fellow of the UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON, and a member of the IMSE External Advisory Board of OHIO UNIVERSITY. He is a member of the AME, SME, IIE, and IEEE. He is fluent in French, English, Japanese and German, and is learning Spanish.

Over the years, he has:

• Introduced the cell concept to a large aerospace machine shop

•  Designed assembly lines for laser printers, military radios, and motorcycle engines

• Set up a consolidation center for automotive parts

• Developed a simple heijunka algorithm for sequencing electronics assembly

• Adapted the wage system to lean at a German manufacturer practicing piecework

• Reduced the time to implement software upgrades at thousands of user sites

• Taught lean to hundreds of engineers and managers in the US, Europe, and China

• Led a successful application-driven R+D project for the European Union’s ESPRIT program

• Designed a production scheduling system for semiconductors

• Contributed to the technology of Manufacturing Execution Systems

• Jim Ayers

Jim Ayers has extensive cindustry and consulting experience in operations improvement including, government agencies, utilities, and private industry. Environments include field crew support and all phases of capital project planning and construction. Jim specializes in process improvement in technical and professional environments including many paperwork intensive workflows with requirements for participant decision-making.

·         Jim has developed a two-day course called “Supply Chain Project Management” that is certified fully compliant with the Project Management Institutes Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®). The course is part of PMI’s R.E.P. ® program (Registered Educational Provider). He conducts supply chain management workshops and courses in Hong Kong and Mainland China, including an Executive MBA supply chain management course to Chinese executives under contract to UCLA Extension. This program includes a seminar developed for the Purchasing Management Association of Canada in 2007. Jim is also co-author of the supply chain management course offered by Sinclair Community College in Dayton under the sponsorship of the AIM Center (Advanced Integrated Manufacturing) funded by the National Science Foundation.

Jim is also the author or co-author of many books and articles on this website. He hold an MS in Industrial Engineering and an MBA from Stanford University,an a BS in Engineering (with distinction) for the US Naval Academy.  He is a  member of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), the Project Management Institute, and the Institute of Management Consultants (IMC). He is a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) by IMC, and serves on the national certification committee and as regional vice president for certification in Southern California. And he is a former nuclear submariner.

Over the years, he has:

• Developed of methodologies using activity-based costing to justify process changes that cross department and organization boundaries, which were applied in over a dozen private and government organizations.

• Developed requirements for and implemented updated systems improvements for port construction and procurement of construction-related services.

• Assisted a telecommunications company with warehouse layout, process improvement, and system requirements for new purchasing system, and implemented policies for stocking and logistics of high value and commodity parts.

• Facilitated an evaluation of the supply chain and procurement organization of he world’s leading manufacturer of rail vehicles with an extensive base of government customers, and developed a redesign of its structure, measures, and processes.

• Applied Quality Function Deployment (QFD) framework as a customer survey and benchmarking tool. This lead to a strategy for operations improvement that encompassed customer requirements and relative competitive position.

• Reengineered forward and reverse logistics processes in a variety of industries including electronics, service, chemicals, aerospace and defenses, utilities, and pharmaceuticals.

• Preston Smith

Prior to 1986, Preston gained broad engineering and technology management experience over a period of twenty years through employment with

• North American Aviation (now part of Boeing)
• Pratt & Whitney Aircraft
• IBM
• Bell Laboratories (now Lucent Technologies)
• General Motors Research Laboratories
• Ensco (a government transportation safety contractor)
• Institute for Defense Analyses
• Emhart (since merged into Black & Decker)

Although Preston may be best known for his many publications, his daily activity centers on onsite consultation and training in new product development using a results-oriented approach that he has honed over the years. Consider how his consulting capabilities can benefit your organization.

For professional development, Preston participates in one  industry or professional conference per month, on average. He develops his consulting skills by participating regularly in meetings and conferences of the Institute of Management Consultants.

Some product development techniques Preston is best known for include

• Project economic trade-offs, such as the cost of delay
• Flexible product development (valuable when a project is subject to many changes)
• Proactive project risk management tools
• Continuous improvement of the product development process (and viewing product development capability as a competitive advantage)
• Effective cross-functional development teams and the trade-offs involved in using them
• Co-located and dispersed (virtual) product development teams
• Iterative (non-sequential) product development processes

Preston Smith contributes to the product development profession while keeping up to date on its literature by serving as book review editor of the Journal of Product Innovation Management. He is a founder of the Agile Project Leadership Network (APLN).

Preston Smith holds a Ph.D. in engineering from Stanford University, and is a member of the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) and the Agile Project Leadership Network.

In off hours, Preston pursues his penchant for speed through alpine skiing and windsurfing.

• Crispin Vincenti-Brown

Crispin Vincenti-Brown has been a driving force in the Bourton Group's international activities since 1975, and managed French and Italian offices for 10 years before moving to the US in 1989. From the start of 1998 Crispin has been based in Europe where the focus of his activities is on a high-technology international manufacturing clientele. Crispin's industrial skills are in the strategic and operational management of complex, high technology manufacturing businesses, in commercial aerospace, automotive, and electronics. He is well known for his work in developing strategies for the Agile Enterprise^®, and service chain management. Much of his work with clients focuses on improving the responsiveness and robustness of product/service delivery. Crispin utilizes a "make it happen" approach, taking an assignment from conceptualization through implementation. Examples of success for Crispin’s pragmatic approach to rapid operational breakthroughs include the following:

• Introducing new operational approaches to composites manufacturing in Europe, the U.S., and Canada.
• Strategic planning for multinational consortia in the international aerospace industry.
• Planning, installation, and start-up of an agile computer assembly facility in France.
• Restructuring corporate operations for the largest power generation equipment manu facturer in Italy
• Designing and starting a high-volume diesel engine manufacturing facility in Tunisia
Crispin is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical Engineers and an active member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. In addition, he serves on the board of directors of the Operations Management Association and on the advisory board of the American Product Excellence Award. He is widely published in many languages on subjects ranging from energy conservation in manufacturing plants to bank financing of industrial projects. Crispin is a regular speaker and lecturer at international conferences, business schools, and universities.

Following an apprenticeship with a French aerospace machine tool company, Crispin graduated from the University of Birmingham, UK, with an honors degree in engineering production and is a chartered engineer. Prior to joining Ingersoll Engineers, he managed a machine tool manufacturing facility. His US clients include Boeing, BP, Caterpillar, Cessna, Ingersoll-Dresser, Loral, Martin Marietta, Sundstrand, Taylor Made, Textron, and Westinghouse. In Europe, Crispin has worked with Airbus Industries, Alenia, Alfa Romeo, Arianespace, British Aerospace, Bull, Cummins, Fiat, Fokker, MBB, Philips, Rolls Royce, and Unilever, among others. 

The takt times group, 396 Shasta Drive, Palo Alto, CA 94306-4541, Tel: (650) 856-8928, FAX: (650)858-1873, e-mail: Michel.Baudin@takttimes.com