Lean SCM | Accredited Education & Training in Lean Thinking - Leading Edge

Joe Aherne is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), having received a Meritorious Distinction from the CPA Institute, with over 25 years' experience in the multinational sector. He also has attained qualifications from the Marketing Institute of Ireland and from Citibank in the US.

Joe established The Leading Edge Group in 1995 as a niche boutique consulting and education company supporting the multinational sector. The Group is now recognized as one of the largest independent consulting organizations in Europe with over 600 projects completed successfully since its inception.

In April 2005, Joe launched the new International Standard in Lean, comprising four levels of certification commencing with a Yellow Belt certification and leading to a Lean Master Black Belt. He is currently leading a major international drive in the use of Lean Healthcare philosophies and practices.

Pat is a graduate of Industrial Engineering and Information Systems at National University of Ireland, Galway. Pat has over 12 years' experience in the multinational sector and has successfully transferred his manufacturing experience to the healthcare, finance, and call center sectors over the last three years.

He possesses a wide range of industrial experience in capital investment analysis methods and standards; inventory control and planning; layout development; and factory start-ups. Pat has a proven track record in achieving project-based cost reduction, improvement goals, and attainment of aggressive work deadlines. Pat’s previous clients include:

1. Voluntary Health Insurance – insurance claim and customer contact center review
2. Guidant – value stream mapping, layouts, capacity planning, distribution process optimization
3. Mentor Graphics – capacity review and development of headcount planning tool
4. Dell – European customer contact center review and optimization
5. Banta Global Turnkey – new product introduction analysis
6. Heinz-Watties – sales and operations planning review
7. George Weston Foods – capacity planning and new product introduction (Australian Olympics launch)
8. Stryker Orthopaedics – value stream mapping

Pat’s recent healthcare clients include:

1. Voluntary Health Insurance (public healthcare insurance provider) – Ireland
2. Irish Blood Transfusion Service – Ireland
3. Health Service Executive (HSE) – Ireland
4. Caridian BCT – Europe
5. Etablissement Français du Sang, Marseille, Nantes, Rennes – France
6. Centro de Transfusión de Galicia, San Sebastian – Spain
7. National Blood Bank Service, Newcastle – UK
8. Blodbanken, Goteborg – Sweden

Joe has a First Class Engineering Degree from University College Cork, Ireland; an MBA from the Open University and a Lean Green Belt ‘gold star’ award from the Institute of Industrial Engineers. With over 23 years' experience in the multinational sector, Joe has gained specific ‘hands-on’ experience and skills in Lean and Six Sigma methodologies. He initially worked in engineering line support on complex product assemblies, and later moved into product design. He has also provided support to production, sales, and service functions in a variety of management roles.

In recent years, Joe has held roles in project management and engineering management where he was able to apply some of the core Lean philosophies and tools. In his most recent position with Artesyn Technologies, he held the role of VP of Engineering with responsibility for locations in the US and in Ireland.

Joe joined The Leading Edge Group in 2005 as our senior Lean Trainer and has successfully leveraged his experience to educate and train manufacturing, healthcare, supply chain, and service clients in Lean methodologies, tools, and techniques. He is the lead mentor for the Institute of Industrial Engineers Lean Green Belt program and a lecturer on the Lean SCM Green Belt certificate as part of a UCC Diploma in supply chain management. He has worked with a wide variety of manufacturing clients on Lean training and consulting assignments in Ireland, UK, and the USA including Alcon Laboratories; Sercom Solutions; Gambro BCT; Kostal; Cara Partners; Kerry Group; Teleflex; Bord Gais; and High Life Tools.

Bill Wheeler is a senior Lean and strategy consultant with The Leading Edge Group and is based in Wexford, Ireland. He has over 23 years' experience in continuous improvement working for a variety of industry sectors in Ireland, Australia, USA, Denmark, and Central America.

Bill is both a Lean practitioner and trainer and has extensive experience in business process improvement techniques, project management, supply chain re-engineering, and process optimization. While initially supporting manufacturing and business process improvement programs, Bill’s more recent focus has been on business strategy deployment, and delivering sustainable management processes through process and organizational structure re-design. This is generally applied across the wider organization utilizing Lean and Six Sigma techniques, combined with effective KPI and governance structures. Managing and ensuring strategic alignment throughout an entire organization has enabled clients improve competitiveness and manage capacity.

Bill’s previous clients include:

1. Wyeth Medica
2. Genzyme
3. Servier
4. GSK -
5. Bausch & Lomb
6. G N Resound
7. Genzyme
8. Actavis

Steve Hardgrave has over 15 years experience in implementing Lean as both a consultant and as a line manager. He has led Lean and business process improvement projects at more than 25 leading organisations, including healthcare providers, manufacturing operations, services companies, and government agencies.

His recent activities have focused mainly on the healthcare sector—he has led Lean events in the past year at major hospitals and clinical laboratories, resulting in dramatically improved patient service, increased job satisfaction and reduced workload for staff, reduced costs, and increased capacity. He has also developed and taught Lean Yellow-, Green-, and Black-Belt courses specifically tailored to the healthcare environment.

Before joining Leading Edge, Steve conducted numerous Lean consulting engagements in the aviation and aerospace industry through his previous company, Aircraft Management Technologies. He also led in-house Lean transformations at operating units of Pratt & Whitney and Teleflex in the US, UK, and Ireland. Steve is a former US Navy aviator, retired at the rank of Commander from the Naval Reserve. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School (with distinction), an MS in Operations Research from the US Naval Postgraduate School (high distinction), and a BA from Duke University (honours).

Eugene has a manufacturing engineering degree from Bolton Street College of Technology in Dublin and is Lean Green Belt certifified by the Institute of Industrial Engineers. He has over 20 years' experience working in multinational companies in the pharmaceutical, electronics and service industries in Ireland, Germany, USA and South East Asia.

While initially involved in manufacturing automation, Eugene moved into manufacturing engineering management, project and program management, manufacturing and business process improvement programmes, establishing key performance indicators (KPIs), implementing business metric dashboards, and transformation programs. He has worked in companies such as Wyeth Biotech, Intel, IBM, and Seagate.

Eugene currently specializes in two areas that complement each other: operational excellences and project management. In the operational excellence area, he uses Lean techniques to identify and eliminate non-value-added activities in manufacturing and business processes, with the objective of delivering quantifiable performance and cost-saving improvements. Within the project management portfolio, he provides execution and consultancy services covering the entire project management life cycle with strong emphasis on budget, schedule, and scope control processes. He also provides training in both of these areas.

Jim is a senior Lean Consultant and Educator with The Leading Edge Group. He delivers a wide range of consulting and training services to private, public, and voluntary sector organizations. The range of services includes Lean Thinking and implementation, leadership training, strategic planning, evaluation, and facilitation. He has over 25 years' engineering and leadership experience across the aerospace, medical, technology, and consumer goods sectors.

Since 2005, Jim has provided consultancy, training, coaching, and mentoring to a wide range of organizations, including the IDA, Roche Ireland, RSA, VHI, Engineers Ireland, Hewlett Packard, Bausch & Lomb, Creganna, Hollister, and a range of other companies. Jim spent nine years as General Manager of Honeywell’s Irish Aero-Engine components manufacturing facility from 1996 to 2005, during which time he secured Corporate Lean Expert (Black Belt) and Six Sigma Green Belt certifications.

Prior to joining Honeywell, Jim spent eight years working for Unisys in the UK and France in a variety of technical and managerial roles. He has been actively involved in a wide range of improvement initiatives including JIT, TQM, Six Sigma, and Lean over the last 20 years. He had facilitated, led, and participated in over 30 Kaizen events in Ireland, England, the USA, and Japan. Jim holds a BSc in Manufacturing Technology from the University of Limerick and an MBA from the University of Edinburgh.

Mike Harman is a senior supply chain consultant with The Leading Edge Group and is based in Cork, Ireland. Mike is an experienced Supply Chain Management professional with over 20 years' international management and consulting experience with a number of multinational organizations in Ireland, the Netherlands, and the USA.

Mike has consulted on a variety of supply chain projects and is experienced in international project/program management; IT system design, test, and deployment; management of outsourcing programs and third-party vendor management; establishing SLAs, KPIs, and dashboard reporting metrics; and supporting materials, logistics, and distribution transformation programs.

Mike’s previous clients include:

1. Dell Service Logistics – supported the design and implementation of the EMEA VMI warehouse resulting in annual savings of $25m; project managed partner warehouse and distribution network setup; developed processes and tools to track defect field stock, aging, and returns.
2. Wyeth Pharmaceuticals – analyzed inventory flow and control processes.
3. UPS Logistics NL – project managed the design, pilot, test, and deployment of new Dell WUD (Whole Unit Dispatch) Service Program across 19 EMEA countries. Project involved 38 in-country carriers and 12 independent IT development projects. This project resulted in annual savings of $16m for Dell and grossed $10M new business for UPS.
4. Vernal AG – developed SCM strategy and goal setting across multiple sites.
5. Roche Ireland – Analysis of direct and indirect receiving flows.

Dr. Hill is based in London, Ontario, and has served as a leader in best practices in human capital and Lean process improvement for over 25 years in Canada and internationally. His Lean Healthcare experience has covered a wide range of hospitals, leading to major sustained accomplishments. He was the designer and lead for wait time reductions on the Minnesota State Lean Initiative and he created the ER wait time reduction project for the state of Victoria in Australia. Dr. Hill has also delivered Lean successes across Canada in a variety of healthcare processes from Nova Scotia radiation therapy wait times to British Columbian ER flow improvements.

• While working in North America and the Far East, Dr. Hill partnered with Toyota, Matsushita, Motorola, and others to study quality and production practices. He also studied at the Asian Productivity Organization, the W. Edwards Deming Institute, the Kaizen Institute (Japan), the Japanese Association of Suggestion Systems (Japan), the Quality Control Research Institute (Japan) and the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE, Japan) among others.

• He is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt,certified in project management, lifetime achievement award winner from the American Society for Quality and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and more.

Robert is a senior Lean Healthcare Consultant and Master Change Agent with The Leading Edge Group and is based at Palm Harbor, Florida. Robert has over 20 years of exceptional leadership, management, and consulting experience in the healthcare industry leading to executive regional responsibility. He has experience on both the provider and payer sides of healthcare with areas of specialization in performance management, negotiations, physician relationships, operational effectiveness, and continuous improvement initiatives.

Robert is currently responsible for driving operational improvement in health systems across the USA. He specifically works with health system senior leadership to diagnose, plan, and implement needed operational improvements in the areas of labor productivity, process design and redesign, and the strategic targeting of improvements.

Previous Positions Included:

1. Senior VP of operations and process improvement at Wellcare Inc., a private Medicaid and Medicare HMO serving over 600,000 members in Florida, New York, Connecticut, Illinois, and Indiana. Robert led process improvement efforts which were projected to impact the bottom line with $10-20 million in improvements.
2. VP and Leader of the Center for Continuous Improvement at Quorum Health Resources, Inc. (formerly the HCA Management Company), the largest manager of hospitals in the world, with over 180 full service management contracts. He consulted and taught courses in the application of Continuous Quality Improvement as a fundamental business strategy and supported senior management of 11 hospitals on applying the principles of continuous improvement to their performance improvement efforts.
3. Executive Director of Vista Healthplan, North Florida Region – provided executive leadership for contracting, negotiating, and relationship development with physicians, hospitals, and ancillary providers. He also provided leadership to financial turn-around efforts through improved contracting and cross-departmental projects with claims and medical management.
4. Senior VP of Operations at Wheaton Franciscan Services, Chicago – he guided successful managed care contract negotiations that significantly improved reimbursement from key payer representing 15% of overall business and also oversaw a strategic financial initiative that developed process redesign and restructuring totaling $11 million in margin improvements.
5. Robert received his MBA degree from Northwestern University, Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a Master of Arts in Religion from Florida State University. He completed his Six Sigma Black Belt in 2007 and the Lean Green Belt program in 2008.

Kathleen is a senior clinical consultant with The Leading Edge Group and is based in Gilbert, Arizona. She has over 30 years of hospital operations experience including senior level hospital executive and system level operations positions. She specializes in operational and clinical issues surrounding perioperative services and uses her significant clinical expertise in this area to facilitate improvement and achieve results.

Kathleen currently provides senior clinical consulting support for perioperative services (ORs, Pre and Post Operative departments, Sterile Processing, and Anaesthesia) as well as other procedural departments to 80+ market-based organizations (MBOs) and their performance management efforts. Key responsibilities include providing information on benchmarking, productivity, best practices, and other performance tools and techniques.

Previous positions included:

1. Associate Hospital Administrator at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. She had responsibility for all invasive services in three large academic hospitals – women and infants, paediatrics, and adult/critical care. Departments included three OR suites, three PACUs, invasive MRI suite, observation unit, pre-admission testing, three preoperative care units, adult and pediatric GI units, and sterile processing at all three sites.
2. President and senior consultant at PeriopRx Consultants. She directed all activities and was responsible for overseeing multiple consulting associates for hospitals, outpatient surgical centers, and teaching facilities in urban and rural areas throughout the country. These associates had between 15 and 30 years of experience in healthcare settings and had educational qualifications that included MD, DO, MSN, MSHA, BSN, CPA, and BS.
3. Kathleen received her Master of Science degree from Kennedy Western University, Wyoming; a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of St. Francis, Illinois; and Associate Science Nursing at Rock Valley College, Illinois. She holds National Certification for Professional Achievement in Perioperative Nursing Practice and is also trained as a Legal Nurse Consultant.

Mary is a senior healthcare professional and healthcare change agent with The Leading Edge Group and is based in Chanhassen, Minnesota. She has over 25 years of hospital operations experience including senior level hospital executive and system level operations consulting. She utilizes change leadership, Six Sigma Black Belt, and Lean training along with her significant experience in healthcare to facilitate improvement and achieve results.

Mary currently provides consulting to hospital executive teams across the USA to improve operational performance. Consulting engagements include operational performance improvement planning, facilitation, and implementation oversight, education on improvement methods and tools, and supporting the redesign of work practices and staff roles to achieve sustainable change and improvements.

Other positions included:

1. VP, Operations Improvement, Catholic Health Initiatives, Minneapolis, Minnesota – facilitated initiatives to improve and redesign work processes at system, hospital, and department levels including planning and providing implementation oversight of significant financial turnaround plans. She focuses on aligning improvement initiatives with organization strategy and drives improvement outcomes using change leadership and a variety of performance improvement methods and tools. Mary developed a process to define the ideal patient experience, redesign work and staff roles, and influence space design planning to optimize the ideal patient experience in remodel and master facility planning projects.
2. Interim CEO of Unity Family Healthcare, Little Falls, Minnesota – served as interim CEO for St. Gabriel’s Hospital and consolidated entities including 50 bed hospital, 150 bed nursing home, 14 bed developmentally disabled residential facility, 68 unit elderly housing apartment complex, and 20 bed off-campus hospital in Albany, MN
3. VP for Mission and patient Care Services, St Gabriel’s Hospital, Little Falls, Minnesota – led initiatives to improve quality, customer and employee satisfaction, reduce costs, and increase access to services locally. Mary developed a case management program, standardizing management of patient pathways, protocols, and standing orders; established multidisciplinary medication safety team and new medication error tracking system; and significantly increased patient satisfaction scores in same day services and emergency departments
4. Mary received her MBA degree from the University of Connecticut and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the College of St. Benedict, St, Joseph, Minnesota. She completed her Six Sigma Black Belt in 2005 and a Lean Green Belt in 2007.

Michael is a senior healthcare consultant and Master Change Agent with The Leading Edge Group and is based in Sarasota, Florida. He has over 20 years of experience in leading and advising healthcare organizations in strategic and operational improvement. He specializes in evaluating healthcare operations and implementing system-wide process improvements and innovations in healthcare systems, hospitals, physician groups, insurers, and long-term care organizations. He has developed leaders and managers in improvement concepts and tools, including the development and delivery of education and training to over 2,000 leaders, managers, and healthcare employees.

Michael currently provides strategic and operational oversight for a healthcare organization’s change leadership initiative aimed at accelerating change and increasing the capacity for organizational transformation across the system. This incorporates developing change agents and leaders in change models, concepts and tools, and advising on major change and Lean and Six Sigma initiatives.

Other positions included:

1. VP – Change Leadership, Catholic Health Initiatives, Denver (77 hospitals, 68,000 employees, $7B+ revenues) – led and coordinated their change leadership initiative and provided leadership and advising in the areas of performance improvement, benchmarking, and productivity management.
2. VP – Strategic Support Services at Wheaton Franciscan Services (18 hospitals, 13,000 employees, $1B+ revenues) – coordinated the approach and implementation of a major strategic initiative that resulted in significantly improved clinical and non-clinical operations. Led a system-wide communications and change team that generated buy-in across all levels of the system and its organizations. The redesigns resulted in over $70 million in operating margin improvement.
3. VP – Leader of Transformation Resource Group at Wheaton Franciscan Services – provided strategic leadership in the areas of planning, transformation, change, improvement, and innovation.
4. Senior Consultant – Coopers & Lybrand (PricewaterhouseCoopers) – conducted numerous engagements for healthcare systems, hospitals, clinics, physician groups, and healthcare associations. Projects included operations improvement, finance, and reimbursement; information services; work in patient accounting – revenue cycle and strategic planning
5. Michael received his MBA degree from the University of Chicago in finance, accounting and operations and a bachelor’s degree in health services administration from the University of Kentucky. Additionally, he is a certified Financial Planner (CFP) and in 2005 he completed his Six Sigma Black Belt training.