Conference Speakers

Gord Masiuk (BA Economics) President – Masiuk Consulting Services Ltd. www.business-performance-excellence.ca Gord is a seasoned management consultant, has held senior and executive leadership positions and designed and led numerous continuous quality improvement initiatives over the last 24 years. Gord has consulted in 10 different industries including oil and gas, forest products, gas transmission, government, wholesale, retail and distribution, utilities, aerospace, and professional services. He is a former VP of Organizational Effectiveness and Human Resources, was the past chair of the Alberta Quality Management Coordinator's Forum, has authored the TQM Referenece Guide for the Alberta Government, and organized 2 TQM Symposiums in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. An article titled "Aligning Quality Management With Company Strategy" will be published in the February 2012 issue of Banas Qualidade (BQ) Magazine, a leading Quality Management publication from Brazil. Gord is a senior member of the Amercian Society for Quality, and has presented at over 20 conferences, including the Quality Expo hosted by UBM and ASQ in Chicago on September 20, 2011.

Dr. John Holmes is an engineering manager for General Electric Oil and Gas. He has been an electrical engineer and engineering manager since 1985 in small, medium and large corporations, working in new product development. In that time he has published several papers, received 18 US patents and been awarded several international patents. Dr. Holmes also has twelve years of part time teaching experience in the Purdue system.

Dr. Holmes received his doctorate from Northcentral University in engineering management and holds a BS degree from Purdue, an M.S. degree from Indiana State University and an MBA from Sullivan University. He is also an ASQ Certified Reliability Engineer and a registered Professional Engineer in Indiana.

Robin Lawton is an internationally recognized expert in creating rapid strategic alignment between enterprise objectives and the voice of the customer. He has world-class methods for improving customer focus and customer satisfaction, while inspiring employees at all levels. Rob is president of International Management Technologies, Inc., which he founded in 1985. Mr. Lawton coined the term "customer-centered culture" (also known as C3) in his 1993 best-selling book, Creating a Customer-Centered Culture: Leadership in Quality, Innovation and Speed (5-star rated at Amazon).

New business development & project manager of Dimensional Control Systems, Inc. (DCS), Richard (Rick) Rots has 27 years of manufacturing, dimensional management, product design, sales/marketing, and customer relations experience. In his current position, he is involved in all facets of the company's sales, marketing, and operations.

Prior to joining DCS in 1997, Rots served in progressively more demanding engineering and project management roles for companies that included Fetz Engineering, General Motors Corporation (Midsize Car Division), and FEC Inc. While with Fetz Engineering, he was a key member of the product design and launch team for what was deemed "the most successful heavy-duty truck launch" for Volvo/American Sunroof Corporation (ASC). In all of these positions, Rots coordinated geometric dimensioning & tolerancing (GD&T), variation analysis and dimensional management.

Rots has a bachelors of science degree in electrical/mechanical engineering from the Division of Engineering Technology at Wayne State University in Detroit. He earned an associate's degree in Applied Science in Engineering Technology from Macomb Community College, where he was also awarded a Certificate in Industrial Engineering.

Dr. Borror is a Professor in the Mathematical and Natural Sciences Division at ASU. She received her PhD in Industrial Engineering from Arizona State University in 1998. Her research and project interests include design of experiments, response surface methods, measurement systems analysis, and statistical process control. She is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and the American Society for Quality.

Kevin J. Duggan is a renowned speaker, executive mentor, and educator in applying advanced lean techniques to achieve Operational Excellence and the author of three books on the subject: Design for Operational Excellence: A Breakthrough Strategy for Business Growth, Creating Mixed Model Value Streams, and The Office That Grows Your Business – Achieving Operational Excellence in Your Business Processes. As the Founder of the Institute for Operational Excellence, the leading educational center on Operational Excellence, and Duggan Associates, an international training and advisory firm, Kevin has assisted many major corporations worldwide, including United Technologies Corporation, Caterpillar, Pratt & Whitney, Singapore Airlines, IDEX Corporation, GKN and Parker Hannifin. A recognized expert on Operational Excellence, Kevin is a frequent keynote speaker, master of ceremonies, and panelist at international conferences, and has appeared on CNN and the Fox Business Network.

Mr. Itai Elboim has been consulting to large and small enterprises since 1998 and helped many leading organizations globally implement technology solutions to address supply chain challenges in distribution, manufacturing, and quality. Mr. Elboim's experience and work spans across different industries like Food & Beverages, Semiconductors, Electronics manufacturing, and since he joined Sparta Systems more than 7 years ago he's been focused on the life sciences industry. His work and role involves bringing software based solutions to different business needs and working with companies to improve their operations and efficiency while reducing the risk of incompliance and lack of control.

Since joining Apollo Associated Services in 2000, Brian has served as executive, investigator, instructor, and consultant. He continues as vice president of Sologic. Working with clients to develop and implement enterprise-wide RCA programs, Brian also has led significant root cause incident investigations, including explosions, loss of primary containment, consumer product contamination, failures of critical aircraft components/systems, supply chain process problems, and inventory optimization problems. Brian's work has helped clients achieve substantial savings, as well as significant improvements in safety, quality, reliability, and efficiency.

Brian continues to research the application of causal analysis methods to problem solving and error reduction. His articles are published in multiple industry periodicals as well as online, including Quality Digest, Professional Safety, and Occupational Health and Safety. He also has presented at various industry conferences, including ASQ, ASSE, NSC, APICS, and multiple client events. Brian holds a BA in Finance from Western Washington University.

Certified Production Inventory Management since 2006 (CPIM), APICS educator since 2009. Supply chain management professional with 15 years of supply and sourcing management experience. President of Sourcing Allies North America; an organization whose goal is to provide competent near-shore and low cost sourcing solutions that exploit supply inefficiencies and improve bottom line profit. Sourcing Allies functions as the purchasing facilitator for companies that do not have the resources to establish a purchasing office overseas that can manage supply and quality issues that are common in low cost country sourcing..

Larry R. Smith "graduated" (retired) from Ford in 2005 where he was quality coach of the Ford Motor Company's Heritage team, a team charged with revitalizing the Ford Rouge manufacturing complex. Larry's career emphasis has been in quality engineering and product development. He was instrumental in initiating a six sigma effort at Ford Motor Company and acted as deployment champion for the Superduty Truck Platform, whose six sigma projects saved $49 million in the first year of operation. He was also champion of a volunteer Ford Environmental Idea Process Team, focused on developing ideas related to design and manufacture of vehicles whose use improves conditions for human beings and the environment.

Larry has held a variety of quality management positions in his 27 years at Ford, primarily in Vehicle Operations, North American Truck, Powertrain Operations, and Casting Operations. Since Ford, Larry has consulted and conducted training on quality and innovation methods with his own company, The Quality Smith, and for Ideation, GOAL/QPC and the Juran Institute. He has worked with corporations such as Abbott, Delphi, Unilever, Raytheon, Apple, Bosch, organizations such as the American Society for Quality, the Public Health Foundation, and the European Organization for Quality, and consulting firms in China, India, and Malaysia. A fellow of the American Society for Quality and elected national director from 2004-2006, Smith is a past president of the Altshuller Institute for TRIZ Studies and has been involved in numerous applications of TRIZ since 1993. A member of the Board of Directors of GOAL/QPC from 1994 to 2007, Larry is also a past president of the Detroit Chapter of ASM International.

Oscar Combs, President and Senior Consultant of The ISO 9001 Group, a management system consulting, auditing and training firm based in Houston, Texas helping companies manage their API-Q1, API-Q2, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 17025 and OHSAS 18001management systems. Oscar has over 17 years of experience working for several of the largest corporations in North America Nabors Industries, the largest drilling contractor in the world and Fugro, one of the largest geotechnical engineering firms in the world allowing him to gain invaluable national and international business experience and specialized training in the fields of risk management, project management, quality, health, safety, and environmental management systems. Oscar has successfully led and managed Quality and HSE Departments throughout his careers at Nabors Industries and Fugro. While working at Nabors for 14 years, Oscar was key in the design, development and implementation of Nabors' ISO 9001 Quality Management System and its implementation in over 20 countries. While at Fugro, Oscar led Fugro's initiative to achieve ISO 9001 certification of its 16 sites in just an astounding 12 months with zero major findings by the company's certifying body.

While at Fugro, Oscar also worked with Fugro's testing laboratories in managing their ISO 17025 (A2LA) testing and calibration and R-18 (AASHTO) construction materials testing quality management systems. In the area of occupational health and safety, Oscar has implemented OHSAS 18001 certified management systems and helped Nabors Industries and Fugro to reduce incident rates by 23% - 50% through proven behavioral and metric driven strategies and techniques, resulting in tangible financial savings and reduction in injuries of employees. Oscar is a Senior Member of the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and currently serves as the Chair of the Programs Committee for ASQ's Houston Chapter 1405. Oscar participated with the National ASQ Quality Division on drafting the first of its kind Service Quality Body of Knowledge (SQBOK), specifically for service organizations. Oscar holds a MBA from the University of Houston and has served as President-elect of several boards. Oscar achieved Certified Quality Manager certification in 2003 and is a Certified ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 Lead Auditor. He has authored and published various articles in publications, such as Quality Digest regarding quality in the news today. Oscar is a dynamic, yet down to earth speaker that imparts practical knowledge for complicated challenges

Mark A. Morris has more than 30 years experience in tooling and manufacturing as a skilled machinist, toolmaker, college instructor, technical writer, and quality professional in roles from Quality Engineer to Director of Continuous Improvement. His expertise lies in dimensional issues, reliability, maintainability, and quality systems. Mr. Morris' credentials include undergraduate degrees focused on manufacturing engineering, industrial education, and metalworking; Master of Education degree from the College of Technology at Bowling Green State University; CQE, CRE, and CQA certifications from the American Society for Quality; and Senior Level Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing Professional (GDTP) certification from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Mr. Morris is also the Immediate Past Chair for the Ann Arbor section of ASQ, and for the past five years, has trained candidates to become ASQ Certified Quality Engineers. He presently serves as Education Chair on the Leadership Team of the Ann Arbor section of ASQ

Richard A. Vincins is part of the Emergo Group as Vice President Quality Assurance responsible for quality assurance and regulatory affairs activities. In this role he is responsible for the implementation of quality systems, conducting internal audits, training on quality system tools, and providing regulatory expertise in national and international regulations. He brings over 20 years of experience in the medical industry including worldwide regulatory compliance efforts for medical device, IVD, and pharmaceutical companies. His work experience at companies like Medtronic and bioMerieux include establishing quality systems to ISO standards, 510(k) submissions, and CE marking of multiple product lines. Vincins is an ASQ Certified Biomedical Auditor and Certified Quality Auditor and holds a Regulatory Affairs Certification for U.S. Regulations and European Union Regulations through the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society. Richard graduated from Bridgewater State College, MA, with a bachelor's degree in Biomedical Biology.

Jeffrey Slater, has experience in almost every aspect of Business Management from Operations Planning to Corporate Management. His background also includes eCommerce focused projects, and preparing customer focused qualitative and quantitative analysis of business opportunities and the Strategic Planning Process for three Fortune 500 companies. He developed Six Sigma skills with hands on experience and projects. Jeffrey has achieved certifications from several professional organizations including ASQ - Certified Six Sigma Black Belt (CSSBB), Certified Quality Management (CQM), APICS - Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP), Integrated Resource Management (CIRM), Lean Office and Manufacturing, and ISM Sourcing Manager. (Exam) Jeffrey recently received his Certification in Lean Office & Manufacturing from the University of Michigan, studying with Jeffrey Liker (Toyota Way) and Mike Rother (Learning to See).

Jeffrey has also taught College level classes in Marketing, Supply Chain and Operations Management including APICS certification classes. Jeffrey also completes book reviews for the American Society for Quality and has been publish in several journals including the Journal of Global Business and Organizational Excellence, Wiley and Sons. Jeffrey currently works for Sonoco as the Operating Excellence Leader focused on Productivity including all Lean Six Sigma - Productivity Projects (including training & mentoring), New Product Development Projects, Rewards and Recognition, and Sonoco Performance System implementation. Founded in 1899, Sonoco is a $4.0 billion global manufacturer of industrial and consumer products and provider of packaging services, with more than 300 operations in 35 countries, serving customers in some 85 nations. For more information on the Company, visit our Web site at http://www.sonoco.com/.

In a professional career spanning over a quarter century, Forrest Breyfogle has established himself as a leading edge thinker, a prolific author, an innovative consultant, a world-class educator, and a successful business executive. He recently completed a five-book set, Integrated Enterprise Excellence, that provides radical management advancements in the utilization and integration of scorecards, strategic planning, and process improvement. Mr. Breyfogle was named Quality Professional of the Year for 2011 by Quality Magazine. He also received the prestigious Crosby Medal from the American Society for Quality (ASQ) in 2004 for an earlier book, Implementing Six Sigma, 2nd ed.. Forrest is currently located in Austin, Texas where he founded Smarter Solutions, Inc. in 1992.

Brandon Theiss is currently a Principal Industrial Engineer at Medtronic in Eatontown, NJ. Before recently joining Medtronic he was a Master Black Belt at American Standard Brands in Piscataway, NJ, where he was responsible for the continuous improvement efforts for the four chinaware facilities located across North America. Prior to joining American Standard, Theiss worked as a systems engineer at Johnson Scale Co. in West Caldwell, NJ, where he was responsible for the design and implementation of process control and data collection systems. Theiss' articles have been accepted for publication in ASQ's Quality Progress magazine and the Institute for Industrial Engineering's Industrial Engineering magazine. He earned a bachelor's degree in electrical and computer engineering and a bachelor's degree in physics from Rutgers University. He is currently pursuing a master's degree in industrial engineering also from Rutgers University.

Steven joined the InfinityQS International team as an Application Engineer in September of 2008 and is based out of Gilbert, Arizona. He currently works on-site with customers implementing InfinityQS software and leading the Fundamentals Training course. When not on site, Steven is available for customer assistance and hosts demos and webinars on a variety of InfinityQS products and services.

While he is well versed in the InfinityQS product line, Steven specializes in Dynamic Scheduler and DMS/DCS. His accomplishments in this field include performing the largest and most complex Dynamic Schedule implementation to date and implementing a full "lights out" SPC system requiring no manual data entry.

Steven earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers University in New Jersey. In addition, he is a certified developer for FileMaker Pro and has completed all class work for Motorola's Six Sigma Black Belt program. .