Connecting the Dots

The CEO of Langford International, Inc., David P. Langford, is an international educator, consultant, speaker, author, and trainer who focuses on successfully implementing and applying quality improvement theory, processes, and tools in education. Mr. Langford is the only educator to be awarded the Deming Medal for Excellence in the Application of Statistics in Industry Worldwide for outstanding leadership in combining statistical thinking and management to restore joy in the education system. Langford has developed Langford Learning, a theory of improvement built upon the fundamental teachings of W. Edwards Deming’s SoPK (System of Profound Knowledge). Langford Learning incorporates quality improvement methods that enable people to implement and establish strategies and processes that sustain Joy in Learning and create Joy at Work. Langford Learning integrates eight components: a Study in Psychology, Systems Thinking, Understanding Variation, The Theory of Knowledge, Neuroscience, Intrinsic Motivation, use and application of the Probletunity PDSA 9-Step Process, and 64 Quality Improvement Tools. For over three decades, Langford has worked with a diverse range of education organizations – from Pre-K to University – and has taught classes for the University of Alaska, and Central Washington University. Mr. Langford is a member of the Advisory Council for the W. Edwards Deming Institute and the Montana State University Billings College of Business. He has consulted with businesses including Sprint Corporation, Boeing, General Motors, the U.S. Naval Academy, and The Department of Defense. Worldwide, over 50,000 people have attended his Quality Learning Seminars, Leadership Training, and other online training presentations. In addition to leading quality improvement seminars nationally and internationally, Mr. Langford provides professional Consulting, Customized Training, and Keynote presentations specific to learning, applying, and studying the continual quality improvement process. He continues to lead colleagues to create dynamic and sustainable systemic improvement in learning organizations. Featured in the PBS Documentary Quality... or Else, and a highly respected leader in Quality Improvement in Learning Organizations, David P. Langford is the author of Tool Time for Education,Tool Time for Business, Tool Time for Healthcare, and co-author of Tool Time for Lean and Orchestrating Learning with Quality. David P. Langford has published numerous articles and created innovative quality improvement tools such as the Capacity Matrix, Consensogram, If... Then, Morphing, P3T, Parking Lot, and System’s Progress. Langford graduated from Montana State University Billings with a B.S. in Education, and he holds a Master’s degree in Educational Administration and Supervision from Arizona State University. Mr. Langford’s teaching background is in music, technology, and administration. He has also held the position of School Superintendent in southern CaliforniaLink to claim CME credit: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3DXCFW3CME credit is available for up to 3 years after the stated release dateContact CEOD@bmhcc.org if you have any questions about claiming credit.

Ron Pereira is a co-founder and partner at GEMBA Academy.  Ron has more than 20 years of 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 holds a bachelor's degree in automated manufacturing and an MBA in technology management.Link to claim CME credit: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3DXCFW3CME credit is available for up to 3 years after the stated release dateContact CEOD@bmhcc.org if you have any questions about claiming credit.

Mark supports new product development and the Co-Learning Partners program, assisting companies engaged in lean transformation.Since joining LEI in 2011, Mark spent 5 years of Chief Operating Officer at LEI followed by the last 3 years as a Senior Coach.He has led lean transformation in nearly every industry with many organizations such as:·       Manufacturing – GE Appliances and Ingersoll Rand·       Retail – Kroger·       Hospitality – Legal Sea Foods·       Construction – Turner Construction·       Software – Microsoft·       Healthcare – Michigan Medicine, Mt. Sinai Health SystemMark has also worked as an executive coach in many of the industries and companies listed above, establishing a Lean Leader program development structure, clarifying and executing problem solving and behavioral improvements for Lean Leaders in every industry. Additionally, Mark is also an instructor for Hoshin and Managing to Learn courses, both online and in person.Before coming to LEI, he spent 23 years at Toyota in Japan and North America, most recently as general manager of the Toyota Production System Support Center (TSSC). As a hands-on GM, Mark directly implemented the Toyota Production System (TPS) or managed its implementation in a variety of industries, including automotive, food, furniture, and healthcare, among others.Mark doubled the number of companies supported by TSSC from 20 to 40. He transitioned it from for-profit to nonprofit status so it could better support its original mission to strengthen North American manufacturing and help any organization interested in implementing TPS. He expanded the client base beyond manufacturing to hospitals, schools, low-income food distribution, and nationally prominent nonprofitsPreviously, he was assistant general manager of the corporate strategy division where he managed and implemented Toyota’s North American strategic (hoshin) process, designed jointly with Toyota’s Japan headquarters. He launched efforts to strengthen Toyota Way principles in administrative areas in North America, and facilitated the integration of its design and manufacturing organizations.Link to claim CME credit: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3DXCFW3CME credit is available for up to 3 years after the stated release dateContact CEOD@bmhcc.org if you have any questions about claiming credit.

John A. Dues is an accomplished education systems leader and improvement science scholar-practitioner with more than two decades of experience in the sector. He is the Chief Learning Officer of the United Schools Network (USN) where he directs the network’s Continual Improvement Fellowship and serves as an improvement advisor. In this role, he provides education, coaching, and mentoring on continual improvement methods, data collection and analysis methods, and project management and change management techniques with the purpose of enabling teams across the organization to become experts at guiding their own improvement. He draws heavily on the work of W. Edwards Deming and his System of Profound Knowledge (SoPK) to equip him with the theory and statistical tools by which to perform this role. Previously, he served as a school director and dean of academics at USN as well as in school leadership and teaching positions in Atlanta, Denver, and Cleveland. Under John’s leadership, USN schools have regularly been among the state and nation’s highest performing urban schools. In 2013, John was recognized as the Ohio School Leader of the Year by the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Over the course of his career, John has served on the start-up teams of seven school and nonprofit organizations. He has been engaged as a consultant to a variety of education organizations including public charter, private, and traditional public schools and is a regular presenter at conferences and workshops. His internal and external improvement work is focused on developing organizational capability and long-term constancy of purpose through the application of Deming’s methods, principles, and theories. John graduated with Honors from Miami (OH) University, holds a Master of Education degree from the University of Cincinnati, and is an alumnus of Teach For America. He is currently continuing his education through the Improvement Advisor program at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston, Massachusetts.Link to claim CME credit: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3DXCFW3CME credit is available for up to 3 years after the stated release dateContact CEOD@bmhcc.org if you have any questions about claiming credit.

 Mike Wroblewski, President of Dantotsu Consulting and Shingo Award winning co-author of “Creating a Kaizen Culture”, has over 30 years of manufacturing management experience, strong technical skills and a passion for teaching Kaizen, Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma.  During his career, Mike has held various management and leadership positions including Industrial Engineer, Manufacturing Engineer, Manufacturing Manager, Manager of Quality and Continuous Improvement, Director of Operations and Lean Sensei. Mike’s journey into Lean manufacturing began in the 1985 while working 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. Mike has a MS in Manufacturing Management from the GMI Engineering & Management Institute, a BS in Production and Operations Management from Miami University and a Six Sigma Black Belt certification.Link to claim CME credit: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3DXCFW3CME credit is available for up to 3 years after the stated release dateContact CEOD@bmhcc.org if you have any questions about claiming credit.

Cheryl M Jekiel is the CEO of the Lean Leadership Center (LLC) which helps innovative companies optimize the talents their teams contribute to the organization and the quality of their lives. The LLC partners with companies to drive results by building the coaching skills of their leaders, redesigning human resources systems and improving the culture of their organization. Ms. Jekiel has held a number of senior leadership roles, including serving as Vice President of Human Resources at Flying Food Group, LLC and Chief Operating Officer at Parco Foods, LLC. She developed an expertise in Lean manufacturing with a particular focus on culture and a coaching style of leadership. As the author of “Lean Human Resources: Redesigning HR Practices for a Culture of Continuous Improvement”, Ms. Jekiel brings a tremendous passion for continuous improvement and is committed to building HR for Lean Enterprises as a recognized field of work. She lives in a suburb of Chicago with her husband, Ted, and their dogs, Sid and Ginger.Link to claim CME credit: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3DXCFW3CME credit is available for up to 3 years after the stated release dateContact CEOD@bmhcc.org if you have any questions about claiming credit.

Jane has over 30 years’ experience within people focused roles in professional and financial services. She is a master credited coach with the ICF and global faculty member with Time to Think. Additionally Jane is an Ambassador for Truly Human Leadership. Her work is underpinned with post graduate diplomas in Human Resources Management and Psychological Coaching.Link to claim CME credit: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3DXCFW3CME credit is available for up to 3 years after the stated release dateContact CEOD@bmhcc.org if you have any questions about claiming credit.

Bette Gardner created the Friday Night at the ER simulation game, one of several innovative developments that has marked her 25-year career in leadership development, business planning and management consulting.Bette designed Friday Night at the ER based on her interest in creating innovative tools that employ principles of systems thinking to manage within complex systems. She initially developed the game following a consulting engagement that led to breakthrough performance at an urban hospital and trauma center. She assists customers to successfully use the product with training and support services in all industries.Bette has also developed computer-based tools for learning and decision support, including ‘management flight simulators’ for private clients and for the public. She collaborated with Peter Senge and Arthur Andersen to create The Fifth Discipline-Interactive, and with High Performance Systems (now isee systems) to create simulations for population health management and for healthy communities development.Bette’s career includes 15 years in senior management positions with a hospital, a health care ventures company and a medical association. Formerly, she was a principal of the healthcare management consulting firm, HealthWorks.Bette’s volunteer work includes providing humanitarian flights as a pilot for Angel Flight West, and supporting environmental causes as a pilot for LightHawk. She and her husband raised three amazing sons in Northern California and now live in Portland, OR.Link to claim CME credit: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3DXCFW3CME credit is available for up to 3 years after the stated release dateContact CEOD@bmhcc.org if you have any questions about claiming credit.

Dr. Omar Lateef became president and CEO of Rush University Medical Center in May 2019. Under his leadership, the Medical Center received national attention for its effective management of the COVID-19 pandemic, which included building a forward triage, deploying early testing, acceptance of critically ill patient transfers, and being one of the first health systems to offer antibody testing. In recognition of Lateef’s role in Rush’s response to the crisis, Modern Healthcare named Lateef one of 50 most influential clinical executives.Lateef is a nationally recognized leader in the measurement of health care quality. He has worked with physicians and analysts at Rush and from academic medical centers across the nation to evaluate the driving factors and methodology of quality rankings by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), U.S. News and World Report and others.In January 2020, Lateef was invited by the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to serve on the National Advisory Council for Healthcare Research and Quality of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Lateef and his colleagues have evaluated and recommended changes to the rating systems to confirm that they are accurate and a fair reflection of quality. His work to ensure that key national measures are transparent, measure what they are intended to measure and have no unintended consequences has greatly affected how health care quality is reported across the country.Link to claim CME credit: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3DXCFW3CME credit is available for up to 3 years after the stated release dateContact CEOD@bmhcc.org if you have any questions about claiming credit.

Professor Peter Hines, is the Co-Founder of the Lean Enterprise Research Centre at Cardiff Business School. LERC grew to be the largest academic research in lean globally.  He has undertaken extensive research into Lean and written or co-written twelve books including Shingo Prize winning books “Staying Lean” “Creating a Lean & Green Business System”. His most recent book “The Essence of Excellence” was published in January 2019 and won a Shingo Publication Award.  Peter now runs the Enterprise Excellent Network providing European based forms with on-site benchmarking, learning and networking opportunities. He also continues his academic links and is a Visiting Professor at Waterford Institute of Technology, Master Trainer with The Shingo Institute at Utah State University.Link to claim CME credit: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3DXCFW3CME credit is available for up to 3 years after the stated release dateContact CEOD@bmhcc.org if you have any questions about claiming credit.