Our Consulting Partners

For over 29 years, Dr. Toni Davies has helped leaders who are committed to developing people as their first responsibility—and their primary improvement strategy—in creating highly successful workplaces. Drawing on her experience working with executives in both service and production environments, Dr. Davies guides authentic and sustainable deployments of Lean and continuous improvement practices based on the unique current and historical data collected within each organization. In her role as sensei (or coach), Dr. Davies focuses each leader to build—and leave as a legacy—an organization devoted to the respect and betterment of people at every level, and one that embodies the positive, peaceful, and productive values of Kaizen. Read Complete Bio

Dr. Ryuji Fukuda has dedicated nearly 50 years to the science of management, and has many credits to his name due to his vast experience and profound knowledge. He has created a suite of tools, which assist in the transformation of an organization in its entirety. He was the first to effectively integrate the various “Japanese techniques” like JIT, Hoshin Kanri, Kaizen with the “Traditional Knowledge” of Industrial Engineering, Statistical Process Control and Reliability into a unique and powerful set of tools which include the P/O Matrix, SEDAC, On Error Training, Window Analysis and Stockless Production. Read Complete Bio

Toni Davies began her association with the world reknowned Deming Prize winning Dr. Ryuji Fukuda in 1989, when he was a featured author & consultant with Productivity, Inc. During this time they worked together along with other fine consultants of Productivity, Inc. to refine and apply CEDAC & Policy Objective Deployment to an array of North American & International businesses. When Davies Consulting, Inc. was established, Dr. Fukuda and Toni Davies decided to collaborate again as independent partners to continue to help organizations in their improvement journies. Read Full Story

Susan Gatten is a versatile and accomplished training professional with over twenty five years’ experience as a manager, trainer, facilitator and learning consultant. She is described by her clients, which include McKinsey & Co, PepsiCo, The Toro Comapany, and GE Capital Europe, as a creative communicator and a highly personable, energetic and effective instructor, facilitator and coach. Susan has a B.A. in English from Indiana University and a M.A. in organizational communication from California State University, Los Angeles.

Andrew Dillon has over twenty years of successful experience in helping companies in North America, Europe and Asia to strengthen their management systems and build profitability by applying the principles of Lean production. He is experienced in cell design, preproduction planning, TPM, kanban, and total productive maintenance, and his clients include Alcoa, Autoliv, Eisenwerk Brühl, Gencorp, and GM. Mr. Dillon consults and lectures in English, French, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese, and is well known for translating many Lean works by Shigeo Shingo, his original coach & mentor, as well as other seminal thinkers in the field. He holds a BA and MA in Public Health.

Lou English has over 25 years of Lean consulting experience and knows what it takes to make these technologies work in a variety of companies like Ford International, Devon Energy, Talisman Energy, Trinity Towers, Technicolor, Merck and Tomkins Systems.  He specializes in introduction of Lean technologies to information based functions like engineering, R&D, purchasing, human resources, and maintenance. This includes the cross organizational leadership needed to effectively initiate, guide and support a total systems change in all these functions over time. Prior to his consulting with Kaizen Institute and Davies Consulting, Lou spent 13 years as Director of Organizational Development for Cummins Engineering and then as Manufacturing and Director of Personnel for Cummins Engine Research Center. Lou holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Dynamics from State University of NY at Buffalo.

Jim Van Patten has over 30 years experience working in various roles in Operations, Supplier Development, Quality Systems, Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, and Organizational Development.  As a Vice President of Quality, he has years of experience planning, implementing and improving Supplier Quality, Manufacturing Quality, Field Quality, Business Process Quality, and New Product Introduction. He has specific experience with the assessment, selection and management of suppliers based in China. Over his career, Jim has facilitated over 200 improvement projects based on Lean concepts, which delivered significant operational and business results in quality, cost, and timeliness. Jim also was a senior consultant for the Kaizen Institute of America, where he helped to pioneer specific applications of Kaizen for professional work with Toni Davies & Lou English, models which are now standard practice. As Vice President of Operations for a Silicon Valley start-up, Jim planned, implemented and continues to improve all components of the business operations including contract manufacturing, supply chain, S&OP, quality systems, as well as sweeping up and making coffee. Jim has a Ph.D. from Syracuse University, and a Six Sigma Black Belt from The University of Texas, Austin.

Richard Crowley comes to Lean with over 25 years of experience, starting at Toyota and bringing his experience with Toyota Production System forward to work with 2 consulting groups as well as his own practice.

The last ten years include a focus in the healthcare industry, where he served as a Process Improvement Engineer, Manager of Process Improvement and Director of Business Intelligence. He has led multiple process improvement teams in the application of LEAN and Six Sigma methodologies to improve various processes throughout medical organizations and hospitals to allow the health care providers to provide more efficient care to their patients.

Prior to healthcare, he was the President/CEO of Crowley Consulting, LLC and as well as a senior consultant with the Kaizen Institute of America, where he met Toni Davies and became a key consulting partner for Davies Consulting, Inc., working both domestically and internationally, He has an expert understanding of VSM (Value Stream Mapping), 5S (Process Organization), Visual Management, JIT (Just-in-Time) Flow Manufacturing, SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Die) / Quick Changeover, TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) and Pull Systems (Kanban) – Materials Management System. More recently, he has also added real estate to his work experience.

Before entering the consulting arena, he was the Manager of Production and Inventory Control for Toyota Gosei (TG) Missouri.

Richard holds both a Bachelor and Master degree from Southeast Missouri State University and is a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt.

Matt Hancock, brings nearly 20 years of global experience in employee-ownership, labor-management, nonprofit leadership, and education, to assist clients in developing high-engagement cultures that drive performance through people. As the Incoming Chair of the Ownership Culture Committee of the ESOP Association, Matt is also a Trustee of the Employee Ownership Foundation and a Steward of the Socio-Technical Systems
Roundtable. His areas of focus include Continuous Improvement, Employee Owner Education and Communications, Leadership Development,Change Management,and Group Process Design and Facilitation. He is a Principal at Praxis and a Consulting Partner to Davies Consulting, Inc.

Matt co-founded Chicago Tech Academy (ChiTech), Chicago’s first technology-focused high school and served as the Associate Director of the Center for Labor and Community Research (CLCR) in Chicago, as well as on the Boards of several nonprofit and for-profit organizations, including the Freelancers Insurance Company.

Having lived, worked, and studied in Bologna, Italy for several years as a consultant with Istituto per il Lavoro (Institute for Labor), Matt collaborated with European research centers, businesses and unions on action research into participatory forms of work organization, process improvement, supply-chain management and inter-firm cooperation. An expert on the Italian cooperative movement, Matt is the author of Compete to Cooperate, a book about the cooperatives of Imola, Italy.

Matt holds a Master’s in Cooperative Economics from the University of Bologna (Italy), where he studied governance, organization design, finance, and strategy in the region’s cooperatives, and a BA in history from Skidmore College. Matt also holds a Green Belt in Lean/Six Sigma.

Joyce Barnes has implemented workflow and systems improvements in both technical and non-technical settings for over 20 years. She is one of the first experts in the development and evaluation of process improvement training materials, and brings unsurpassed experience and knowledge to clients seeking to develop their own internal resources. Joyce began her long-term collaboration with Toni Davies at Productivity, Inc., where she worked with Toni to develop kaizen instructional materials for public and client- customized workshops.

A versatile technology professional, Joyce has experience in a wide range of industries, including software development, continuous improvement consulting, collaborative change and facilitative leadership, publishing, and higher education learning management systems. Joyce holds an Ed.M. with a focus in Technology in Education from Harvard University, a B.A. in Anthropology from Rutgers University (Douglass College), and she has studied Gender and Technology at MIT with Sherry Turkle, Instructional Design at Boston University, and Intercultural Relations at Lesley College.

Derek Kotze’s skills as facilitator, trainer and consultant, and 25 years of experience in facilitating process improvement and organizational change in the whole system of an organization combines with his unique ability to work with people at all levels to provide insightful and professional service. Derek has worked with organizations of all sizes across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Europe, Japan and South Africa, from which he hails, to effect change and establish continuous improvement practices. Prior positions include Account Manager for The Kaizen Institute of America, Vice President of Consulting for Productivity Inc., and coordinator of Participation Training Institute at Indiana University. Derek is a qualified Chartered Accountant (South Africa) and holds a Ph.D. in Adult Education and Instructional Systems Technology from Indiana University.

Tony Chamblin is uniquely qualified to lead others in Lean transformation. He spent 20 years with Toyota Motor Mfg Ky, applying all the TPS Lean concepts through first-hand experience as first a production Team Member, then Team Leader and overall Group Leader in the Paint department. In those roles he developed standardized work, set up work stations, applied practical problem solving, coached Quality Circles, Jidoka, Andon usage and worked with Team Leaders and Team Members on Kaizen activities. Promoted to Group Leader in the Production Improvement Team, he spent 5 years organizing and leading all internal Kaizen activities, including extensive training of Team members in the fundamental skills and traveling across North American affiliates to determine their root causes and countermeasures to ongoing problems. He is a Certified Toyota Productions System Trainer, Toyota Global Production Center Point Trainer, and Toyota Business Practices Trainer (8 Step Problem Solving).

A leader in training Team Members in the Toyota Production System and special projects, Tony is also an Adjunct Instructor with the University of Kentucky in their Center for Lean Manufacturing. Tony’s consulting clients range from banking to aerospace, and have included; McCain’s Food, Shannon Aerospace, BE Aerospace, Citizens Bank, Capital One Bank, the FDA, Boeing Fabrication Division, MAS, Interloop, AZ Dept of Administration, and AZ Dept of Transportation.