Lean Sensei at Batesville Casket Company
Indianapolis, Indiana Area
- Current
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- Lean Sensei at Batesville Casket Company
- Founder and Contributor at Got Boondoggle? lean blog site
- President and Co-Founder at Victory Alliance Technologies
- Past
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- Manager of Quality and Continuous Improvement at Matthews International, York Casket Division
- Director of Operations at Telamon Corporation
- Plant Manager at Wood-Mizer Products
- Industrial Engineer/Manufacturing Engineer/Manufacturing Manager at Hill-Rom Company
- Education
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- GMI Engineering and Management Institute (now Kettering University)
- Miami University
- White Oak High School
- Recommended
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1 person has recommended Mike - Connections
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233
connections
- Industry
- Management Consulting
- Websites
Mike Wroblewski’s Summary
For over 24 years, I have been working in manufacturing management growing my technical skills and passion for teaching Kaizen, Lean Principles, and Six Sigma. My journey into lean began in the early 1980's while working as an Industrial Engineer for the Hill-Rom Company. Under the watchful eye of Shigeo Shingo, I improved a die changeover from 45 minutes to under 5 minutes. I 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.
During my 16 years at Hill-Rom, I continued my lean training and implementation of the Toyota Production System under the masters from Shingijutsu Consulting and other renowned consultants from Japan. I implemented numerous improvements including the design and installation of Hill-Rom's first paced assembly line, reducing mixed model welding set ups from 4 minutes to 6 seconds and compressing assembly leadtimes from 6 days to less that 1 day.
I have personally worked with hundreds of employees in both union and non-union companies leading the way of lean transformations. Most importantly, I understand first-hand the complexites of day to day frontline management and know how to improve processes leading to getting results through the development of people.
As a Lean Sensei, I teach the principles of lean and kaizen while remaining forever a student of continuous improvement.
Mike Wroblewski’s Specialties:
Certified Six Sigma Black Belt, Lean Manufacturing, Toyota Production System, Quality Systems, Kaizen, Lean Enterprise, Lean Office, SMED, Standard Work
Mike Wroblewski’s Experience
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Lean Sensei
Batesville Casket Company
(Public Company; HI; Consumer Goods industry)
October 2007 — Present (2 years 2 months)
Lean initiative for all North American operations focused on continuing the lean journey through strengthening the lean culture. The lean journey includes directing strategic kaizen events, process improvements and training. Projects include the creation and implementation of the “My CI” initiative to dramatically increase total employee involvement with over 5,000 employee ideas implemented, 5S program, Value Stream Mapping, process layouts, and establishing standard work. Courses taught include all the lean principles, practical problem solving, 3P, Kaizen Team Leader Training and Six Sigma Green Belt Certification Course. Lead emphasis to increase kaizen activity with over 97 events resulting in 577 kaizen implemented in first year.
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Founder and Contributor
Got Boondoggle? lean blog site
(Writing and Editing industry)
September 2005 — Present (4 years 3 months)
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President and Co-Founder
Victory Alliance Technologies
(Management Consulting industry)
September 2001 — Present (8 years 3 months)
Leading quality and lean initiatives for client companies focused on lean transformation of clients’ culture and implementation of lean tools to solve problems. The lean transformation includes directing initial lean conversion with kaizen events, process improvements and training. Projects include 5S program, SMED (quick changeover), process layouts, establishing standard work along with standard work in process and increasing the velocity of process. Courses taught include all the lean principles and a certified Six Sigma Green Belt course. One successful project resulted in a reduction in required floor space by 25% (over 3,000 sq feet), increasing velocity in manufacturing flow from 3 weeks to under 1 week, increased manufacturing capacity to bring 50 outsourced SKUs back to in-house production all without increasing manpower levels. Client companies include Reebok, Nissan, TRW, Aerofab, Pratt Corporation, Schulte Corporation, Deflect-o and Medline Industries.
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Manager of Quality and Continuous Improvement
Matthews International, York Casket Division
(Consumer Goods industry)
2001 — 2006 (5 years )
Management responsibility for three plants focused on quality and productivity metrics with management responsibility for a quality manager, quality supervisors, engineers and inspectors. Customer service responsibility for all product quality related activities including customer point of contact, warranties and product improvements.
Using visual management tools, documented standard work, root cause analysis and DMAIC methodology, improved FPY rates in final assembly from 69% to over 96%, reduced PPM rate on finished goods audit 95% , reduced PPM rate of the number one assembly defect by 99%, reduced customer returns by 37% and improved direct labor cost savings by 40%. Completed five Black Belt projects with emphasis on common cause quality issues including one project that eliminated a product functional complaint from our customers that existed for over 7 years. Converted the corporate quality system and all quality work instructions to the ISO 9000:2000 standard using a web based intranet platform. -
Director of Operations
Telamon Corporation
(Telecommunications industry)
2000 — 2001 (1 year )
Responsible for the Carmel, Indiana plant operations including electronic assembly, electronic technicians, manufacturing engineering, facilities engineering, and production control. Led corporate efforts to implement lean manufacturing principles with training and focused project teams. Established a 5-S program, converted to cell manufacturing, instituted world class manufacturing measurements, maintained ISO 9000 certification, became TL9000 certified and created visual management systems. Results from programs included improvement in quality 95% in 6 months, on time delivery in two major product lines of 100% and 97.74% while increasing the production level 275%.
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Plant Manager
Wood-Mizer Products
(Privately Held; Machinery industry)
1998 — 2000 (2 years )
Responsible for the Indianapolis, Indiana manufacturing plant including metal fabrication, welding, painting, and assembly production departments. Additional areas under my leadership included tool room support, receiving, production control, and maintenance/facilities departments. Provided corporate leadership based on lean manufacturing aimed at introducing lean principles to shop floor. Using focused teams, lowered line employee turnover from 67% to less than 5%, reduced overtime percentage from 30% to 6.42%, reduced manufacturing WIP by 62%, reduced total corporate inventory by 22%, reduced manufacturing lead time from 26.1 days to 11.2 days and increased production efficiency 15.7%.
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Industrial Engineer/Manufacturing Engineer/Manufacturing Manager
Hill-Rom Company
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Medical Devices industry)
1982 — 1998 (16 years )
Mike Wroblewski’s Education
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GMI Engineering and Management Institute (now Kettering University)
MS , Manufacturing Management , 1994
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Miami University
BS , Production and Operations Management , 1982
- Activities and Societies:
- Delta Chi Fraternity
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White Oak High School
High School Diploma , College Prep , 1975 — 1978
- Activities and Societies:
- President of National Honor Society
Additional Information
Mike Wroblewski’s Websites:
Mike Wroblewski’s Groups:
Lean and Six Sigma Blogging
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GMI (Kettering University) Alumni -
Miami University Alumni Association -
Lean Six Sigma -
Eagle's Nest--Eagle Scout Award Recipients -
Kaizen (Continuous Improvement) Experts -
Lean Practitioners -
Superfactory -
The Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence -
Toyota Production System Network -
AME (Association for Manufacturing Excellence) -
Global Green Lean Sigma Network -
Lean & Green -
Gemba Academy -
Lean Learning Center
Mike Wroblewski’s Honors:
Active in Boy Scouts for over 20 years earning Eagle Scout Award, District Award of Merit, Vigil Honor and Silver Beaver Award. Served on BSA national staff at several National Order of the Arrow Conferences and the 1997 National Jamboree staff.
Regular regional speaker on set up reduction, lean principles and quality. Speaker at the 1998 APICS International Conference on “Successful Parts Presentation and Material Flow for Lean Manufacturing”. Speaker at the 2007 and 2008 Reliable Plant Lean Manufacturing Conference and the 2008 and 2009 AME International Conference.
Continuous Improvement Leader with the Paradigm Network of Central Indiana, an Indianapolis based business consortium. Primary focus on training and leading Kaizen Improvement events.
Mike Wroblewski’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- consulting offers
- job inquiries
- business deals
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
