Overview

Professor, Author, Academic

I developed the #2 and #3 SCM in enrollment size academic programs in the United States at California State University - Hayward and University of San Diego. I am not just an author or an academic. I did my PhD in Pittsburgh for a reason. I started my career after my PhD in Silicon Valley for the same reason. I travelled to Asia, once again, for the same reason .... to become the best I could be at understanding manufacturing and supply chains.

In Pittsburgh I worked with established industries that learned to survive booms and busts. In Silicon Valley I learned how the world's highest technology companies experiencing the biggest boom in history were being managed and growing. But the experience did not end there. Silicon Valleys first big bust created shifts of supply chains to global locations. Where tech went, I followed. I went to China, South Korea, and Singapore to teach, learn and work with the some of the best companies in the world.

I took all I learned and poured it into what became the best-selling book in Supply Chain Management from 2003 - 2005 according to Amazon. I built the #1 online Masters in Supply Chain Management in the world at the time at The University of San Diego. Then, I finally broke away from academic to start the Roadmaps Institute to work full time taking Aerospace Industry supply chains to world-class.

The bottom line is there isn't another person like me out there with my breadth and depth of experiences and knowledge to assist you in developing your supply/value chains.

Lean Six Sigma Master Blackbelt

At Raytheon I was the only PhD developer of their Raytheon ISC-Six Sigma Program. The ISC-Six Sigma Program had 350+ mid-level managers go through it from all of Raytheon's divisions across three continents. Each manager learned everything in a standard Lean Six Sigma Blackbelt program, but we took it to a whole new level. Raytheon was measured in all of their divisions (and invited chain members such as the USAF) using my ten Aerospace Industry step charts. From the projects, Raytheon could develop Robust Roadmaps to achieve unprecedented improvements to the bottom line. Over 7,000 projects were in Raytheon's Six Sigma program at the time.

Since Raytheon, I developed my own distinctive approach to Six Sigma I call Robust Roadmaps Six Sigma (R26σ). R26σ resolves the two issues of disruptive technologies and innovations by assessing value chain organizations against World-Class Best Practices as well as between Alliance members in the value chains to identify collaborative opportunities.

If hired to be a Master Blackbelt, I will enable your company to develop the best blackbelts possible that will fully tap best practices and innovations across their entire value chains including customers and suppliers and materials, products and services from Mother Earth to final disposition. What I call Robust Roadmaps Six Sigma (R26σ) achieves unprecedented ROI from project portfolios that result from extended levels of consideration across Alliances.

That said, if preferred, I can stick to regular Blackbelt curriculums equivalent to existing certification programs.

Process Improvement Manager

I know what it is like to stand before a room full of Japanese managers of Shanghai factories in China to discuss how they can improve from already being among the better in the world to being the absolute best. Most American consultants would wither under such intensity as "empty suits," but I thrived, learned, and returned to America stronger and more capable to help our companies compete.

I began in Operations Management at the age of 19 when I started a game board manufacturing company. That spark led to my deciding to get an undergraduate and PhD in Operations Management. I love working production lines .... making them the best they can possibly be. It is a passion that led me to document best practices I learned across hundreds of production lines.

To the left is a summary page showing results of one of my 18 programs at the Roadmaps Institute called Process Optimization and Development (POD Program) in the figure as an example of my acumen in managing and improving operations. I documented about 180 processes at the company on the left. We optimized the processes by mapping them, identifying improvements such as waste, and then putting projects in place to change the processes.

Procurement / Supply Manager

Unlike many academic types, I have been in the trenches buying electrical components, subassemblies, harnesses, and other parts in the EV Industry. I chose to go into the trenches so I could better lead in Procurement. Thousands of procurement professionals around the world have a copy of my book World-Class Supply Management on their shelf (written with Dr. David Burt and Dr. Donald Dobler). The book became a best selling book across the globe for use in academia and industry for the Supply/Procurement Management field. The book also became the defacto source for materials used in Institute of Supply Management (ISM) programs as well as the backbone of Procurement programs across the globe. I could only write a book like that after learning and working with the best procurement systems in the world. Take a look at my World-Class Supplier Management Step Chart and determine where your organization is on its road to world-class!

To see some of my Procurement type projects, I have created an additional subpage. Take a look?

Program / PMO Manager

I am the author of World-Class Program Management and taught Program Management to Program Managers with over billion dollar spends in Aerospace. I also developed all the materials and taught the eProject Management Certification Program in the Silicon Valley Area. Further, the entire premise of the Roadmaps Institute and my methodologies embedded are a "high octane" type of project portfolio management that spans departments, divisions, companies, and alliances.

An interesting caveat is who I learned Project Management from in 1991. As a PhD student, I was set up by faculty in the Katz Graduate School of Business to meet with Dr. David Cleland in Engineering to learn project management and then come into Pitt Business classes and teach it to students and faculty. I sat and had coffee with David and learned ... never knowing he was considered the "Father of Project Management" until I looked at his Wikipedia in 2020. (Yes, I can be naïve! No one knows everything.)

Manufacturing / Facility Manager

I founded my own manufacturing company, Starling Games, at the age of 19 with suppliers in Asia and North America. Starling Games started my love affair with making products. I went on to do a PhD in Operations Management, aka management of manufacturing, based on how I oriented the degree. By my mid-20s I was working with Fortune 100 and 500 manufacturing systems at Caterpillar and Alcatel respectively. Then came Silicon Valley and the best, highest tech operations in the world. I placed 37 managers alone into Toyota. 12 into IBM. 3 into SIlicon Graphics. Etc. , etc. I worked with and learned from the best, but I also documented them and was able to hover above the fray as a professor and consultant.

When I would walk through a factory I could do so with the finesse of Shingo and Deming, able to see and understand systems in ways most managers working directly with their processes could not often see. I also had the acumen to understand the software driving everything. I worked with Oracle, Peoplesoft, and SAP because their headquarters were all with 15 minutes of me in each direction in the San Francisco Bay Area early in my career.

Startup / NPI Manager

Development of new products and businesses dates back to my teenage years. I was the kid that had six employees and 16 lawn mowers before I could drive! By 19 I already had my own assembly manufacturing company. In my PhD, I worked with some of the world's best contract and commodity product manufacturers. Before age 30 I had already been a part of high tech design teams and published papers on measuring Life Cycle and Quality Costs in the Design Stage. I created mathematical models to estimate Costs of Quality and Life Cycle Costs in the Design Stage for Printed Circuit Board (PCB) by DSC Communications, Castings, Milling, Grinding, and other heavy industry part needs for Caterpillar, including their Flexible Manufacturing System. By age 43 my publications on Early Supplier Involvement, Early Procurement Involvement, Standardization and Simplification, as well as Cost Measurement in the Design Process were used by corporations across the globe and taught in universities. But I did not stop there. As I shifted into Six Sigma working with Aerospace, we utilized Six Sigma methodologies for Design. To manage all of the stages, gates, and milestones of product development, I developed and applied Project and Program Management capabilities. When Agile came on the scene, we adjusted our approaches for a hybrid of gates with Agile methods.

Software Development

When I needed to stay home more to care for my family post-divorce and with my father becoming handicapped with terminal cancer, I shifted my career into software development for the Oil and Gas Industry. Give credit where it is due. This was my father's company and I took over with it at a mature stage. But with my PhD in Artificial Intelligence and capability to write in seven coding languages, it was a logical shift. As President of Starling Associates, I developed the most accurate gas flow measurement software in the world until new formulas were developed in Europe.

Executive Roles

I have already served in President and VP roles and successfully led many organizations. I have held several Director positions running Supply Chain Management programs, MBA programs, and the Roadmaps Institute as Executive Director. I am seen as a leader. I am capable of leading a range of organizations, including public, private, profit, and non-profit. With my PhD, knowledge base, and years of experience working with Fortune 500 companies, I am positioned to maximize a company's profits by increasing their competitive advantage and sales growth. I have met with generals, United States senators, chief executive officers, Nobel Prize winners, and other great leaders to collaboratively build some of the greatest value chains the world has ever seen.