Education:

I have undergraduate degrees in Math, Physics, German, and Data Processing (the name given to IT back then). From there I received two Masters Degrees: an MBA and a Masters in International Affairs. That was followed by a PhD in Economics (which is an advanced Math degree) and Operations Management.

Academics:

I taught as a visiting professor at several universities in California, Oregon, and Colorado. After completing my PhD I received an appointment and California State University, Chico, where I achieved a university record of advancing to Full Professorship with Tenure in two years. My area of research and teaching was Systems, with a specialization in AI Systems and Analytics. The focus on MIS was because I had previously been the operations manager of an IT consulting company. From there I taught full time at BYU Provo, BYU Hawaii, Universiti Malaya, The London School of Economics, and as a visitor at universities in Singapore, Australia, and throughout the USA, like the University of San Diego, Washington State, etc.. My most often teaching assignment was in Operations Management with an emphasis on Supply Chain Management, Lean, Six Sigma, and Analytics.

Consulting:

I believe that if you’re going to teach something, you should also have worked in the area, so I alternated between gaps in my academic career, working in consulting. I worked for some of the world’s largest consulting companies, being hired for specific projects. They were companies like Infosys, Wipro, AMS, and Mainstream. My primary focus was to lead the Lean / Six Sigma Continuous Improvement process and occasionally work on projects in Supply Chain Management. I worked in countries on nearly every continent, including companies like Aramco, Microsoft, Cisco, TI, Kraft Foods, Smart and Final, Davis Lay, Ritz-Carlton, Hewlett-Packard, Seagate, Motorola, PPI, Clark Equipment, NCR Corporation, and AT&T. I also worked in several government and military establishments, like the City of New York and Texas Attorney General’s office, and the US Air Force.

During my consulting practice my successes included (some quick examples):

• Tripled office productivity in three weeks
• Taking a 14 + % defect rate down to 2 % in 8 months
• Reduced set-up times from 20 minutes to as low as 6 minutes
• Reduced facility-wide inventories by 40 %
• Endorsed by Steven Covey, Motorola, AT&T, Black & Decker, FedEx, and others.

Publication:

Right now, my focus is on publishing books, like the 19 Business Books listed on this web site. I’m also getting headspace by writing Fiction Novels. So far, I have 13 published (also listed in this web site) and several more in process. During my consulting and academic years I wrote and published about 150 articles and made a similar amount of conference presentations and lectures on the topics listed in my business books.

Current Consulting and Publication:

Right now, my focus is on the Shingo Prize, which is the international prize for Business performance excellence. I worked for a time as their Director of Professional Education where I developed five of their six certification courses and wrote their first course book, Discover Excellence. I work as a consultant in the Shingo methodology and serve as an Assessor for companies applying for the prize. My recent book, Driving the Enterprise to Sustainable Excellence describes the Shingo Methodology.

Family:

I have been married for over 45 years to an incredible lady, Renee Sangray Plenert, who has supported my ridiculous lifestyle. We have eight children, and so far, fifteen grandchildren. We have settled in the warm end of Utah in the middle of heavenly rock formations, just short of Zion National Park.