About Bill Waddell

Bill Waddell is our Affiliate we call on when clients need expert help creating and implementing an enterprise-wide lean transformation that is sustainable while also producing rapid, breakthrough results. Bill has the rare skills mix of being “hands on” to make things happen, while also emphasizing the need for balanced enterprise-wide planning and execution.

He specializes in Lean Management Systems for manufacturing which includes Lean accounting and strategy execution. He was heavily involved in the origins of Activity Based Costing, and is one of the thought leaders in the rapidly expanding area of Lean management systems and accounting. Bill presented some of the concepts that have helped shape the current understanding of lean management and accounting at the first Lean Accounting Summit in 2005. Through his leadership in lean accounting and performance metrics, Bill continues to play a major role in putting into practice the management model necessary for sustainable lean success.

Over the past 20 years, Bill helped many large to mid-sized companies achieve breakthroughs with operations. Clients include recent engagements with Copeland, resulting in the Emerson Electric President’s Award, and with United Defense, resulting in a plant winning the U.S. Navy’s Best Manufacturing Practices Award. Bill also played a key role in the turnaround efforts at Cincinnati Microwave and McCulloch Corporation. His experience includes working with Maquiladora plants in Mexico and with offshore plants, particularly in southern China.

Bill is in demand as a keynote speaker, including appearances at the 2006 Lean /Six Sigma Conference, the AME Champions Conference and the upcoming 2006 Lean Accounting Summit. He has also lectured at the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Dayton, the University of Wisconsin, and for various other professional and academic forums.

Bill is the author of a number of articles on virtually every aspect of manufacturing. He is a co-author of Rebirth of American Industry, and recently completed a book with Hiroyuki Hirano, Japan’s leading authority on lean manufacturing and industrial engineering. Bill has also published articles in a wide range of manufacturing publications and is widely known as the provocative lean blogger for Superfactory.com.

Bill earned a BA in Business from the University of Cincinnati, and was one of the first recipients of lean training from Motorola University and the Kaizen Institute.