Past Event - March 23, 2010

LEAN Supply Chain Management

Bob Bennett
President
Lean Consulting Associates, LLC

As the successful leader of the lean transformation of Toyota’s $3 billion North American service parts supply chain, Bob Bennett brings exceptional practical knowledge and insight to the challenge of growing businesses by building competitive advantage through efficient, fast and high quality product manufacturing and distribution operations.

Bob served as a group vice president and officer of Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc., and General Manager of Toyota's North American Parts Logistics Division.  Leading the development of Toyota’s service parts and accessories procurement, warehousing and logistics operations, he deployed the Toyota Production System (TPS) throughout his supply chain of 535 North American and global suppliers, 13 distribution centers, 7 North American distributors and 1,400 Toyota and Lexus dealers, creating the icon of the automotive industry.  Taking JIT logistics to the ultimate, Toyota provides the best dealer service (98% order fill) in the shortest order-to-receipt lead-time (14 hours) with the lowest days’ supply of inventory (60% lower than industry average) with 50% higher labor productivity.

During his 28+ year Toyota career managing product planning, service, product development, production operations, procurement and logistics, Bob learned the unique management magic that makes Toyota the most admired and awarded automaker on the planet.  He played a key role in developing the organizational and systems infrastructure to support the globalization of the company's operations—all while strengthening Toyota’s image for quality and efficiency!  Bob’s passion for TPS was ignited by working closely with Toyota's first U.S. vehicle manufacturing plants in the mid-80s and spearheading Toyota's Supplier Development Outreach Program in 1988.  He honed his expertise through extensive training in Japan and implementation experience throughout his organization, supply chain and client companies.  His work has been documented in Jim Womack’s and Dan Jones' book, Lean Thinking; he has the experience of having "done it" in Toyota’s service parts supply chain and a growing number of consulting clients are benefiting from his team’s career experience in the Toyota family of companies that invented Lean Manufacturing.

Bob earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Business from the University of Minnesota where he was a Distinguished ROTC Graduate.  He served as an Air Force officer for 5½ years, twice earning recognition as Supply Officer of the Year.  Bob earned his MBA with honors from the University of Southern California before joining Toyota in 1972.