About Us

Tom Lawless

• 25 years of senior leadership and operations experience

• 20 years lean and six sigma experience

• 20 years project management experience

• 18 years safety experience

• 14 years logistics experience

• 25 years change mangement experience

Experience Overview

Tom Lawless is a results oriented and experienced leader who possess excellent strategic and tactical skills and has aggressively created value, implemented change, and improved safety, quality, cost, and delivery for many corporations and military units over the past 25 years. Tom is a Master Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma and has a passion for training, process improvement, and change management.

Some of the highlighs of Tom’s business accomplishments include:

► Supervised the training of more than 800 Lean Six Sigma belts

► For one large manufacturer, led a series of lean projects that saved over $50M in 18 months

► Improved throughput for a 40-year-old production line from 70 units over 2 shifts per day to 150 over 1 shift per day

► Improved scrap reduction over the course of 6 months from $110K per month to $2K per month

► Improved safety and ergonomics to reduce total case incident rate (TCIR) from 35% in 2003 to less than 1% in 2006

► Successfully organized SMED events to reduce set-up time

► Managed a supplier lead time reduction team which implemented over 100 memorandums of understanding between a global client and supply base

► Worked with suppliers to reduce lead time through lean, set up reduction, six sigma and total productive maintenance techniques to improve throughput

► Used six sigma and change management techniques and tools to reduced workman compensation paid out amounts to $800,000 from $3.8 M annually in 2 years, a 210% reduction.

► Consulted with plants in to reduce their safety incident rates in safety by more than 50% in 2006

► Worked with major critical suppliers with waste elimination through value stream mapping, workplace organization, total productive maintenance, visual management, setup reduction, batch size reduction, cellular manufacturing, standardized work, kanban and continues improvement

Tom Lawless has a strong military background, originally enlisting in as Navy Seabee and working his way to Officer Candidate School for the Army, where he became an officer. He earned his way through the ranks with a reputation for being a “soldier’s soldier” and retired as a Major after more than 25 years of service. As the Logistics Operation Officer during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Tom was awarded the Army Bronze Star for service and heroism as well as the Combat Action Badge.

Tom’s military achievements include:

► During the first year of the war in Iraq, trained and managed a movement control Battalion of 377 personnel

► Responsible for all rail, highway, and air movements in Iraq, which included more than 2,800 civilian and military trucks daily

► Integrated training and negotiated acceptance within the Corps Movement Control Battalion and theater units during Operation Iraqi Freedom to use various In Transit Visibility devices, including RFID, to track an average of 170 convoys consisting of over 2800 vehicles on a daily basis throughout Iraq in support of 5 U.S. Divisions and a Multinational Division comprising over 180,000 troops

► Increased the use of rail within the theater of operations during Operation Iraqi Freedom by developing rail nodes in Umm Qasr, Al Hillah, Ad Diwaniya, Baghdad, Taji, Baghdadi, Al Habaniyah, Mosul and Bayji in Iraq

► Coordinated with host nation contractors and the Iraqi Railroad to complete projects within the time frame and budget required by the military to improve critical supply and sustainment movement to troops

► As commander of a Quartermaster Company during peacetime, used values-based leadership principles to double the size the unit from 85 to more than 200 personnel within a 2-year period by raising unit morale and increasing community involvement

► Successfully planned and deployed two 100-person units to Germany during Operation Joint Endeavor coordinating warehouse operations and averaging 125% of standard during deployments

Tom Lawless: Education

► Doctorate in Business Administration (PhD) – Anticipated graduation date 2015

Management of Engineering and Technology

North Central University, Arizona

► Master’s in Civil Engineering (MCE)

Norwich University, Vermont

► Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) – Honors

Regis University, Denver, Colorado

► B.S. in Business Administration

Bellevue University, Bellevue, Nebraska

► Electrical Engineering, 96 Hours

University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska

► Certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt

► Master Certificate in Six Sigma

► Certified Six Sigma Black Belt

► Certificate in Lean Six Sigma

► Project Management Certificate

Tom Lawless: Military Background

► U.S. Army Reserves Retired – Major

► Logistics Operations Officer – Operation Iraqi Freedom, Rank – Major

► Logistics Company Commander, Captain

► Enlisted, U.S. Navy Seabees – Reserves

Tom Lawless: Military Education

► Command and General Staff College – Graduate

► U.S. Army Logistics Management College – Graduate

► Senior Transportation Officer Course

► Transportation Officer Advanced Course

► Armor Officer Advanced Course

► Military Police Advanced Officer Course

► Civil Affairs Officer Advanced Course

► Field Artillery Officer Basic Course

Tom Lawless: Professional Affiliations and Memberships

► American Society of Quality – Senior Member (ASQ)

► Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

► Association for Operations Managements (APICS)

► American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)

► Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE)

► Project Management Institute (PMI)

► American Water Works Association (AWWA)

► Certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt

► Industrial Supply Association

Tom Lawless has conducted training for the following companies:

► CSC Sugar

► MTH Pumps

► Farmers Cooperative

► Case New Holland

► Qualiseal Technology

► Peddinghaus

► Ram Tool

► Laird Technologies

► Medical Murray

► Quality Control Corp.

► EMD

► Electrolux

► Timken Drives

► Dynamic Manufacturing

► Waltz Bros. Manufacturing

► Rexnord