Tom Robinson is the Marketing Manager for Lean Concepts, Inc. and shares the team’s passion for waste reduction, simplification of processes, and innovative change. Tom has over 35 years of experience in the manufacturing and service business. He started on the shop floor in the Inspection department of a large custom machine shop in Cincinnati. From there he worked his way up into leadership positions in the areas of Manufacturing Engineering and Industrial Engineering, establishing standard work and cycle times on the shop floor and improving process routings and developing work-piece flow improvements.

In 1989, after eighteen years on the shop floor, Tom moved his talents to the Sales and Marketing department and moved through various positions including Account Manager, Product Sales Manager, Marketing Manager, and Customer Service Manager. It was the stint as the Customer Service Manager that solidified Tom’s expertise as a change leader when his team completely re-engineered and transformed the Inside Sales Department and the initial piece of the order fulfillment cycle. At this point in time, process improvements at this plant had been limited to the shop floor but there was a major disconnect between the office and shop causing orders to be behind before they even entered the manufacturing area for processing. The interface between the customer, Sales force, and manufacturing area were totally revised as well as the Quotation Process, Order Entry Process and the paperwork flow to downstream departments were completely applying the principles of Kaizen, Waste Reduction, Value Stream Mapping, and Lean Office. The results here were so successful in reducing time to quote, time to process, accuracy of data, and huge cost savings, that Tom was convinced these principles could be applied to all offices and business processes.

Armed with a BS in Marketing from the University of Cincinnati, an extensive background in Industrial/Process Engineering on the shop floor, and a successful implementation of Office Lean, Tom applied the same focus to several other projects and then on to two other manufacturing companies as Customer Service Manager, leading Inside Sales teams before heading out on his own.   After several years of marketing and business management consulting and advising, in April, 2007 Tom connected with John Veatch and Lean Concepts, Inc. and wears several hats as Marketing/Inside Sales/Web Manager.