Dr. Gerhard Plenert, former Director of Executive Education at the Utah State University Shingo Institute, has more than 25 years of professional experience in organizational transformations helping companies and government agencies strive for enterprise excellence by utilizing the Shingo Model to drive cultural transformations.Dr. Plenert is an internationally recognized expert in supply chain management; Lean/Six Sigma; IT; quality and productivity tools; and in working with leading-edge planning and scheduling methods. His experience includes significant initiatives with Genentech, Johnson & Johnson, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Shell, Aramco, Sony, Cisco, Microsoft, Seagate, NCR Corporation, Ritz-Carlton, the US Air Force, and numerous other branches of the US Department of Defense. In addition, Dr. Plenert has consulted to major manufacturing and distribution companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Black & Decker, Raytheon, Motorola, Applied Magnetics, Toyota, AT&T, IBM, and Kraft Foods. With 14 years of academic experience, Dr.

Plenert has published over 150 articles and 22 books on Lean, supply chain strategy, operations management and planning. He has also written MBA textbooks and operations planning books for the United Nations. Dr. Plenert's ideas and publications have been endorsed by people like Steven Covey and companies such as Motorola, AT&T, Black & Decker, and FedEx. His publications are viewable at www.gerhardplenert.com .Dr.

Plenert previously served as a tenured full professor at California State University, Chico; a professor at BYU, BYU-Hawaii, University of Malaysia, University of San Diego; and has been a visiting professor at numerous universities all over the world. He earned degrees in math, physics, and German; and he holds an MBA, MA in international studies, and PhD in resource economics (oil and gas) and operations management. Dr. Plenert continues to serve as a Shingo examiner and as an Adjunct Faculty member for several universities. Dr. Plenert's first effort in the world of fiction was the fantasy Small World Series. Since then he has also ventured into mystery and suspense novels. He looks forward to a career as a fiction author.

Gerhard Plenert is currently proudly serving as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.