Steve Bell

Steve began his career in the early 1980's as an accountant, where he learned to appreciate the underlying systems that run a business. When IBM announced the first PC, he jumped aboard and rode the ERP industry evolution from the very beginning through the Year 2000 milestone. During that time he became deeply involved in manufacturing planning and management systems, achieving professional APICS CFPIM certification. He first became acquainted with Lean in the early 1990's when his clients began asking for "flow" and "pull" systems. He soon realized the key to success was engaging employees in the simplification and continuous improvement of business processes, before investing in sophisticated information systems. He began applying this philosophy to the implementation of complex ERP systems and software development projects, which led to his first book Lean Enterprise Systems (Wiley 2006). The success of this book led him more deeply into the IT organization, where he began facilitating Kaizen events and Strategy Deployment, while integrating Agile software development and IT Service management (ITIL framework) with the fundamental Lean principles. This led to his second book: Lean IT (Productivity Press 2010) which received the 2011 Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence research award. Steve serves on the faculty of the Lean Enterprise Institute. He travels worldwide presenting workshops, leading Gemba walks, and advising clients on Lean IT strategy. Steve's third book will publish in September 2012: Run Grow Transform: Integrating Business and Lean IT, where he explains how Lean principles and practices can address the long-standing challenge of Business/IT alignment through employee engagement and value stream organization. In addition to his work leading Lean IT transformation, Steve and his wife Karen are actively involved in the Non-profit and NGO community. As founders of Lean4NGO (www.Lean4NGO.org) their mission is to help make Lean Thinking accessible to humanitarian aid organizations, improving NGO operational efficiency (use of scarce resources) and effectiveness (improved outcomes) to benefit the three billion people living at the "bottom of the pyramid" on less than $2 a day. To contact Steve and to learn where he is presenting and teaching, visit his website. Website: www.LeanITStrategies.com LinkedIN: LeanITCoach Twitter: LeanITCoach