Larry E. Fast

Larry E. Fast was born in Winchester, Indiana in 1947. After high school he earned his Bachelor's degree in Management & Administration from Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana in 1969 and was named a Distinguished Military Graduate from AFROTC. He served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Air Force where he was named Junior Officer of the Year in 1970 at Francis E. Warren AFB, Cheyenne, WY. During his next tour of duty at March AFB, Riverside, California in 1972, he was awarded the Air Force Commendation Medal. After his honorable discharge, he returned to the Midwest and had a 35 year career in the wire and cable industry with two global companies--Belden for 25 years and General Cable for 10 years. For 25 of those years he was the senior manufacturing executive at each company and led the "Lean Six Sigma Revolution" at General Cable which sustained after his retirement in 2007. His plants won numerous awards between 2001 and 2007 in the annual "Best Plants" competition conducted by Industry Week magazine. He's devoted lots of time to numerous organizations over the years e.g., leadership of nonprofit boards including Toastmasters International, Junior Achievement of Eastern Indiana; the Wayne County Labor Management Council, Richmond Chamber of Commerce; Section Chair for NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturers Association); member of Industry Advisory Boards at Indiana/Purdue University East campus, Miami (OH) University's School of Applied Sciences and the Tauber Manufacturing Institute at the University of Michigan. In 1975-76 he completed the Institute for Executive Growth at Earlham College and, in 1986, completed the 13 week Program for Management Development at Harvard University. Larry was a judge for Industry Week magazine's "Best Plants" competition for 10 years. He also has been a long-time Director and VP of Programs or Membership on the SE Region Board of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence. After ten years on the Board he retired in 2019. Since December 2013, he writes a regular column for Industry Week magazine online under the banner "Ask the Expert--Lean Leadership and Continuous Improvement". He has contributed articles in other publications by invitation including "Insights", a London-based global organization focused on Operational Excellence. Finally, based on his best selling original book which was published November 11, 2011, the "2nd. Edition" book: The 12 Principles of Manufacturing Excellence: A Lean Leader's Guide to Achieving and Sustaining Excellence was published September 24, 2015. In addition to the basic content of the original, it features a new Chapter 1 as well as updates and additions to the anecdotes shared in the book and the user-friendly worksheets in the Appendix. It's available on both the CRC Press website (https://www.crcpress.com/The 12 Principles of Manufacturing Excellence--A Lean Leaders Guide to Achieving and Sustaining Excellence/Fast/9781498730914) and the Amazon website (https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/books). Since 2007 he has focused on education and training on Continuous Improvement and Leadership and as a consultant through his business, Pathways to Manufacturing Excellence, LLC. website: www.pathwaysllc.net