Charles Protzman

Charlie is an internationally renowned Lean implementer, trainer and Shingo Prize winning author with over 35 years’ experience in Materials and Operations Management. He has consulted with manufactures, hospitals, government agencies and other service industries. He has currently published Leveraging Lean in Healthcare Series, One-Piece Flow vs. Batching, Card Based Control Systems for A Lean Work Design, and the Lean Practitioners Field book as well as in the Journal of Production Economics.

Charlie has spent the last 24 years implementing successful lean product line conversions, kaizen events, administrative business system improvements (transactional lean) across the U.S and internationally. He is following in the footsteps of his grandfather, who was part of the Civil Communications Section (CCS) of the American Occupation. Prior to Deming’s 1950 visit to Japan, C.W. Protzman Sr. surveyed over 70 Japanese Companies in 1948 based on which Homer Sarasohn and C. W. Protzman Sr. taught top executives of prominent Japanese Companies an 8-week course in American Participative Management and Quality techniques in Osaka and Tokyo. Over 5,100 top Japanese executives had taken the course by 1956. The course was continued in Japan until 1974.

Many of the lessons we taught the Japanese in 1948 are now being taught back to Americans as “Lean Principles”. The lean principles had their roots in the U.S. and some date back to as early as Chinese Emperor Yao 2300 BC and then later to Adam Smith (1700’s), Taylor, Gilbreth and Henry Ford (early 1900s). The principles were refined and expanded by Shigeo Shingo and Taiichi Ohno at Toyota. Modern day champions are Norman Bodek, Jim Womack and Dan Jones.

In November of 1997, Charlie Protzman formed Business Improvement Group, LLC (B.I.G.). B.I.G. is located in Baltimore, Maryland and specializes in implementing lean thinking principles and the Lean Business Delivery System - LBDS

He spent 13 ½ years with Honeywell, where he was an Aerospace Strategic Operations Manager and the first Honeywell Lean Master. He has received numerous special-recognition and cost-reduction awards. Charles was an external consultant for DBED’s Maryland Consortium while he was with Honeywell. He had input into the resulting World Class Criteria document and assisted in the first three initial DBED World Class Company Assessments. Charles has taught students in Lean Principles and Total Quality from all over the world.

Charlie participated in numerous Benchmarking and Site visits including trips Japan in June 1996 and in 2017. He has been personally trained by 40 year veterans of Toyota’s system. He is a Master facilitator and trainer in TQM, Total Quality Speed, Facilitation, Career Development, Change Management, Benchmarking, Leadership, Systems Thinking, High Performance Work Teams, Team Building, Myers Briggs Styles Indicator, Lean Thinking and Supply Chain Management. He also participated in Baldridge Examiner and Six Sigma Management Courses. He was an Assistant Program Manager during “Desert Storm” for the Patriot missile-to-missile fuse development and production program.