Our Company

Karen Martin and her team provide Lean transformation and business performance improvement support to industry, government, and the not-for-profit sector. Karen’s broad understanding of operations design and business management stems from her experience building the operational infrastructure for several rapid-growth operations that each grew into multi-billion dollar companies. Her expertise also includes a keen understanding of customer value, which she honed while serving in sales and marketing roles—and extensive experience with legal and regulatory issues. She has provided support to organizations in a broad range of industries including construction, distribution, energy, financial services, government, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, military, publishing, research and development, and technology.

Karen’s quality and process orientation evolved from her early career as a scientist (B.S. Microbiology, Pennsylvania State University) and was formally developed while serving as the Director of Quality Improvement for an organization that managed the healthcare for 22 million Americans, and the Director of the Institute for Quality and Productivity at San Diego State University, where she oversaw the university’s sell-out Lean Enterprise and Quality Business Practices programs.  Her passion for organizational learning and workforce development led her to a graduate program in adult learning (M.A. Education), California State University, Bakersfield).

As a consultant, Karen is known for her keen diagnostic skills and rapid results approach to meeting client needs. A skilled change agent, Karen builds energy within work teams by helping them focus an organization’s key performance goals—faster delivery of higher quality products and services at lower cost—while simultaneously building organization-wide problem-solving capabilities and boosting employee engagement. Clients also give Karen high marks for teaching them to fish for themselves so that they become self-sustaining as quickly as possible.

Karen’s healthcare-rich background includes clinical, administrative, and regulatory work in hospitals, post-acute care settings, payer services, medical research, clinical laboratories, physician practices, integrative medicine and behavioral healthcare.

Karen is a highly-rated speaker who wows her audiences with high-energy presentations containing practical takeaways. She’s also an instructor for the University of California, San Diego’s Lean Enterprise program and an Industry Advisor for the University of San Diego’s Industrial and Systems Engineering program.

She’s the author of The Outstanding Organization, which addresses the missing fundamentals that are key success factors in organizational transformation (McGraw-Hill, 2012), and co-author of The Kaizen Event Planner: Achieving Rapid Improvement in Office, Service and Technical Environments and Metrics-Based Process Mapping: An Excel-Based Solution (both by Productivity Press).

Mike Osterling specializes in Lean Enterprise implementation and training in both manufacturing and non-manufacturing environments. As Lean Manufacturing Manager for Square D Company, he led their six-year transition from traditional production to an operation focused on aggressive continuous improvement. Plant-wide improvements included: 65% reduction in DPMs, 52% reduction in customer complaints, 79% reduction in accident rate, 59% improvement in productivity, 530% improvement in WIP turns, lead time reduction from three days to 15 minutes, 80% scrap reduction and a 93% increase in space utilization.

More than half of Mike’s consulting activities have focused on support and administrative processes. He has supported companies in North America, Europe and Australia in industries such as: electronics, construction, consumer products, capital equipment, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, medical products and oil production.  In addition to coaching companies through their transformation, Mike has certified over 1,000 people on lean principles, tools, and practices.

As a Lean Management Leader in San Diego, Mike led the development of the Lean Enterprise Certificate Program at San Diego State University and has taught in the program since 1999. He is also an instructor in the University of California San Diego’s Lean Enterprise Certificate Program. Mike earned his MBA in International Business (San Diego State University), is APICS certified (CPIM) and holds a Six Sigma Black Belt.  He is also a University of Kentucky Certified Trainer for the Implementation of Lean Manufacturing and is fluent in Spanish.

He’s the co-author of Metrics-Based Process Mapping (Productivity Press, 2^nd edition being released in December 2012) and The Kaizen Event Planner (Productivity Press, 2007).

Ric Van Der Linden’s career has focused on Continuous Improvement. For the past 22 years he has led and supported business growth including the startup of two large operations which included facilities, equipment and staffing. He managed production operations and, for the past 12 years, has had a full time dedication to Continuous Improvement through the application of Lean Six Sigma and other improvement approaches.

As a Champion of Lean and Six Sigma, he has developed Lean Strategies and Six Sigma programs that have become “best practice.” He has driven results through Lean and Six Sigma in all aspects of business. Along with project leadership, he has also trained, mentored, and certified over 500 Lean/Six Sigma individuals that have resulted in a 5 year accumulation of $50 million savings.

Ric holds a BS in Manufacturing Engineering, a Masters in Organizational Management, is a certified Lean Expert and Master Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma. He currently holds a board position with the American Society for Quality, is past President of the San Diego Chapter of the Institute of Industrial Engineers and is an Instructor at University of California, San Diego.

Tiffany Mock Holton is a Personal Productivity Coach who works one-on-one with executives and managers to adopt systems and behaviors that produce marked gains in their personal productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness. Her work addresses the 6 systems in everyone’s office: email, action items, the calendar, paper files, computer files, and short/long term goals. She also trains clients to combat procrastination and delegate effectively.

Tiffany’s clients have included Wells Fargo, Deloitte, Clif Bar, M Squared Consulting, McGuire Real Estate, Paramount Theater, Pacific Southwest Container, Landis Communications, Three Sticks, Environmental Science Associates, Hanson Bridgett, and The Raiser Organization. Tiffany’s known for her rapid diagnostic skills and ability to tailor productivity solutions that meet her clients’ unique personalities and work needs. In 2004, she received San Francisco Magazine’s Best of the Bay award for organizational services.

Tiffany earned her bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management (SCM) at Arizona State University. She worked in the Silicon Valley high tech industry at Applied Materials, Amdahl, and Oracle in SCM and Marketing capacities. She holds prior American Production & Inventory Control Society (APICS) and Certified Purchasing Manager (CPM) certifications, as well as Certified Business Communicator (CBC) and Marketing Communications certifications.

Tina Jackson has over 20 years of experience as an organization development (OD) consultant, trainer, and coach. When wearing the OD consultant hat, Tina works collaboratively with clients as a thought partner to design and implement interventions that will achieve desired culture change. As a skilled trainer, Tina delivers high-energy, high-impact programs, such as presentation skills for leaders and managers, coaching for development, and leading with emotional intelligence. As a coach, she helps executives, managers, and high-potential employees reach their fullest potential, and trains leaders/managers how to effectively coach others.

Tina holds an M.A. in Organization Development from the Fielding Graduate University and is co-author of A Practical Guide to Working with Diversity (AMACOM, 1995).  She holds certifications in BarOn’s Emotional Quotient Inventory, Blanchard’s Situational Leadership II, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), and the Strength Deployment Inventory, and is a Certified Master Coach, the highest certification level available from the International Coach Federation.

Tina’s clients have includedPfizer, PwC, Kraft Foods, Daiichi Sankyo, the Kellogg Foundation, Human Genome Sciences, Panda Restaurant Group, Novo Nordisk, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Smithsonian Institution, and many federal agencies.

Tracy O’Rourke is a Lean Facilitator and Six Sigma Master Black Belt who leads complex improvement projects and works with companies to develop their own internal resources. Tracy has trained thousands of people, mentored hundreds of Green Belts and Black Belts and helped them to close Lean Six Sigma projects ranging from $50,000 to $8 million dollars in savings.

Tracy began her business performance improvement career at GE Appliances as a Six Sigma Field Black Belt. Her primary role was to educate GE Appliance customers on Six Sigma and help to complete Six Sigma projects. Tracy also supported GE sales reps and managers in the western United States to complete six sigma projects. Since leaving GE, Tracy’s experience with and passion for Lean management has grown. She’s worked with companies, such as Callaway Golf, Charles Schwab, Yum! Brand Foods, Cisco Systems, Oracle, Motorola, Sears & Roebuck, Shea Homes, Trustmark Insurance, Alberta Health Systems, LA County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, the State of Oregon, and the Department of Veteran’s Affairs.

Tracy is a people person who possesses deep data analysis skills, which combine to create a highly effective improvement facilitator. She has trained over 1,000 people, mentored 200+ green belts and black belts, and has helped complete 200+ projects with results that range between $50,000 and $8 million dollars in savings.

Tracy is a certified instructor for the Six Sigma Green Belt course at Motorola University and co-instructor for the Lean Six Sigma Green Belt course at San Diego State University. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English Literature from San Francisco State University and MBA (with an emphasis in Leadership and Managing Organizational Change) from Pepperdine University.

Dan Markovitz specializes in applying the principles of Lean management and traditional time management practices to enhance personal productivity, enhance one’s ability to deliver results, and create more fulfilling work experiences. He is a faculty member at the Lean Enterprise Institute, and regularly teaches at the Stanford University Continuing Studies Program. He also leads a problem solving workshop at the Ohio State University’s Fisher School of Business.

In addition to his consulting, Dan regularly speaks and leads workshops at national and regional conferences, capped most recently by his keynote address at the 2011 Lean Product & Process Development Exchange.

Dan is quoted regularly in many of the McClatchy newspapers, as well as a variety of trade publications such as California Lawyer, The Hospitalist, Chief Learning Officer Magazine, and Industry Week. He also writes frequently for the Amex OPEN Forum. His new book, A Factory of One, was published by Productivity Press in late 2011.

Dan holds an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and a BA from Wesleyan University. He’s the author of A Factory of One (Productivity Press, 2012).

Tony Manos has provided support to over 150 companies on their Lean journey. His diverse knowledge of business, manufacturing, and performance improvement includes expertise in work standardization, 5S workplace organization, visual workplace, quick changeover, plant layout, cellular, kanban, total productive maintenance, kaizen events, value stream management, team building, and hoshin planning.

Tony is a faculty member for the American Society for Quality and played a pivotal role in developing the only industry-sanctioned Lean certification (a joint venture between the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, Association for Manufacturing Excellence, the Shingo Prize, and the American Society for Quality). He’s co-author of Lean Kaizen: A Simplified Approach to Process Improvement, and co-editor and contributing author for The Lean Handbook: A Guide to the Bronze Certification Body of Knowledge.

Tony served in the United States Navy nuclear propulsion program, holds an MBA from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and is an internationally recognized speaker.