(1)    Proven leading authority (as shown by Henry Ford's Lean Vision) on Henry Ford's lean enterprise system, which Japan later adopted as the Toyota production system.

(2)    Excellent relations and working experience with the front-line manufacturing operators and self-directed work teams. Extensive development and presentation of training materials suitable for all levels of personnel, including front-line workers.

(3)    Development and application of statistical quality methods for real-world situations that do not follow the traditional assumption of the normal (bell curve) distribution.

  PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATIONS, DISTINCTIONS, AND AWARDS

• Registered Professional Engineer (Pennsylvania)
• Fellow of the American Society for Quality
  
• American Society for Quality (ASQ) certifications: Quality Engineer, Reliability Engineer, Quality Manager, Quality Auditor, Six Sigma Black Belt (CQE, CRE, CQM, CQA, CSSBB)
• APICS Certified Fellow in Production and Inventory Management (CFPIM)
• Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) certifications: Manufacturing Engineer, Enterprise Integrator, Certified Engineering Manager (CMfgE, CEI, CEM)
• Institute of Certified Professional Managers (ICPM): Certified Manager
• American Institute of Chemists: Certified Professional Chemist/Certified Chemical Engineer (CPC/CChE, certification for ongoing professional development)
• Who's Who in Science and Engineering (2000 and 2005-2006, Marquis' Who's Who)
• Author or coauthor of more than 50 trade or technical journal articles, and presentations at national ASQ, Productivity Inc., and Theory of Constraints World conferences.

EDUCATION

• M.S. in Operations Research and Applied Statistics, Union College (night school), 1993
• Master of Business Administration, Union College (night school), 1988
• M.S. in Chemistry and M. Eng. in Chemical Engineering, Cornell University, 1981/1982
• B.S. in Chemistry, Pennsylvania State University, 1978

 
CAREER HISTORY: LEVINSON PRODUCTIVITY SYSTEMS, P.C.
Principal                                                                                  2002-

• Columnist, Quality Digest (January 2011-)
  
• SPC for Real-World Applications (Taylor & Francis, 2011)
• Publication of Beyond the Theory of Constraints (2007, Taylor & Francis)
• Northeast PA Healthcare Reform Task Force (Dec. 2006—)
• Governor's advisory panel, Quality of Health Care (October 2005—January 2007)
•  Chair, Northeast PA section of the American Society for Quality (July 2005-Jun. 2007, July 2008-June 2010) and Vice Chair (July 2007-June 2008), and formerly Treasurer
•  Society of Manufacturing Engineers' Lean Certification program (June 2005-Oct. 2006)
•  Development of lean manufacturing training materials for Ford Motor Company
•  A keynote speaker at Boeing's lean enterprise conference (April 2003) and the International Conference on ISO 9000 and TQM (Scranton, April 2010)
• Development and presentation of workshops in lean enterprise, Six Sigma, Theory of Constraints, and design of experiments (DOE) course for engineers and technicians.
• Consulting activities (ISO 9001:2008), SPC training, review courses for ASQ certification exams
• Publication of Henry Ford's Lean Vision: Enduring Principles from the First Ford Motor Plant (2002, Productivity Press). A complete reconstruction of Henry Ford's lean management system, which Japan adopted as the Toyota production system. 

 
HARRIS / INTERSIL/ FAIRCHILD  Mountaintop PA semiconductor plant, 1993-2001
Staff Engineer                                                                         1993-2001
Provided consulting, analysis, and training for design of experiments (DOE) and statistical process control (SPC). Performed internal audits for ISO 9000 and ISO 14000.

• Developed, applied, and published SPC and capability index procedures for real-world manufacturing processes with nonnormal, multivariate, and nested normal distributions.
• Developed and applied statistical methods for dealing with non-capable gages.
• Prepared and presented SPC, DOE, and reliability statistics training for engineers, technicians, and operators. Prepared and presented safety, ISO 9000, microelectronics manufacturing, and waste reduction training.
• Initiated a project to reduce usage of deionized water; this saved about $200K.
• Achieved placement of completed 8Ds (reactive eight-discipline problem-solving processes) in a searchable record system to support best practice deployment.
• Obtained contracts for, wrote or edited, and published four books (ASQ Quality Press) to promote the company's reputation for productivity and quality leadership.
• Levinson and Tumbelty, SPC Essentials and Productivity Improvement (1997) applies the authors' hands-on workplace experience in training operators to do SPC and in dealing with real-world processes that don't meet traditional textbook assumptions.
• Levinson (editor), Leading the Way to Competitive Excellence (1998). A comprehensive overview of a semiconductor plant's (my workplace's) leading-edge quality and productivity improvement system.
•  Levinson, ISO 9000 at the Front Line (2000). Applies the author's quality system and internal auditing experience to training front-line workers in ISO 9000's application.
•  Levinson and Rerick, Lean Enterprise: A Synergistic Approach to Minimizing Waste (2002). Principles of lean manufacturing, Theory of Constraints, and supply chain management
• Contributing author in Rose and Buckley, Self-Directed Work Teams (American Society for Training and Development). Applies the author's experience with Harris Semiconductor's self-directed work teams and customer contact teams.

SELF-EMPLOYMENT (outside regular employment)                             1987-2001
·         Editor: health care capitation course material for MGI Management Institute (1996)
·         Author: Levinson, text for a self-study course for the Part B (Principles and Practice) chemical engineering licensure exam, MGI Management Institute (1995)
·         Author: Levinson, The Way of Strategy, ASQ Quality Press (1993)
·         Principal author: Levinson and Armstrong, Statistical Quality Control chapter in A. Landzberg (editor), Microelectronics Manufacturing Diagnostic Handbook, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York (1993)
·         Instruction of review courses for ASQ certification exams, through Section 209
·         Instruction of review courses for the Part B chemical engineering exam
 
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES, East Fishkill, NY                        1982-1993
Engineer
·         Developed and published a model for spin-coating behavior of polymer solutions, thus allowing prediction of thickness as a function of viscosity, spin speed, and time.
·         Developed and published a statistical method for reducing measurement costs in a multilayer ceramic manufacturing process.
Wrote FORTRAN programs to report and interpret semiconductor electrical tests. Reduced mistesting waste in the electrical testing operation.

ASSOCIATIONS
 

Professional License, Certifications, Honors

• Fellow of the American Society for Quality
  
• Registered Professional Engineer: Pennsylvania (Inactive licenses in NY and IL can be reactivated if desirable, and my NCEES record makes it relatively easy to become licensed in other states.)
• Certified Quality Engineer (CQE), American Society for Quality
• ASQ certification descriptions: http://www.asq.org/cert/types/index.html
• Certified Quality Manager (CQM), American Society for Quality
• Certified Quality Auditor (CQA), American Society for Quality
• Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE), American Society for Quality
• Certified Six Sigma Black Belt (SSBB), American Society for Quality
• Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM), APICS
  
• Certified Manufacturing Engineer (CMfgE) (management concentration), Society of Manufacturing Engineers (http://www.sme.org/cgi-bin/certhtml.pl?/cert/cmfgep.htm&&&SME&)
• Certified Enterprise Integrator (CEI), Society of Manufacturing Engineers  (http://www.sme.org/cgi-bin/certhtml.pl?/cert/ceip.htm&&&SME&)
• Certified Manager (CM), Institute of Certified Professional Managers   (http://www.nma1.org/aboutnma/cmprogram.htm)
• American Institute of Chemists (AIC) Certified Chemical Engineer and Professional Chemist
• Who's Who in Science and Engineering (1993, 2000, and 2005-2006 Marquis' Who's Who)

Publications: Books

1. Levinson, The Way of Strategy (1994, ASQ Quality Press)   http://www.ganesha.org/wos/
2. Levinson, 1995, P.E. Readiness (R): Chemical Engineering Exam Preparation, MGI Management Institute  http://www.ganesha.org/pe/#ChemE
3. Levinson and Tumbelty, SPC Essentials and Productivity Improvement: A Manufacturing Approach. 1997, ASQ Quality Press  http://www.ganesha.org/spc/
4. Levinson (editor), Leading the Way to Competitive Excellence: The Harris Mountaintop Case Study. 1998, ASQ Quality Press  http://www.ganesha.org/leading/
5. Contributing author, Self-Directed Work Teams: A Trainer's Guide to the Transition. 1999, American Society for Training and Development http://www.ganesha.org/sdwt/
6. Levinson, ISO 9000 at the Front Line, ASQ Quality Press May 2000  http://www.ganesha.org/iso9000/
7. Levinson,  Henry Ford's Lean Vision: Enduring Principles from the First Ford Plant. 2002, Productivity Inc. http://www.ganesha.org/ford/
8. Levinson and Rerick, Lean Enterprise: A Synergistic Approach to Minimizing Waste, with ASQ Quality Press. http://www.ganesha.org/lean/
9. Levinson, Beyond the Theory of Constraints: How to Eliminate Variation and Maximize Capacity. 2007, Productivity Press
10. Levinson, Statistical Process Control for Real-World Applications. 2011. Taylor & Francis/ CRC Press
11. Levinson, Lean Management System LMS:2012: A Framework for Continual Lean Improvement. 2012. Taylor & Francis/ CRC Press
12. Ford, Henry, Crowther, Samuel, and Levinson, William. The Expanded and Annotated My Life and Work: Henry Ford's Universal Code for World-Class Success. 2013. Taylor & Francis/ CRC Press

    
    

Trade and technical journal articles and presentations on quality, management, and applied statistics:
Links checked and updated May 10 2010

1. Levinson, W.A. "Automatic Solution of Single-Variable Equations," Chemical Engineering, 11/25/85, pp. 43-46
2. Levinson, W.A. "Business Management-Samurai Style," Chemical Engineering, 9/14/87, pp. 109-113
• Relation of Miyamoto Musashi's A Book of Five Rings to contemporary management theory.
3. Neiss, E.H., Birch, H.L., and Levinson, W.A. "Department Activity Analysis," Chemical Engineering Progress, Vol. 84/No. 6, June 1988
4. Levinson, W.A., Czornyj, G., Capo, D., and McMahon, J. "Effect of Temperature and Shear Rate on Polyisoimide Solution Viscosity," Polymer Engineering and Science, September 1989, Vol. 29, No. 18. p. 1221
• Evaluation of mathematical models for the shear viscosities of polymer solutions.
5. Levinson, W.A., "How to Purge Small Vessels with Nitrogen," Chemical Engineering, November 1989, p. 249
• Application of the Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor model to purging of small vessels with nitrogen gas
6. Levinson, W.A., "Understand the Basics of Statistical Process Control," Chemical Engineering Progress, November 1990
7. Levinson, W.A., "Commitment," Chemtech, December 1990
• Importance of employee commitment in an organization, and how to develop and maintain commitment
8. Levinson, W.A., "The Art of Marketing," Chemtech, May 1991
• Application of the principles of Sun Tzu's Art of War to marketing.
9. Levinson, W.A., "Make the Most of Control Charts," Chemical Engineering Progress, March 1992
• A follow-up to the November 1990 article.
10. Levinson, W.A. and Armstrong, F.M. "Statistical Quality Control," (Book chapter) in Microelectronics Manufacturing Diagnostic Handbook (A. Landzberg, ed.), 1993, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York
11. Levinson, W.A., Arnold, A., and DeHodgins, O. "Spin Coating Behavior of Polyimide Precursor Solutions," Polymer Engineering and Science, Mid-August 1993, Vol. 33, No. 15
12. Levinson, W.A. "Reducing Appraisal Costs in Multistep Processes," Quality Engineering, 6(3) 331-345, 1994
13. Levinson, W. A. "Statistical Process Control in Microelectronics Manufacturing," Semiconductor International, November 1994.
14. Levinson, W. A. "Multiple Attribute Control Charts," Quality, December 1994.
15. Levinson, W.A. "How Good is your Gage?" Semiconductor International, October 1995. 165-169
16. Murphy, R. and Levinson, W. "Full speed, straight ahead?" Manufacturing Systems, November 1995 pp. 41-46
17. Levinson, W.A. "Do You Need a New Gage?" Semiconductor International, February, 1996 pp. 113-117
18. Murphy, R., Saxena, P., and Levinson, W. "Use OEE; Don't Let OEE Use You" Semiconductor International, September 1996 (OEE = Overall Equipment Effectiveness) pp. 125-132
19. Levinson, W.A. "Quality at the Top," Quality Digest, February 1997
20. Levinson, W.A. "Exact Confidence Limits for Process Capabilities" Quality Engineering, 9(3), 521-528, 1997 (March)
21. Levinson, W.A. "Survival Characteristics," Executive Excellence, May 1997, pp. 6-7
22. Levinson, W. "Watch Out for Nonnormal Distributions of Impurities," Chemical Engineering Progress, May 1997, pp. 70-76.
23. Levinson, W. "Approximate Confidence Limits for Cpk and Confidence Limits for Non-Normal Process Capabilities," in Quality Engineering, 9(4), 635-640 (1997)
24. Levinson, W. "Stewardship and Service," Executive Excellence, July 1997.
25. Murphy, Robert, Lauffer, Jeffrey, and Levinson, William. "Project Raptor," in Future Fab, Issue 3, Volume 1.
26. Levinson, William A. "Using SPC in Batch Processes." Quality Digest, March 1998, 45-48
27. Levinson, William A. "Statistical Characterization of a Die Shear Test," Quality Engineering, 11(3), 443-448 (1999)
28. Levinson, William A. "Using Excel Control Charts with Varying Sample Sizes," Quality Digest April 1999
29. Levinson, William and Polny, Angela. "SPC for Tool Particle Counts," Semiconductor International, June 1999.
30. Levinson, William. "Mutual Commitment," Executive Excellence, June 1999
31. Levinson, William. "How to Design Attribute Sample Plans on a Computer," published in Quality Digest, July 1999
32. Levinson, "SPC for Real-World Processes: What to do when the Normality Assumption Doesn't Work." Presented at the ASQ's Annual Quality Conference (2000)
33. Levinson and Cumbo, "Simplified Control Charts for Multivariate Normal Systems," Quality Engineering, June 2000
34. Levinson, "Lose Manufacturing, Lose the Future," guest opinion column in Manufacturing Engineering, June 2000
35. Levinson, "The Birth of Lean at the Ford Motor Company," The 6th Annual Lean Management and TPM Conference October 25-26, 2001, Dearborn, Michigan
36. Levinson, W.A., Stensney, Frank, Webb, Raymond, and Glahn, Ronald. 2001. "SPC for Particle Counts," Semiconductor International, 10/01
37. Levinson, W.A. "Lean Manufacturing: Made in the USA," Quality Digest, February 2002, p. 64
38. Levinson, W.A., Holmes, D.S., and Mergen, A. Erhan. "Variation Charts for Multivariate Processes." Quality Engineering, 14(4), 539-545 (2002)
39. Levinson, W.A.  "The Long and Shoremen of It." Capitalism Magazine, October 2002.
40. Levinson, "Voting to Bell the Thermodynamic Cat," guest opinion column in Manufacturing Engineering, February 2004
41. Levinson,  "Control Charts Control Multiple Attributes," Quality, September 2004
42. Levinson, "Empower your employees," Member Forum article in Industrial Engineer, December 2004 (p. 28)
43. Levinson, William A. "Waste Management: Using a bill of outputs to eliminate excess." APICS, The Performance Advantage, January 2005 (33-35)
44. Levinson, William A. "Thinking Lean in 17th Century Poland: Competitive Lessons from Poland's Renowned Cavalry" InsideQuality, January 2005
45. Levinson, William A. "Needed: A Lean Enterprise Standard." Manufacturing Engineering, February 2005, Viewpoints page
46. Levinson, William A. "Lean Manufacturing: The Answer to Low Offshore Wages," InsideQuality, May 2005
47. Levinson, William A. "Taking the QMS Cure: The U.S. health care industry needs a dose of ISO 9001 accountability" Quality Digest, December 2005
48. Levinson, William A. "The End of the Road for General Motors Corp. (Unless it starts paying attention)" InsideQuality, December 2005 [link updated February 2009]
49. Levinson, William A. "On the Road Again," Industrial Engineer, January 2006
50. Levinson, William A. "The U.S. Airline Industry Is in Trouble: Lean techniques can save it."  InsideQuality, May 2006
51. Levinson, William A. "Bilingual workplaces? No, non, nyet, nein: A language standard is the right way to go." QualityInsider, July 11 2006
52. Levinson, William A. "Bringing the Fishbone Diagram into the Computer Age," Quality Progress, December 2006
53. Levinson, William A. "Kyoto and Quality: How greenhouse gas regulations will outsource U.S. jobs." Quality Digest, February 2007
54. Levinson, William A. "American Airlines’ Fiasco: An inevitable result of its attitude toward quality" Quality Digest online, March 2007
55. Levinson, William A. "Everything but the Squeal: Don't 'comply' with ISO 14001, profit from it." Quality Digest, October 2007
56. Levinson, William A. "Tracking Gage Calibration on a Spreadsheet." Quality, October 2007
57. Levinson, William A. "Will New Medicare Rules Lead to Better Health Care Quality?" Quality Digest online, January 2008
58. Levinson, William A.  "Fix Root Causes with Closed Loop Corrective Action." Patient Safety and Quality Healthcare, March/April 2008.
59. Levinson, William A. "Mandate of Heaven." American Society for Quality World Conference, Houston, May 6 2008
60. Levinson, William A. "Treat Carbon as the Symptom, not the Disease." Quality Insider, February 2009
61. Levinson, William A. "A Bailout Can't Fix the Auto Industry's Basic Problems." Manufacturing Engineering, June 2009
62. Levinson, William A. "Henry Ford's Proven Lessons for American Industry." Industry Week, July 2009
63. Levinson, William A. "The U.S. Cannot Afford Cap and Trade." Manufacturing Engineering, April 2010
64. Levinson, William A. "Airline Companies are Driving Customers Away." Quality Digest online, May 2010
65. Levinson, William A. "Principles of Green Manufacturing," American Society for Quality World Conference, St. Louis, May 2010
66. Levinson, William A. "Industrial Methods can Reduce Health Care Costs." Industry Week, June 2010
67. Levinson, William A. "PRE-Control on a Spreadsheet." Quality Magazine online, December 2010
68. Levinson, William A. "What to Do When It's Not a Bell Curve." ASQ World Conference, Pittsburgh, May 2011
69. Levinson, William A. "'Can’t Rather than Don’t' Saves Lives." Patient Safety and Quality Healthcare, July/August 2011
70. Levinson, William A. "Ford's Focus" and Social Responsibility. Quality Progress, September 2011
71. Levinson, William A. "Innovation over Carbon Ideology." APICS Magazine, November-December 2011
72. Levinson, William A. "Easy A: Tips for Acing your Certification Exam." Quality Progress, July 2012
73. Levinson, William A. "Henry Ford's Universal Code." American Society for Quality World Conference, Indianapolis, May 8 2013