Dale Lucht

Dale Lucht is the Vice President Quality for The HON Company. Prior to his current position, Dale has been Vice President Supply Chain, Vice President Distribution, and Plant General Manager with HON. Dale has been heavily involved in HON's lean journey and has been trained in Lean processes in Japan. He is a Shingo Prize Examiner and a Lead Examiner for HNI Corporation's internal Lean Assessment process. Before joining HON, he was with Emerson Electric in various management roles in Quality, Operations, Materials, Marketing and Engineering.

Dale is active in ASQ, AME, and APICS. He has served as Chairman of the Iowa Recognition of Performance Excellence Award and on the Board of Directors for the Iowa Quality Center. Dale is certified by APICS as a CPIM. His bachelor's degree is in Industrial Engineering from Iowa State University and Dale has an MBA from Drake University.

The HON Company is one of the world’s largest office furniture manufacturers and is an operating company within HNI Corporation. HNI Corporation has been recognized by Industry Week as "One of the 50 Best US Manufacturers" for 4 consecutive years, by Fortune as "One of America's Most Admired Companies," and by Forbes as "One of the Best Big Companies in America" for 8 consecutive years. Two HNI Corporation plants have been recognized with the Shingo Prize and one plant has been recognized by Industry Week with its "Best Plants" Award.

Abstract

HNI Corporation uses the Shingo Prize criteria to evaluate progress on the Lean journey for all plants and distribution centers annually. Dale will discuss the closed-loop process for evaluating plants, creating improvement plans, and Senior Management's role in follow-up. He will also provide details on examiner training and team make-up to ensure consistency.