Richard Kunst

A native of Southern Ontario, Richard’s career history has encompassed many areas within manufacturing and operations, covering all the aspects from “quote to cash” During the course of his career he has held positions such as Director of Operations for WEA Music and witnessed the demise of the 8-Track and the birth of the CD. Later he moved to Rockwell Automation as Materials Manager and became one of the founding fathers of the HPM Consortium – a consortium of 17 diverse companies striving to achieve excellence by working together.  Richard spent time with CAMI (assembly plant for the Suzuki Side-Kick and GM Metro) as Director of Production Control implementing Lean Manufacturing Principals. Moving to R-Theta, Richard guided this medium sized organization in becoming a global entity using Internet technology, and elements of the Toyota Manufacturing System (Lean Manufacturing) absorbing 20% growth annually. During his tenure at Stackpole Richard was the leading coach facilitating the adoption of Lean Principals across 5 facilities under the banner of the Stackpole Production System.  The success of the Stackpole Production System resulted in a 70% reduction of inventory and reduced PPM from 1500 to 15.  As Chief Operating Officer for Kromet International a multi faceted corporation providing trim components for non automotive applications he quickly changed the company through the deployment of Lean Manufacturing Principals to reduce inventory by 50%, improve on time delivery to 100%, reduce customer complaints as measured in PPM from 16,000 to under 600. Most recently, Richard was asked to assist the La-Z-Boy Residential Division, specifically in the Canadian Operation, to develop, deploy and implement a manufacturing excellence program known as the LZBPS based on principals developed during his tenure at Stackpole.

Richard’s full understanding of the Toyota Production System, Lean Manufacturing, and the Theory of Constraints has enabled him to build a solid track record of optimizing ROS and ROI within an organization.  His passion for building teams, continuous improvement and leveraging the human intellect on the shop floor has enabled organizations to accomplish what at first seemed impossible whether it be integrating new technology or increasing the velocity of product flow or information through the operation.

His background in Supply Chain Management makes him comfortable working in any commodity area of manufacturing whether it be machining, metal stamping, plastic molding, printing or high speed pick and place printed circuit board assembly or wrapping them all together using a solid logistics model whether in-bound or out-bound.

Richard passion to see all organizations succeed beyond their expectations has been honored by allowing him to also be President of the Canadian Region for the AME (Association of Manufacturing Excellence) and to work closely with James Womack on establishing a Lean Institute in Canada. Richard was the Co-Chair of the AME annual conference in 1998 dealing with the topic of “Simplicity” in business and in 2003 was the Conference Chair of the Largest Lean Conference ever to be hosted in the world this past fall in Toronto which attracted 2300 attendees from around the world.