Passionate About Helping You Solve Your Most Complex Business Problems
For me, Continuous Improvement and Kaizen has been at the core of my entire career. I’ve always gravitated toward opportunities that allowed me to improve something and bring it from one state to a whole new level of performance. I'm always looking to see how can we do things more effectively and efficiently.
After 30 years of being in the industry, it was a logical step to take my professional background and help other organizations achieve greater heights. I founded KJ Hayes to bring strategy execution and greater efficiencies to organizations that are looking to achieve greater heights.
I look forward to learning about your organizational needs and solving your most complex business challenges together.
Sincerely,
Tony Hayes
More About Tony
Executive Coach. Lean Practitioner. Shingo Institute Alumni.
Tony is an Executive Lean Leader, most recently serving as the Vice President of Global Manufacturing Excellence at Stanley Black and Decker supporting the Tools & Outdoor business segment, driving customer value creation. He has extensive experience in delivering profitable growth, improving risk profile, and increasing return on invested capital in the automotive, transportation, aerospace, and defense industries. Tony is a seasoned Operations and Lean expert with vast experience in strategy and organizational governance. Tony has utilized his expertise to assist organizations with their most complex problems in manufacturing, engineering, material planning and logistics, value chain management, and quality.
As Global Lean Leader, Supply Chain at GE Transportation a Wabtec Company, a $11 billion operation, Tony was responsible for developing and driving the strategic vision of global continuous improvement across the enterprise. Process improvements had led to over $10 million in cost improvement and reducing lead time by an average of 50%, resulting in GE Transportation being a recognized industry leader.The Contagem, Brazil locomotive assembly plant was featured in Railway Age magazine for implementing one of the first mixed-model moving assembly lines in the rail industry.
As the Ford Production System (FPS) Lean Implementation Manager – North American Car Region at Ford, Tony was instrumental in Ford’s Chicago Assembly Plant’s journey to receiving the Shingo Prize the highest standard for organizational excellence. With over a decade of core manufacturing experience and a strong operations background, Tony developed and deployed an efficiency framework focused on data consistency and effective root cause analysis leading to improved uptime, enhanced quality, production throughput, safety and cost per unit improvements.
During his tenure at GE Transportation, Tony was one of twelve high potential leaders selected to be a member of the CEO’s Insight Team, providing leadership, guidance and counsel to the C-Suite on challenging issues affecting the overall performance and profitability of General Electric, a $95B Digital Industrial Leader, across 9 business segments. He also led Haworth's Lean University, earning a medal of recognition from the State of Michigan's Governor's office for Teamwork, Leadership and Excellence in the spirit of reinvention, in addition to a previous role on the Board of Directors for the Walden Green Montessori Academy (The Center for Charter Schools at Central Michigan University). Tony is currently on the Board of Directors for the West Michigan Spartans and has recently been appointed to the Executive Advisory Board for the Shingo Institute, Home of the Shingo Prize. He was previously the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Michigan Lean Consortium, focusing on Strategy Development and Deployment, aligning the board’s efforts to increase membership, ultimately creating sustainable value for Michigan’s economy.
Tony, a native of Grand Rapids, Michigan holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. He also holds a Master of Science in Manufacturing Management, a Master of Science in Operations Management, and a Master of Business Administration, all attained from Kettering University in Flint, Michigan. In addition, Tony is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and is certified through University of Michigan in Lean Manufacturing and Operations, as well as Lean Office and Service, in addition to being a Shingo Institute Alumni.