Bruce Thompson
President and COO, Simpler Development, LLC

Lean in Administration

Mr. Bruce Thompson is considered an industry leader in applying Lean principles in the service and administrative fields. He has over 20 years of diverse experience in manufacturing, service and product development, process analysis, quality, and operations. His primary expertise is in applying systems and principles that lead to effective, lean work processes from design, analysis, and production, through product service. The techniques have proven immensely successful in applications such as customer service, order entry, finance, inventory, distribution, engineering, warehousing, etc. Simpler’s results for non-manufacturing lean activities have averaged productivity increases of more than 30%, reduced manual cycle time of over 40%, increased quality more than 45%, and reduced inventory more than 50%.

Prior to joining Simpler, Bruce was director of operations, support, and rapid improvement for an office furniture manufacturer. In this role he provided leadership in implementing work practices that drove improvements to key financial measures. Implementing a lean strategy with the company, Bruce led a “hands-on” effort to use rapid improvement techniques to strengthen the company in areas of customer service and administration as well as production and manufacturing services. He maintained operations responsibility while creating strategic alliances with other companies to enhance the company’s market share and financial position.

Bruce’s educational background includes a bachelor’s degree from Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia (1978) and postgraduate courses at the University of North Alabama. He earned his CQM (Certified Quality Manager) and CQA (Certified Quality Auditor) from the American Society for Quality in 1994-1995. This formal training has been combined with his extensive hands-on experience in rapid improvement techniques.

In his presentation, Bruce will teach you how to achieve balance in your primary value streams and accelerate your lean journey by applying lean concepts in administrative areas. You will learn how to double productivity, improve information accuracy, reduce manual cycle time, and reduce throughput time.