Matthias Thürer is a professor at Jinan University, China. He earned his master’s degree from the Technical University of Berlin and a PhD from the University of Coimbra. He maintains a broad research network regularly visiting universities such as Lancaster University, the University of Clemson, Michigan State University and the University of Groningen. Before getting involved in academia, Matthias worked for several companies and became a master craftsman. Simple control for complex shops is one of Matthias' main research interests. He has published widely on production control systems and is a leading expert on Workload Control and Control of Balance by Card Based Navigation (COBACABANA). Mark Stevenson is a full Professor at Lancaster University Management School in the UK. He earned a bachelor's and PhD from the Department of Management Science at Lancaster University. Mark's PhD was on Workload Control, the production planning and control concept for low-volume, high-variety shops that underpins COBACABANA. Mark's research has included implementing the Workload Control concept in practice to learn from the implementation process and results. He has published widely in peer-reviewed academic Operations Management journals, including those on production planning and control. Charles Protzman is an internationally renowned Lean implementer, trainer, and Shingo Prize winning author with over 33 years of experience in Materials and Operations Management. He has consulted with manufacturers, hospitals, government agencies and other service industries. In 1997, Charlie formed Business Improvement Group, LLC, which is located in Baltimore, MD, and specializes in implementing Lean thinking principles and the Lean Business Delivery System - LBDS. Charlie has spent the last 22 years implementing successful Lean product line conversions, kaizen events, and administrative business system improvements (transactional lean) across the U.S. and internationally.
