Peter Watkins
Global Lean Enterprise Director - GKN
September 2003 joined GKN (Automotive/Aerospace Group with sales of £4bn) as Global Best Practice Director for the Driveline Division. The Division has sales of £1.9bn, over 20,000 employees in 44 plants in 25 countries. The division produces, driveshafts, propshafts and torque devices for most automotive manufacturers globally.

Responsible for developing, directing and implementing the Lean Enterprise Program at GKN Driveline on global scale.

Gained MSc In Lean Operations at Cardiff University - Lean Enterprise Research Centre. Currently a member of the Institute Of Quality Assurance, American Society for Quality, APICS and AME UK.

Previous positions

In 2001 appointed to ArvinMeritor International Operations as Director of Continuous Improvement Strategy, Europe, Asia and Africa. Responsible for implementing the Operational Excellence Concepts across 20 Air & Emissions Manufacturing/R&D facilities, in 10 countries with 13,000 employees and 15 indirect Site Continuous Improvement Leaders. Developed and improve continuous improvement activities in the value chain and supplier base.

From 1998 held Operations, Quality & Continuous Improvement Manager role for ArvinMeritor - Air & Emissions Technology - Warton. With responsibilities for site wide continuous improvement implementation in a technical and production environment.

Involved in Lean Manufacturing and Product Industrialisation for European Operations. Also responsible for the manufacturing of prototype and small batch production. Gained 2002 ArvinMeritor Quality Gold Achievement Award.

Graduated from ArvinMeritor Site Continuous Improvement Leader development program. Involved in a large number of shop floor Kaizen and business improvement projects from 80% reduction in manufacturing cell changeover to streamlining of CAD Drawing control and RFQ business processes.

From 1996 held the position as Quality Assurance Team Leader Arvin Exhaust Ltd - Engineering Technologies. Responsible for the day to day running and co-ordinating the Quality Department within a team Quality Control Technicians and Quality Engineers.

Lewis Montgomery
Director Organisational Development - Duggan Associates
In 2002, Lewis Montgomery joined Duggan Associates as lean project manager and is now a director within the company. Duggan consists of some of the most knowledgeable and experienced professionals in the lean business. The company emphasises a ‘hands-on’ approach, implementing lean in complex operations. As teachers and mentors to the executives they serve, they provide the strategic and technical education required for their clients' cultural transformation. The team directs companies away from random point kaizens into structured value stream results. Through education and coaching, Duggan helps companies understand the importance of every employee seeing the flow of value to the customer and knowing how to fix that flow when it breaks down.

Lewis has taught and implemented lean in a wide variety of companies with a primary focus in the aerospace industry. Successes cover a wide application of lean principles into all functional areas of business from the traditional assembly and manufacturing to engineering, sales, finance and human resources.

Prior to becoming a consultant, Lewis held a number of positions at manufacturing firms, focusing on quality improvement, just-in-time methodology, continuous improvement and implementing lean supply chain techniques.