Staff Profile
Bill Kirchherr, Lean Consultant

Bill Kirchherr has been with CONNSTEP for over 12 years as a Lean Manufacturing Specialist, providing consulting services to a variety of manufacturing companies with a concentration in Lean manufacturing. He has provided both classroom and hands-on training and facilitated the design, development, and implementation of Lean Methodologies on an enterprise wide basis. Bill is a NIST Certified Trainer and is certified to deliver the MEP suite of products. Past projects included providing facilitation and leadership for the successful implementation of point solutions improvement projects as well as the development and implementation of improvements at the value stream level.

Bill has more than 25 years of management experience with a particular focus in Operations and Lean
Manufacturing and has held a variety of positions in Operations, Production and Materials Management. Bill has conducted in excess of 500 kaizen and training events.

Bill has exceeded the needs of CONNSTEP customers by providing a variety of tailored services for clients in support of their individual needs. Assignments included VSM, Work Cell Design, Work Flow, Kanban, 5S, Set Up Reduction and Problem Solving in both shop and front office environments.

Prior to CONNSTEP, Bill has worked as a Vice President for IMS Inc, responsible for all aspects of materials at the corporate headquarters and five regional offices. 

Bill managed all inventories in addition to the annual purchasing of wire and cable totaling an excess of $20 million. Bill directed all operations for Flexweave Inc., a wire and cable specialty manufacturer of woven products, kits and assemblies.

Bill served a dual roll as Production Manager and Production Control Manager for Helix Hi-Temp, a wire and cable manufacturer, and Chromatic Technologies, a fiber optic manufacturing facility. Bill was responsible for all aspects of manufacturing from receipt of incoming material to scheduling workflow to directing all production departments. Bill was also responsible for all materials management functions from planning to order creation/procurement/scheduling to shipment of product.

Bill was the materials authority for the original Pratt and Whitney Asset Evaluation Team. Bill was responsible for the evaluation of the materials/production control function of Pratt and Whitney's "preferred" suppliers Bill was responsible for the analysis of system architecture within the production and materials areas along with the implementation of improvement initiatives.

Bill earned his Bachelors of Arts in Social Science with a major in Economics from Westfield State College, Westfield Massachusetts.

Printable version (.pdf)