Our Team

The Lean Learning Center was founded by Andy Carlino, Dennis Pawley, and Jamie Flinchbaugh.
Please select a team member from below to learn more.

Andy Carlino

A nationally recognized speaker, trainer and consultant, Andy is founder and partner of Achievement Dynamics. His specialties include training, education and consulting in the areas of Toyota Production Systems, Lean Manufacturing, Kaizen Implementation, Shop Floor Management, Control Point Standardization, Supply Chain Management, and Facilitator Development.

Andy is also founder and partner of the Lean Learning Center in Novi, Michigan. Combined, these two organizations transform vision into performance and develop leaders and learners for lean transformation. In Andy's words, "Together, we've created a powerful learning resource for you to make your lean initiative a success".

Andy has over twenty years experience in real-world senior management, including president and COO, and is a nationally renowned lean expert. He has worked with thousands of individuals from the boardroom to the shop floor, in virtually all sectors of industry. His clients have included: DaimlerChrysler, BISSELL, Siemens, Deere & Co., Detroit Edison, BlueCross BlueShield, Visteon, Johnson & Johnson, and Wise Foods. Additionally he provides organizational assessments and due diligence for the private equity investment community and for food processing companies, heavy and light manufacturing, assembly, medical devices, foundries, and more.

Andy has presented programs at Harvard University and Clemson University, is a frequent keynote speaker for a variety of professional organizations and conferences, and is a certified instructor for the states of Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Pennsylvania Industrial Training Programs. He is co-author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean: Lessons From the Road in which he and co-author, Jamie Flinchbaugh, reveal the most critical lessons learned over their combined 30-plus years of exploring the lean highways.

Andy holds a B.S. in Engineering and a B.A. in Psychology. Andy is a member of ASQ, AME, and other industry and professional associations.

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Jamie Flinchbaugh

Jamie Flinchbaugh is a founder and partner of the Lean Learning Center, and brings successful and varied experiences of lean transformation as both a practitioner and facilitator. Jamie was part of the development, training and implementation of the Chrysler Operating System, a widely-benchmarked lean change program spearheaded by Lean Learning Center partner Dennis Pawley. He most recently was at DTE Energy, parent to Detroit Edison, as a lean thought leader to help transform the operations, leadership and thinking of the utility industry towards a philosophy of lean systems. He is also a founder and director of Rev! Motorcycles, a start-up company that connects design and manufacturing to the customer to build-to-order powersports products such as off-road motorcycles. He also has a wide-range of operational experiences, including production, maintenance, product engineering and manufacturing engineering.

Jamie is a graduate fellow of the highly-regarded Leaders for Manufacturing Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he received an MBA from the Sloan School of Management and a Masters of Engineering degree and his research thesis was Implementing Lean Manufacturing through Factory Design. He has also received a Masters of Engineering from the University of Michigan and holds BS in Engineering from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA.

Jamie resides in West Bloomfield, Michigan with his wife, Jill, and children Emma, Jack and Ben.

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Dennis Pawley

Dennis Pawley is the former Executive Vice President of World Wide Manufacturing and Labor Relations for the Chrysler Group of DaimlerChrysler. He was responsible for more than 80,000 employees in 12 car and truck assembly plants, along with 5 manufacturing technical centers and 18 component, stamping and power train plants in the United States and Canada. In addition, he had responsibility for powertrain and stamping operations in Mexico and was in charge of DaimlerChrylser joint venture manufacturing relationships in China, Austria, Brazil and Venezuela. He was also responsible for all labor relations activities in North America and served as a member of the Board of Management for DaimlerChrysler until his retirement from the corporation January 31, 1999.

DaimlerChrysler Chairman Robert J. Eaton called Mr. Pawley "the ultimate manufacturing leader", and went on to say, "His ability to lead change is unparalleled in manufacturing today. His Operating Systems has solidly taken hold in the DaimlerChrysler Corporation manufacturing environment. In addition, his progressive relationship with the United Auto Workers and Canadian Auto Workers was visionary in its honesty and integrity. He will be missed."

Prior to joining DaimlerChrysler, Mr. Pawley was a Vice President for the Otis Group of United Technologies, Vice President for Manufacturing at Mazda Motor Corporation, USA, and held various automotive manufacturing management positions within the Pontiac Motor Division of General Motors.

Born in Milan, Michigan, Mr. Pawley maintains residences in Waterford, Michigan and in Las Vegas, Nevada where he consults with Performance Learning LLC in the teaching of teamwork seminars at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

He was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Guide Corporation, the largest North American supplier of head lamps and signal lights to the automotive industry, from January 2000 to December 2000.

In April 2001, Mr. Pawley and partner, Andy Carlino, co-founded the Lean Learning Center located in Novi, Michigan. The Center’s mission is to assist manufacturers and the general service industry in the development of lean systems and lean thinking as part of integrated operating systems.

Mr. Pawley serves as Vice Chairman of the Oakland University Foundation Board and is a past member of the Oakland University Board of Trustees. He also serves on the Board of Directors for Oxford Automotive, Ross Controls, Haden Corporation, Detroit Science Center, and in May of 1999, was appointed an Operating Executive with Palladium Equity Partners in New York City.

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Ron Holcomb

Ron Holcomb is a partner, consultant and trainer with the Lean Learning Center. Previously, Ron spent thirty years working to improve the automotive manufacturing processes at the Ford Motor Company and Visteon Automotive Systems. He was the Quality and Information Systems Manager on the launch team of the Romeo Engine Plant which produces the world class Modular Engine for Ford Motor Company. As the founding director of the Ford Production System (FPS) Institute, he managed the deployment of the FPS System to 73 plants in Ford’s worldwide operations. He managed the renaissance of Ford’s Monroe Plant by outsourcing steel wheel production and installing halfshaft, driveshaft and slip yoke production facilities, and lead a team of process engineers and manufacturing experts in the development of a world-class hyphoid gear manufacturing plant and process currently being launched in Southeastern Michigan.

Ron Holcomb has worked with hundreds of manufacturing sites in automotive tier 1, 2 and 3 plants. While personally managing the axle assembly operations at the Sterling Axle Plant, he introduced lean concepts and won national acclaim. He was published as a competitor in the Franz Edlehman Award for excellence in Industrial Operations Engineering as a result of productivity improvements in the Front Axle Assembly Department at Sterling. He has taught SPC, TQM, FPS and Lean Systems to thousands of students and manufacturing professionals. He is a regular guest lecturer at the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, University of Detroit Mercy and has been very active in research and teaching programs at Michigan Technological University. Mr. Holcomb has a B.S. in Computer Science and an MBA in Manufacturing Planning and Control Systems.

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Al Pond

Al Pond is a senior consultant with the Lean Learning Center. He is a retired senior manager from Ford Motor Company with 38 years of manufacturing experience in operations, engineering and strategic planning. He was one of the founding executive members of the Ford Production System team responsible for design, development, and deployment of lean engineering methods across global operations. This included the executive lead for ensuring that major new vehicle programs worldwide were in full compliance with lean practices. In addition, Al was the senior coach and mentor for lean implementation in South America, Asia-Pacific and all Component operations.

Al's influence was not limited to lean operations, as he was recognized by the American Society of Training and Development for outstanding program achievement in the automotive industry as the author of Ford's New Employee Orientation program, a comprehensive indoctrination program for technical new hires. In addition, Al was the driving force behind Ford's sole achievement of the prestigious TPM prize awarded by the Japanese Institute of Preventive Maintenance at the Charleville Climate Operations plant in France.

Al has the distinction of being among an elite group of manufacturing executives that have actually worked on the factory floor. He started his career as a union represented production worker then progressed through skilled trades via the apprenticeship program and on to engineering and management. Al's many assignments, starting as worker, progressing on to the executive level coupled with his passion for manufacturing have given him a most unique perspective and background as a lean change agent. He is a graduate of the skilled trades program, holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Management and an MBA. He is a guest lecturer at the University of Michigan and is involved in curriculum development centered on lean. Al is also a lifetime Certified Manufacturing Engineer by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.

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Tony Watt

Tony Watt is a consultant and trainer for the Lean Learning Center. He was previously a Plant Manager for several Chrysler/DaimlerChrysler automotive manufacturing plants and was responsible for launching the 2.0 liter engine and the 3.2/3.5 liter aluminum block engine. He improved quality by 75% and improved operating costs to and above business plan levels during his management by implementing lean. He assisted in negotiating a six-year local labor agreement, longest in company history. Previously served as Plant Controller for two (electrical and electronics) Chrysler / DaimlerChrysler plants improving operating costs $12 million annually over an 18-month period. More recently, Tony served as Acting President for Marian College implementing processes to improve the college operation.

Tony Watt’s manufacturing experience encompasses thirty-five years in the automotive industry for Chrysler / DaimlerChrysler in production, finance and operations management. He has an extensive background in operational finance overseeing day-to-day operations and developing workable business plans in concert with operations. He served as Manufacturing Operations Manager launching a new electronics plant site and transferred eleven manufacturing lines with only a two-week manufacturing interruption per line and a minimum of 10% better quality for each line. During his tenure as Plant Manager he improved quality by 60-75% in each plant. These quality improvements lead directly to significant operational cost improvements.

Tony's unique background of finance and operations allows for a total business approach to his problem solving and planning skills. Mr. Watt has a B.A. in Business Administration from Marion College.

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Tom Bechtel

With over 30 years experience in operations management, Tom Bechtel is an accomplished trainer, mentor, facilitator and consultant for Lean Manufacturing and ERP strategies and techniques. He has facilitated over 80 kaizen workshops in industry, health care and power utilities. Tom has provided education and consulting services to thousands of individuals from all sectors and levels of North American industry since 1985 and held engineering and management positions up to VP of Operations with companies such as General Electric, Nortel, Mitel and Kaval Wireless Technologies..

He holds a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Penn State and is a Certified Fellow in Production and Inventory Control (CFPIM) by APICS.

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Melissa Curtis-Hendley

Melissa Curtis-Hendley, M.A., P.H.R., is a 2001 and 2005 alumna of Oakland University and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree as well as a Master of Training and Development degree. In addition to her formal degrees, Melissa also earned her professional certification in human resources from the Human Resource Certification Institute in December of 2001. Melissa brings a diverse background to Lean Learning Center, consulting with and designing training initiatives for numerous manufacturing and non-profit organizations throughout Oakland and Wayne counties. For her Masters project, Melissa worked on an educational team to create and administer a survey to dozens of manufacturing organizations located through southeast Michigan to explore the organizational conditions necessary to successfully implement lean processes. Most recently, Melissa has worked for a northern Oakland county community bank in a human resource generalist capacity for the past five years. Melissa currently lectures on instructional design methods and human resource technologies at her alma mater in the School of Education and Human Resources.



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Jim Sonderman

Jim Sonderman is a lean consultant and coach for the Lean Learning Center. His background encompasses 18 years of experience in the automotive industry with General Motors and Delphi. He spent approximately 9 years in management and 9 years in direct continuous improvement roles supporting the lean transformation of the company.

Jim was exposed to lean systems early in his career while working closely with Toyota as a parts supplier to the Georgetown, Kentucky and NUMMI assembly plants. He was recognized as an early adopter of lean thinking and was selected to aid in the development of the Delphi Manufacturing System. He served several years as a Kaizen Leader in the plant driving excellence in manufacturing though leading kaizen events. During his career he spent 2 years at the Delphi World Headquarters as a manufacturing systems advisor supporting the lean education and training of top leadership. Throughout this appointment he chaired the Operational Availability Circle of Colleagues and led in the development and dissemination of Total Productive Maintenance strategies globally. He spent the last four years of his career in automotive as a technical manager in the Delphi Supplier Development Organization coaching and assisting suppliers in his or her own lean transformation.

Jim is a Dayton, Ohio native and a graduate of the Ohio State University. He currently resides in Lake Orion, Michigan with his wife Michelle and daughter Samantha.


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Elise Smith

Elise Smith is a current student of Oakland University pursuing her Bachelor of Science in Human Resource Development with a double minor in Spanish and Training and Development. Her expected graduation date is May of 2009. She recently studied abroad in Spain to complete her Spanish minor. Elise has worked as a Human Resource Intern for the past six months and plans to begin her Master of Training and Development degree upon completion of her undergraduate degree.


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