During a 35 year manufacturing career, I had the privilege of leading an 800,000 sq.ft. plant with 1200 people for 2 years and then became the senior Mfg/Ops VP for two different companies totaling 25 years. Through my leadership and high expectations, my team was the first to cellularize wire and cable process operations (assembly plants had been cellularized some years earlier). We also initiated the first Supplier Advisory Council in the wire and cable industry in the early 90s. In the late 90s, I began to formulate the 12 Principles of Manufacturing. The process of implementing the principles led to numerous plants winning Industry Week magazine's Best Plants in North America.My book entitled: The 12 Principles of Manufacturing Excellence--A Leader's Guide to Achieving and Sustaining Excellence was published by Taylor & Francis, CRC Press, under their Productivity Press brand October 11, 2011. It became a best seller and a Second Edition, The 12 Principles of Manufacturing Excellence--A Lean Leaders Guide to Achieving and Sustaining Excellence was published in September 2015. The use of the 12 Principles and the Manufacturing Excellence Audit helps to provide infrastructure for "managing the process" of continuous improvement while allowing plant managers and functional staffs to prioritize around their local opportunities. My career-long passion is helping companies save and grow U.S. manufacturing jobs. Using these 12 principles works as evidenced by the many best plant in North America awards noted above.After retirement I am now a part-time consultant, leadership coach and author. I've been writing a column for Industry Week online magazine since December 2013 under the byline "Ask the Expert--Lean Leadership". Specialties: Strategy development; Mentoring Mfg/Ops; Plant Managers; Materials and Production Control Directors/Mgrs; Education and training. Use of the process for applying the 12 Principles in any manufacturing operation including the baseline Manufacturing Excellence Audit.