Charlie Protzman spent over 13 years with AlliedSignal (now Honeywell) and has a total of 32 years experience in Materials and Operations Management. The first Lean Master and a Strategic Operations Manager for AlliedSignal, he received several special recognition and cost reduction awards. Charlie was an external consultant for the Maryland World Class Consortium and a contributor to the resulting World Class Guidelines. He assisted the Consortium in the first three World Class company assessments. Charlie, as the CEO of BIG, spent the last eighteen years implementing successful lean product, and administrative implementations and World Class Kaizen events across the U.S. in all types of industries. He has taught Lean Thinking principles to students from all over the World. Charlie is following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Charles W. Protzman, Sr. who, as part of the CCS, under the direction of Macarthur, in 1948 surveyed over 70 Japanese companies and in 1949, taught CEO's of over 50 prominent Japanese telecommunications companies an eight week course in American Management Techniques which paved the way for Deming’s visit in 1950. Charlie has a BA and MBA from Loyola College in Maryland and is a member of SME, SAE, Association for Psychological Type (APT) and past member of APICS, AME Champions Club and NAPM organizations.