What can Manufacturing Leaders do to Optimize their Productivity and Operations During a Health Crisis?

Dr. Tom Butkiewicz is a Core Faculty-Research member in the PhD Management program at Walden University. Dr. Tom is the faculty advisor for The National Society of Leadership and Success and the PhD Management Fellowship program. He is a reviewer for the Academy of Management and the International Journal of Applied Management and Technology. Dr. Tom also serves as the vice president for the Walden University Virtual Fulbright Association Chapter. Dr. Tom worked 26 years as an operations manager in the automotive industry for Mitsubishi Motors. He proudly concluded 20 years of honorable service to our great country as a field operations Chief Warrant Officer (CWO-3) in the United States Marine Corps Reserve. Dr. Tom is a certified leadership speaker, coach, and trainer who serves individuals and organizations for sustainable competitive advantage outcomes. He pursues positive social change by supporting the Multiple Sclerosis Society through a fundraising commitment for 20 years. Dr. Tom's positive social change focus also is demonstrated by being a member of the strategic development committee for a new church building project in Southern California.

Matthew Patrick is a principal consultant and owner of C2 Engineered Solutions. He earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Business Administration from Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, and is a certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt. He has served as a Principal Consultant for Competitive Advantage, Director of Operations within HEICO (Thermal Structures Inc. and JetSeal Inc.) as well as Industrial Kiln and Dryer Group. These organizations have provided Matthew a wealth of experience in multiple industries including aerospace repair and manufacturing, industrial equipment, pulp and paper, cement, mining, grain as well as both discrete and process manufacturing. In every organization, Matthew has moved the company in a positive direction with efficiency improvements, cost reductions and risk mitigation, while installing a continuous improvement culture. He has since gone on to own and operate a consulting firm, C2 Engineered Solutions where he continues to help organizations achieve their production, profitability, efficiency and continuous improvement goals.

Markus Mehrtens has early focused on logistics. He accomplished his retail distribution and logistics business studies at the University of Wollongong, Australia and University of Leipzig. After professional stations in Australian logistics, he has accomplished logistics projects across Europe. In various logistics consultancy and logistics project management roles for Metro AG, e.g in Valencia, Zagreb and Kiev, he has worked in warehousing and transportation considering all temperature regimes and flow types. Thereby he specialised in the entire lifecycle of contract logistics. After then being responsible for the international procurement of contract logistics at the DIY retail market leader in central and Eastern Europe he joined the MediaMarktSaturn RetailGroup. There he oversees group-wide the partnering with logistics service providers. In the corona crisis, he navigated MediaMarktSaturn RetailGroup’s logistics response.