Meet Robert Trent
Dr. Robert Trent is the co-director of the Center for Value Chain Research, the supply chain management program director, and the George N. Beckwith professor of management at Lehigh University, where he teaches at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He holds a B.S. degree in materials logistics management from Michigan State University, an M.B.A. degree from Wayne State University, and a Ph.D. in purchasing/operations management from Michigan State University.
Prior to his return to academia, Bob spent seven years with Chrysler Corporation. His industrial experience includes assignments in production scheduling, packaging engineering with responsibility for new part packaging set-up and the purchase of nonproductive materials, distribution planning, and operations management at the Boston regional parts distribution facility.
Robert Trent's End-to-End Lean Management
While doing research for his book, End-to-End Lean Management, it struck Robert Trent that the majority of previously produced works on the subject on lean management were geared toward manufacturing and operations within manufacturing. After looking into numerous cases, and visiting multiple companies that were not manufacturing firms, he saw lean being applied in different areas, and soon came to the conclusion that lean thinking is so skewed toward manufacturing that it is constraining some companies from adopting the concept.
