Ms. Jeanne Van Buren is a Senior Advisor with FTE Performance Consulting and a member of FTE’s Global Advisory Network. She has over 30 years of experience with quickly and consistently delivering world class results as an action-oriented strategic leader who worked her way up through manufacturing and spent the majority of her career in leadership positions at Automotive OEM plants. Ms. Van Buren has successfully applied tools including: Value Stream Mapping, Theory of Constraints, Design for Manufacturing, Toyota Production System, World Class Manufacturing, Industrial Engineering, Statistics, and Continuous Improvement. She is a customer focused, process-driven leader of people and organizations who maximizes profitability.

Notable experience and accomplishments:

• Led Industrial Engineering organization of over 100 people for a large global automotive OEM
• Implemented strategies at an automotive OEM that improved hours per unit from last to 1st place tying Toyota as the most productive automaker in North America
• As a Senior Manager, Jeanne led 14 process improvement workshops optimizing vehicle sales, volume planning, incentive, parts and service areas and managed the implementation of improvements reducing lead time by 28% and generating $14M in savings
• Over an additional 18 workshops, Jeanne led the optimization of service part sales, packaging, distribution, vehicle service, customer call center and service contract area processes resulting in a lead time reduction of 38% and generating $12M in savings
• Reduced manpower at a 5000+ employee OEM Assembly Plant by 14%, while attaining the highest 2006 initial product quality rating for Minivan (J.D. Powers & Associates) and being awarded for the most productive Minivan Plant (Harbour Report) in the industry
• Led teams accountable for developing and implementing best in class processes across three greenfield automotive OEM paint shops, to support over $600M in capital investment
• As North American Operations Lean Implementation Manager, Jeanne led the implementation of quality, throughput, and productivity improvements across seven major automotive assembly and component plants

Prior to FTE Jeanne most recently served as the Head of Lean Systems at a leading automotive Value Added Supplier where she analyzed operations and implemented improvements systems at two plants.  Prior to that, she held senior leadership positions at two different major global automotive OEMs influencing areas including product development, vehicle engineering, purchasing, manufacturing, supply chain management, sales, service and parts.

Jeanne holds a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial and Operations Engineering both from the University of Michigan.