Sal Sanchez is a Senior Advisor with over 30 years of experience across Operations Management, Lean Manufacturing, Quality Assurance, Logistics and Business Systems standardization. He is an experienced leader with a record for developing and supporting successful high Return-on-Investment (ROI) projects and solutions across the globe. Sal’s strength is developing people, from team members to executives, by helping to improve value streams and the work culture.

Notable experience and accomplishments:

• Sal led greenfield process development and launch support for 5 global high-volume manufacturing plants within two major component groups and 2 vehicle facilities. Sal’s involvement spanned from Program Management, construction management and through the introduction of Obeya Room concept to direct project execution. All programs launched on time and exceeded targets for cost and lead time, with double digit improvements in each.  With each launch gained experienced to adapt quickly to unexpected issues. Used innovation and creative thinking to achieve successful launches (lean greenfield thinking).
• Sal is an expert in the facilitation of continuous improvement initiatives including Kaizen and Jishuken, having facilitated dozens of events in over 20 countries with annual savings totaling hundreds of millions of dollars
• As a core member of a team to develop and deploy Industry 4.0 globally, Sal worked with IT and Engineering to develop the visual shop floor management portion of the new global standard. This standard was deployed in over 100 plants globally
• Sal served as an interim plant manager for a 300+ employee operation working to drive improvements and hire/develop a permanent replacement. In this transitional role, Sal increased monthly profit from -5% to +12% while marking improvements within Safety, Quality and On-time Delivery metrics as well

Sal trained with the Toyota Production System in starting in 1990 at New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (GM/Toyota). During a 20 year period Sal progressed through multiple roles from shop floor to operations leadership.  Sal spent 3 years at the Toyota North American Headquarters learning TPS hands-on from Japanese Managers which has translated directly into the rest of his career supporting automotive suppliers and non-automotive manufacturers.

Prior to joining FTE, Sal most recently worked as a Global Senior Manager in Operations Excellence for a Tier 1 supplier to Toyota and the Big 3. He had the opportunity to travel to 20+ countries and over a 100 plants, helping them develop and implement their Lean strategies. His ability to adapt easily to new cultures and his respect for people, encourages teamwork and drives sustainable results.

Sal studied Business Management at Ohlone College and Berkeley University.  He also has certifications through Toyota in Standardized Work Trainer-the-Trainer, Toyota Business Practice, Problem Solving Facilitator and Toyota Leader training (Japan).