Starting Lean from Scratch: A Senior Leaders Guide to Beginning and Steering an Organizational Culture Change for Continuous Improvement

About Brent Timmerman

Brent Timmerman has over 20 years of work experience in both the private- and public-sectors. While completing his masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Manitoba he accepted an engineering position at a local aerospace company based in Winnipeg Manitoba. This company had a strong continuous improvement culture and was rapidly expanding across the globe into different markets and locationsas a result Brent had the benefit of travelling around the world supporting new facilities as they were set up to operate to follow the same practices as the head office. Kaizen kaikaku huddle meetings and visual metrics among other typical Lean management elements were introduced at each site. Brent transitioned into an engineering management job in 2001 and then held several engineering director positions until leaving the organization in 2012 to join Manitoba Housing. Brents first role within the social housing crown corporation for the Manitoba Government was the executive director of asset management where he was responsible for a branch of over 65 staff a capital budget of over $80M (Cdn) and the capital upgrade projects for a portfolio of over 3500 buildings across the province. After two years Brent was selected to serve as the chief operating officer for the corporation where he was responsible for all aspects of operations a staff of over 430 personnel and an annual operating budget of over $100M. In 2014 Brent was made the executive sponsor of the corporations Lean transformation in an organization that had no experience with any of the methodologies or tools related to Lean or operations excellence. It was this responsibility to champion the integration of the culture change and the tools from the industrial origins of Lean into a completely new setting that gave Brent an appreciation for the challenge that many leaders face when beginning a Lean journey for the first time. After four years as COO at Manitoba Housing Brent was asked by the deputy minister for the Department of Families to assume the role of Chief Innovation Officer for the Department. Brent is currently in this role where he supports approximately 2500 government staff across multiple divisions with the development of a continuous improvement culture and supporting methodology. Brent is a registered Professional Engineer in the Province of Manitoba a certified Project Management Professional with the Project Management Institute and a certified Lean Black Belt from Lean Sensei International. He holds both Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Manitoba. He lives in Winnipeg with his wife and two children.