Dr. Jeffrey K. Liker is Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan and President of Liker Lean Advisors. He is author of the international best-seller, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World s Greatest Manufacturer, 2004 (26 languages, over 900,000 copies sold), and has coauthored eight other books about Toyota including The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership (2011). His articles and books have won twelve Shingo Prizes for Research Excellence. In 2012 he was inducted into the Association of Manufacturing Excellence Hall of Fame and in 2016 inducted into the Shingo Academy.Liker lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with his wife and children.
Karyn Ross is a Lean consultant and executive coach focused on driving sustainable business culture change in service organizations. She has worked with companies such as Paychex, PrimePay, Zurich Insurance, and National Taxi Limo to help them develop a culture of problem solving and improved business practices. A regular contributor to the Lean Leadership Ways Industry Week Blog, she has also written for The Lean Management Journal and Industrial Engineer Magazine. Ross resides in Naperville, Illinois.
