Education

Mr. Grout has a Masters Degree in Engineering Management and a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering. He is a Lean Sensei and qualified Six Sigma Black Belt. Mr. Grout has also gained extensive Executive Leadership Training at Thunderbird University in Arizona, USA and has worked with the Lean Institutes in both England and Germany.

Professional Experience

Mr. Grout comes from a senior executive operations position and has his roots in the automotive and defense sectors. Starting in technology management, strategic planning, advanced engineering and R&D, Mr. Grout progressed to operations and operational management. His strengths include consulting clients in the Lean methodologies with additional emphasis on operational effectiveness, organization, project management, restructuring and strategic planning. Part of his experience includes working with senior executives in:

• Development and implementation of companywide Lean initiatives (up to 4000 employees $1BN Sales)
• Development and implementation of companywide Six Sigma initiatives (up to 50 Black Belts)
• Development of and implementation of a companywide simultaneous engineering process and project management
• Development and implementation of Technology Management including patent strategies, Technology Road Maps, Technology Book Shelf and Product Development Toolkits (PFMEA, FMEA, R & D Roadmaps, DOE etc)
• Development and implementation of new organizational forms including Matrix Organizations to support Lean thinking and Simultaneous Engineering for product development
• Global technology transfer in both manufacturing technology, processing and materials technology
• Development and execution of major restructuring initiatives including plant closures (in Germany, Belgium and the UK): rationalization, consolidation, redundancy negotiations and clean up
• Interim management in turbulent or changing environments
• Enabling the discovery of how the SECORA method improves operating margins, top-line growth, process cycle time, throughput and yield, product/service quality and other aspects of the business

Mr. Grout gained valuable experience while working directly and indirectly with companies such as TRW, MBB, Bell Helicopter, Textron, Magna, PSA, VW/Audi, BMW, Daimler-Chrysler, Macquarie Bank, MLC Financial Services.

With a strong bias towards Lean, Mr. Grout has led Kaizen events in over 25 facilities across Europe, Canada and the USA as well as training over 200 people in the principles of Lean, Value Stream Mapping and the Toyota Production System.

Mr. Grout has himself completed over 20 DMAIC projects in both the UK & Germany resulting in savings of 15 million dollars and has coached over 100 projects as an experienced Black Belt to a successful completion.

Mr. Grout is a citizen of the United Kingdom and has lived for 15 years in Germany. Mr. Grout can communicate fluently in English and German he is also at home with both the Germanic and Anglo-Saxon cultures.