Staff

Robert Wrona TWI Institute Director Email \| Bio	Patrick Graupp Senior Master Trainer Bio
Frank Lanno Program Manager Bio	Richard Abercrombie Master Trainer Bio
Lynne Harding TWI Training Coordinator Email \|	Mike Braml Master Trainer Bio

Robert Wrona

TWI Institute Director - rwrona@twi-institute.org

Bob began his manufacturing career with six years at the Chevrolet Division of General Motors in Buffalo, NY while earning a BS from Canisius College. He spent four years at Eastman Kodak, in Rochester, NY where he obtained his MBA from Rochester Institute of Technology before joining a start up retail organization in Syracuse, NY where he soon became VP Organizational Development implementing training and “lean” just-in-time concepts as the company grew from 12 stores to 140 stores with sales over $250 million. He returned to his manufacturing roots as an Organizational Development consultant in 1982. This led to implementing TQM for small and mid-sized companies that in turn led to a study on how to implement Japanese manufacturing techniques as they became known in the US. Bob contacted Professor Alan Robinson in 1998 when he discovered TWI was part of Kaizen in Japan. This led him to Patrick Graupp who was employed by SANYO in San Diego and the two of them talked about reintroducing TWI in the US. They were not able to pursue this common interest until Bob joined CNYTDO as a Lean Consultant in 2001 at which time they reintroduced TWI training to US companies for the first time since the end of WWII.

Having demonstrated that TWI training enabled companies to achieve results with little investment by leveraging the knowledge and skills of their employees, CNYTDO was soon responding to requests from companies throughout the US looking to do the same. The need for standardization to quickly spread the training was apparent with the first group of trainers that wanted to “personalize” or to “modernize” the methodology. After reviewing the archived materials with those used in Japan, Bob and Pat determined that to successfully deliver TWI they would recreate the materials trainers would need just as they were delivered during WWII and in Japan after the war. Their initial work is documented in their book The TWI Workbook: Essential Skills for Supervisors that is a Shingo Research and Professional Publication Prize Recipient for 2007.

Frank Lanno

Program Manager

Frank joins the TWI-Institute with over 14-years of manufacturing experience in the Central New York area. Frank has held many different roles in his professional career, but one common thread has been his interest in employee development and continual improvement. Frank first learned of Training Within Industry in 2002 through dealings with CNYTDO’s Bob Wrona and has followed the program since. As a continual improvement practitioner, all the TWI modules have been supportive to his efforts.

As an operations manager, Frank led a high-speed paper converting operation in the food packaging industry. His focal points were maximizing capacity and investing in the company’s appreciable assets … the people. Frank trained and led teams in Single Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) to reduce changeover times, improve ergonomics, increase operator knowledge of equipment, and improve machine uptime. Frank also worked on the Continual Improvement Council to integrate Lean and Six Sigma.

In engineering management for a ceramic manufacturing company, Frank led employee involvement teams, Value Stream Mapping, and various other kaizen event facilitations. As a member of the corporate Lean Steering Committee, he drove Continuous Improvement efforts enterprise-wide. Frank created a series of organizational training programs for 5S, Value Stream Mapping, and Lean Manufacturing. He managed the capital expenditures budget and spearheaded a number of major process installations from concept to commissioning.

Frank is Lean Certified through the University of Michigan and obtained a Bachelor of Science in Manufacturing Engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology.

Lynne Harding

Training Coordinator

Patrick Graupp

Senior Master Trainer

Patrick began his training career at the SANYO Electric Corporate Training Center in Japan after graduating with Highest Honors from Drexel University in 1980. There he learned to deliver TWI and other training to prepare employees for assignment outside of Japan. He in turn was also transferred to a compact disc fabrication plant in Indiana where he obtained manufacturing experience before returning to Japan to become Programs Master Trainer delivering TWI around the world for Sanyo. Patrick earned an MBA from Boston University during this time and later published a book on how to teach Japanese staff to implement Job Methods Training outside of Japan. He was then promoted to the head of Human Resources for SANYO North America Corp. in San Diego, CA where he settled.

Patrick took vacation time to deliver a pilot project for CNYTDO in 2001 to reintroduce TWI in the US, and again in 2002 to reintroduce the full TWI Program at ESCO Turbine Technologies-Syracuse. The results at ESCO encouraged Patrick to leave SANYO in 2002 and work with CNYTDO to deliver and document how to deliver the TWI program in the US as he was taught in Japan and which he described in his book The TWI Workbook: Essential Skills for Supervisors, a Shingo Research and Professional Publication Prize Recipient for 2007. These standardized training manuals and materials are now used by the TWI Institute to train and certify trainers on how to deliver JR, JI and JM as was done by the TWI Service during WWII. Patrick also documented the format on how he was trained in Japan while training two other TWI Master Trainers (trainer of trainers) like himself. TWI is now readily available nationally and in Spanish from the TWI Institute.

Richard Abercrombie

Master Trainer

Richard has over 20 years of experience in manufacturing, most of it with the Boeing Company in Washington State. There, Richard became involved in Boeing’s Lean Manufacturing initiative as a member of the Boeing Supplier Support Center which assisted key Boeing suppliers, both domestic and international, with beginning a continuous improvement program based on the Toyota Production System. To fulfill this role, Richard received training in TPS from the Shingijutsu Company both in Japan and at Boeing.

Since retiring from the Boeing Company in 2000, Richard has continued to consult independently as President of Lean Promotions. Recognizing that TWI is one of the fundamentals supporting the Toyota Production System, Richard was trained and certified by the TWI Institute and has since delivered the TWI supervisor programs to clients in manufacturing, aerospace, steel, food, banking, construction, and healthcare industries.

Richard has a contractual relationship with the TWI Institute and is collaborating with them as their TWI program expands. Now a Master Trainer, Richard conducts the 10-hour “J” training and train-the-trainer sessions for the TWI Institute in addition to being an independent lean consultant.

Mike Braml

Master Trainer

Mike has more than 30 years of manufacturing and service industry experience. Significant background in manufacturing management and continuous improvement efforts has enabled Mike to help diverse enterprises gain competitive advantage and position themselves for robust futures. Broad continuous improvement experience including lean, six sigma, and TOC implementations, coupled with being a certified TWI instructor to dozens of companies.

Recently Mike has taken TWI outside of manufacturing, and applied the concepts to service and public institutions with significant success. Mike has delivered TWI within public institutions including public schools, county worker environments, medical centers, and service organizations. Mike is engaged in becoming a Master Trainer for TWI, and hopes to invest his passion for the program to continuous improvement efforts in numerous markets.

Mike has a double major in Biology and Scientific Land Management, and has earned a MBA from Kennedy Western University. Mike has been certified in Production and Inventory Management through APICS, and has been a senior member in the society of Industrial Engineers. Mike is a NIST MEP certified instructor for Lean 101, Value Stream Mapping, 5S, Setup Reduction, Plant Layout, Kaizen Events, Cell Design, Kanban Systems, and Standard Work. Mike has implemented lean throughout small and medium sized companies, and more recently assisted hundreds of companies make significant continuous improvement gains.