Turbo Flow

Tim Conrad serves as Director of Operational Excellence for Gates Corporation, one of the world's leading manufacturers of industrial and automotive products, systems, and components, and a subsidiary of Tomkins PLC, a world-class global engineering and manufacturing group. Conrad oversees projects that link Gates Corporation's manufacturing plants and distribution centers with key customers.


Conrad served previously from September 2004 to August 2007 as Lean Implementation Manager of Gates World Wide Power Transmission operations. Prior to that Conrad spent nine years with Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky, located in Georgetown, Kentucky. At Toyota, Conrad held positions in production planning, materials, and internal and external logistics.


Conrad holds a bachelor's degree from Northwood University in Midland, Michigan, and a master's in business administration with a specialty in international management from the University of Maryland.


Robyn Rooks is founder and president of MPnL Solutions, Inc., and has been helping companies in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Europe for the past 10 years to develop and implement Lean production systems with great success. He has created a culture change within nonunion and union organizations by working with management and the shop floor. He emphasizes building a "doing it with you" not a "doing it to you" culture.


Rooks started his Lean career in 1988 at Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (TMMK) in Georgetown, Kentucky, where he was one of the original 1,700 employees hired to start the facility. Rooks spent two years on the production floor learning the material flow of TPS. He spent six years in the pilot "new model prototype" organization designing inter-departmental, external and internal assembly route delivery systems and balancing work content, writing standard work, designing supermarket layouts, setting kanban standards, ensuring flow and performing packaging approvals for new models.


Rooks spent four years in the production control and conveyance department, as a specialist, where he performed monthly planning for overseas suppliers, was North American engineering change implementation coordinator, was build-out and start-up coordinator, and as a North American parts ordering specialist was responsible for ordering components for the assembly lines. Rooks worked directly with suppliers to develop a Lean environmentto support the needs of TMMK.