About David Mann

David Mann is the principal of David Mann Lean Consulting. During his 21-year career with Steelcase, Mann developed and applied the concepts of a lean management system. In his service with the company, he supported 40+ lean value stream transformations, as well as developing and leading an internal team that completed over 100 successful office and product development lean business process conversions.

Mann’s teaching and coaching experience includes lean transformation in manufacturing, enterprise business processes, and healthcare organizations. His practice includes lean and lean management implementation in production and enterprise business processes, troubleshooting stalled lean initiatives, as well as frequent training and speaking engagements on lean management.

Mann is the author of Creating a Lean Culture: Tools to Sustain Lean Conversions. The book was awarded the Shingo Prize in 2006, and went through nine printings, becoming a field best-seller. It is being translated into Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, and Thai. The second edition was released in March, 2010.

Mann serves as a Shingo Prize examiner and assessor for the Honda Lean Network. He is a member of the Saint Mary’s Healthcare Lean Transformation Advisory Board in Grand Rapids, Michigan and is an invited contributor to Frontiers of Health Services Management. Mann is a frequent contributor to and member of the editorial board of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence’s publication Target, edits Target’s Single Point Lessons feature, and also serves on the board of AME’s Great Lakes Region. He is a faculty member in the Management Science program at the Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University.

Mann is an organizational psychologist, earning his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan in 1976. He lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan with his wife, who is a criminal prosecutor. They have two daughters.