Gerhard Plenert, Ph.D., CPIM, has 25+ years of professional experience in quality and change management consulting, including work on Lean and Six Sigma methods. He has 13 years of academic experience, and he published more than 150 articles and nine books, including "International Purchasing and Supply Chain Management" (a United Nations International Trade Center Book 2005) and "Reinventing Lean: Introducing Lean Management into the Supply Chain".