Mr. Peter Willats studied economics, political science and philosophy at Balliol College and Oxford University (both in the UK). With this background in Operations Effectiveness, today he applies his experience in business development, consulting and research. He is considered one of the pioneers in the implementation of Lean Management practices. In doing so, he has either led or been instrumental in 14 large-scale transformations in various industries. Mr. Peter Willats continues to support companies such as Siemens, Continental and the National Health Service in England.

More recently, at the invitation of the University of Dortmund, Germany, he founded a research group that develops operations management solutions for complex, mission-driven sectors such as industrial equipment and healthcare. In this capacity, he lectures both at the university and at academic and management conferences around the world.

• Lean production and management
• Production planning and control
• Training and competence development
• Industrial strategies
• Hospital operations and optimization
• Cost management and business administration

• Training and coaching of experts in production systems
• Coaching of executives in strategic management tasks for production systems
• Production system implementation for efficiency improvement and business preservation at OEMs
• Founding and development of an operational data analysis company in Silicon Valley

Presentations

• Willats, Peter (2017): A Learning Pathway from Lean Management towards Factory Physics. European Lean Educator Conference (ELEC). Nijmegen, Niederlande, 08.11.2017.
• Willats, Peter; Deuse, Jochen; Lenze, David (2016): A learning pathway from Lean Management towards Factory Physics. European Lean Educator Conference (ELEC). Buckingham, England, 14.09.2016.
• Deuse, Jochen; Willats, Peter (2015): Expertendialog Limits of Lean Thinking. NIRO Netzwerk Industrie RuhrOst. Unna, 22.04.2015.
• Deuse, Jochen; Willats, Peter (2015): Limits of Lean Thinking. 16. Jahrestagung Production Systems. Management Circle. Stuttgart, 19.05.2015.
• Willats, Peter (2015): Good Variability. Lean Forum. Moskau, Russland, 17.11.2015.
• Willats, Peter (2015): Limits of Lean Thinking. Lean Summit. Istanbul, Turkey, 07.12.2015.

Conference Papers

• Deuse, Jochen; Heuser, Christoph; Konrad, Benedikt; Lenze, David; Maschek, Thomas; Wiegand, Mario; Willats, Peter (2016): Pushing the Limits of Lean. How Industrial Engineers cope with Value Adding Variability. In: International Joint Conference (IJC). Building bridges between researchers and practitioners. International Joint Conference (IJC). San Sebastián, Spanien, 13.-15.07.2016.
• Deuse, Jochen; Heuser, Christoph; Konrad, Benedikt; Lenze, David; Maschek, Thomas; Wiegand, Mario; Willats, Peter (2016): Pushing the Limits of Lean Thinking. Design and Management of Complex Production Systems. In: Elisabeth Viles, Marta Ormazábal und Alvaro Lleó (Hg.): Closing the Gap Between Practice and Research in Industrial Engineering. International Joint Conference (IJC). San Sebastián, Spanien, 13.-15.07.2016: Springer International Publishing, S. 335–342.

Magazine articles

• Maschek, Thomas; Heuser, Christoph; Hasselmann, Veit-Robert; Deuse, Jochen; Willats, Peter (2014): Variabilitätsbasierte Klassifizierung von Produktionssystemen. Grundlage für passgenaue Gestaltungs- und Managementkonzepte. In: Zeitschrift für wirtschaftlichen Fabrikbetrieb (ZWF) 109 (9), S. 591–594.
• Wiegand, Mario; Konrad, Benedikt; Jalali Sousanabady, Reza; Willats, Peter; Deuse, Jochen (2014): Quantifizierung von Variabilität durch Big Data Technologien. In: Productivity Management 19 (5), S. 35–38.