Mr. Vatalaro has over 30 years of experience in building innovation and improvement capabilities with small, mid, and large companies found throughout the service and manufacturing industries.
Prior to joining Productivity Inc., James worked for 15 years in the US aerospace industry holding progressive senior leadership positions in manufacturing, quality assurance and manufacturing engineering. While working with the Boeing Company, he trained and coached in the Toyota Production System (having been mentored by those who helped create it, the Toyota Autonomous Study Group) and led the successful Lean transformation of several major value-streams, both discrete and process.
For the past 15 years, James has been partnering with the leadership of Global 1000 companies such as Genentech, Inc., Sun Products Corporation, Kaiser Aluminum Corporation, Suncor Energy, Inc., the adidas Group, Allegheny Technologies, Inc. and CertainTeed Corporation helping them to solve their problems and achieve their goals.
His capabilities are broad and deep in the areas of strategy formation and business modelling, continuous improvement, strategy deployment, leadership development, and custom educational curriculum design & delivery, all in support of motion™ the Management System by Productivity Inc. James is a SME in 3P (Production Preparation Process) helping organizations like R.H. Sheppard Co., Inc., CertainTeed Corporation, and Kaiser Aluminum Corporation achieve quantum-leap levels of performance.
James leads Productivity’s Strategic Innovation Business Practice and plays a key leadership role in the continued development and delivery of its portfolio of Operational Excellence Programs. He has trained and consulted globally in discrete, process, and transactional work environments to include projects in China, EU, Latin America, SEA, and North Africa.
James is a certified Lean Manager by the Ohio State University and Productivity Inc., certified in Lean/Six-Sigma through the University of Michigan, certified 3P Instructor via Chihiro Nakao, co-authored the book Implementing a Mixed Model Kanban Pull System, led Productivity’s Innovation Systems Research initiative, and is a teacher of Lean/TPM Management Certification at The Ohio State University, Fisher College of Business.