Jim Manley began his career as a production worker for General Motors and finished his corporate career as the North American Supply Chain Director for Faurecia. He held line and staff positions in Production Operations, Industrial Engineering, Quality, Finance, and Supply Chain. During his years with General Motors, Jim had the rare opportunity to study with Dr. W. Edwards Deming and learned lean “hands on” at NUMMI with Toyota executives. From 1986 to 1991, Jim was an adjunct faculty member at Eastern in the School of Technology, creating and teaching undergraduate courses in lean manufacturing and statistical process control. During his career with Delphi, Jim coached teams in 29 countries as they implemented lean into their plant operating system. Jim received the Delphi Corporate Lifetime Lean Achievement Award in 2005. After retiring, Jim became an independent consultant working with various clients in a variety of industries, non-profits, and academic organizations. In 2012, Jim accepted the position of Managing Director for the Demmer Center for Business Transformation, The Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. Jim was Chairman of the Michigan Lean Consortium from 2013 – 2015. He currently serves on the Capital Quality and Innovation board of directors. Jim and Erva have been married for 35 years. They have two children and two grandchildren. Jim and Erva enjoy bicycling and vacationing with their grandsons in northern Michigan.
Jim is very active in his church and community, serving on several non-profit and local government boards. Jim is currently the Chair of the Michigan Lean Consortium.
