More information about our Live Online Masterclasses

Masterclass led by Carolyn Lum and Jakob Brix Danielsen

Carolyn Lum is Senior Vice President, Business Transformation and Head of Continuous Improvement at Philips. She has more than 30 years of experience in the areas of Manufacturing Operations, Lean, Continuous Improvement, Product Engineering and New Product Introduction.

Having joined Philips in 2014, Carolyn made a breakthrough in 2015 by bringing daily management, structured problem solving (PRIDE) and Kaizens into all of the company’s Market and Business Group organisations. She was one of the key drivers in bringing a structured approach to reverse a negative trend in order-in-take (OIT) and turn it into a positive one. Carolyn was one of six winners of the Philips CEO Awards in 2018, recognised for her and her team’s contributions to Operational Excellence company-wide.

Previously Carolyn worked at Danaher Corporation as a Site Lead and then as Senior Corporate Director, Danaher Business System. In this role she managed a group tasked with supporting Danaher companies in North America, Europe and Japan with the implementation of the Danaher Business System and was also Director of the DBS University in Europe.

Prior to that, Carolyn worked at PerkinElmer Optoelectronics as the NPI Program Manager and also as a Site Leader for their Lighting Production Facility in Fremont, California. She started her career at General Motors as a Product and Manufacturing Engineer, Operations Manager and Lean Implementation Change Agent.

Jakob Brix Danielsen is currently Senior Director, Group Continuous Improvement, part of Business Transformation at Philips. He is the Group Process Leader of Problem Solving, Daily Management, Hoshin Planning, Kaizen Events and Executive Lean Leadership. Jakob has more than 25 years of experience in the areas of Lean, Continuous Improvement, New Product Development, Management Systems and Leadership Development.

Having joined Philips in 2015, Jakob led efforts to relaunch daily management and structured problem solving, cascading these key lean tools globally through training across business groups, markets and functions, as well as structurally embedding them in the performance management system from the top down and training Philips’ leaders at all levels in lean leadership.

Previously, Jakob worked at Radiometer Medical (a Danaher operating company) as the Global Director of Danaher Business System, where he drove the cultural transformation of the company to become a benchmark within Danaher. He also supported several integrations of European Danaher acquisitions by delivering lean leadership training and supporting leadership Kaizen events.

Prior to that, Jakob was a Senior Consultant at the Confederation of Danish Industries where he developed an Executive Lean Leadership programme for Danish Industry leaders based on his several years of lean consultancy experience. His career began as a Construction Engineer and Corporate Director of QEHS within major highway and railway construction.

Masterclass led by Professor Kai Hoberg

Dr. Kai Hoberg is Full Professor of Supply Chain and Operations Strategy at Kühne Logistics University in Hamburg (Germany), Head of the Operations and Technology Department, and a member of the scientific advisory board of the German Logistics Association (BVL). He is a leading expert on Supply Chain 4.0, supply chain analytics and inventory optimization. Kai is particularly interested in developing practical solutions for real world problems using state-of-the-art methodologies, and his research has been conducted in close cooperation with leading industry partners including Procter & Gamble, SAP, Zalando and McKinsey & Company.

Previously, Kai was a Strategy Consultant and Project Manager in the Operations team at Booz & Company, where he conducted supply chain and operations management projects for clients across consumer, chemicals and discrete manufacturing industries. For the past eight years, he has been collaborating with the McKinsey & Company supply chain practice on research and training projects.

Kai’s research has been widely published in scientific journals including the Journal of Operations Management, the Journal of Supply Chain Management, and the Journal of Production and Operations Management. In addition, he has been a frequent contributor to practitioner journals including Supply Chain Management Review and Harvard Business Manager.

Kai has held Visiting Scholar positions at top universities including the S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University, the Israel Institute of Technology, the NUS Business School at the National University of Singapore, the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, and the University of Sydney.​

Masterclass led by Dr. Erwin Rauch

Dr. Erwin Rauch is Assistant Professor for Manufacturing Technology and Systems at the Free University of Bolzano (Italy), Head of the Smart Mini Factory laboratory for Industry 4.0, and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Fraunhofer Italia. He is a leading expert on Industry 4.0, Smart and Sustainable Production Systems, and Digital Manufacturing, and is one of the top 3 authors with the most scientific publications on Industry 4.0.

His current research also includes Cyber Physical Production Systems; Engineering Education 4.0 and Learning Factories; Digitization and Assistance Systems in Production; Axiomatic Design (AD) and Design of Complex Systems.

Previously, Erwin spent ten years in industry as a management consultant and later Associate Partner advising manufacturing businesses on their strategy, technology implementation and workforce development.

Erwin holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Stuttgart with summa cum laude; a M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University Munich (TUM); a M.Sc. in Business Administration from the TUM Business School; and a B.Sc. in Logistics and Production Engineering from the Free University in Bolzano, Italy. He has also served as Visiting Research Scholar at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the USA and at Chiang Mai University in Thailand.

Masterclass led by Rainer Muller

Rainer Müller is an Executive Consultant and expert in Digital Transformation and Industry 4.0 implementation. He has over 30 years of experience acquired in senior leadership roles at global manufacturing companies, including most recently as Vice President Digital Transformation at TE Connectivity.

Previously Rainer was Chief Operating Officer of the global automotive business unit at TE Connectivity, with responsibility for operations across 25 sites and over 25,000 employees. Prior to that he was the Vice President Operations EMEA.

At Johnson Controls – today Adient and Visteon – he held senior positions including Plant Manager, Operations Director and Director of Continuous Improvement.

Rainer’s industrial career started with his university dual studies/co-op program at DHBW University in Karlsruhe, Germany, as well as at different sites of the BMW Corporation. After graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, Rainer then joined Michelin tire company where his first leadership positions were in the production environment.

Through his executive consulting and coaching work Rainer now advises leading companies across various industries on Operations, Supply Chain, Digitalization, Leadership and General Management, in order to get corporations and individuals from good to great.