Featured Member Entrepreneurs - Dec 2008

Jean Cunningham	Janice Frampton	Alan Riggs
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Our fifth feature to promote businesses of DEC Connection members is about Jean Cunningham, Alan Riggs, and Janice Frampton, partners in Jean Cunningham Consulting (JCC).

Although the world of “Lean Beyond Manufacturing” is in its infancy, Jean Cunningham Consulting is passionate about raising Lean awareness and productivity across a wide variety of industry groups.  JCC is comprised of three former Digital employees – all of whom have experienced first-hand the power of what Lean can do for the productivity and bottom line of a Company.

The founder, Jean Cunningham, was with Digital for 11 years in a number of finance roles including Treasury Analyst, Product Reporting Manager for Engineering Finance, Software New Product Introduction Manager and Controller at the Westminster Software Manufacturing plant.   Subsequent to leaving Digital, Jean assumed the role of CFO and Vice President Company Services at Lantech, Inc., where her efforts in implementing Lean Accounting to support the Lean efforts across the enterprise resulted in her being recognized as a pioneer in this field.   She then went on to become Vice President and CFO for Marshfield Doors, another company where she implemented Lean beyond manufacturing across the entire enterprise.   Jean has successfully published two books of practical application based on her corporate Lean journey.  Real Numbers, which has become an essential Lean accounting text,  won the Shingo prize for research in 2004 and Easier, Simpler, Faster, which won the Shingo prize for research in 2008, is already recommended reading for Lean IS/IT efforts.  In addition to heading up Jean Cunningham Consulting, Jean is also currently the CFO at Stiles Associates, the premiere executive retain search firm focused on Lean.  She is also the CFO and a Director-at-Large for the Association for Manufacturing Excellence, a well known business association providing Lean workshops and other industry events.

Jean was recently joined by Janice Frampton, CPA. Janice was with Digital for fifteen years in a variety of financial and operational roles, including International Audit Manager, International FP&A Manager, Industry Marketing and Corporate Controllership. As part of Digital’s OEM group, Janice went through a number of merger and acquisition activities, eventually landing at Solectron Corporation, a contract manufacturer which implemented Lean globally in their manufacturing plants. When Solectron’s CFO decided to implement Lean in the finance function, Janice was brought on to design and implement a global Lean Six Sigma program across the 800 finance professionals and 50+ sites worldwide. This was a major challenge in that no two sites did anything “the same” – but removing waste and identifying best practices became a way of life for the finance team at Solectron once they understood the benefits – both to the Company and to them personally. Janice also was General Manager of a New England based manufacturing plant with an expertise in new product introduction as well as Director of Finance and Administration for a self-contained subsidiary.

The third participant in Jean Cunningham Consulting is Jean’s husband, Alan Riggs, who is the head of marketing and research. Alan manages the back-office requirements for the organization as well as all customer facing activities.

Jean Cunningham Consulting works with companies to expand the reach of Lean beyond the manufacturing floor – to include all back office operations including Finance, Human Resources, Information Systems, Supply Chain and Procurement. The Lean services they offer include Presentations, Workshops, Kaizen Facilitation, Strategic Deployment, Planning Metrics, Revitalization, Lean Accounting Assessment, Lean Accounting Roadmap, Lean Walk-About, I/S Migration.

For more information about these three DECconnection members and to learn more about Lean, please visit their web site at www.jeancunninghamconsulting.com.

If you are a member of The DEC Connection and would like to be featured in this column, please contact webmaster@decconnection.org.