Michael Bremer Biography

Michael Bremer is President of The Cumberland Group – Chicago, an Adjunct Senior Engagement Manager for Motorola University, and lecturer for the University of Chicago and Loyola University.

His approach to business performance improvement includes four elements:
• Find the key leverage factors that drive meaningful change ‘vital few’
• Team-based methods for broad workforce involvement in improvement efforts
• Identify the few key ‘Relevant Metrics’ to guide progress
• Have some fun along the way to accomplishing something significant

He is a nationally recognized speaker on six sigma, process improvement, lean manufacturing, leadership, and leadership team effectiveness. He has over 25 years experience including director of the information systems group for a Fortune 25 company, Chief Financial Officer for the Association of Manufacturing Excellence and President of several new business start-ups. He was responsible for creating a global based continuous improvement process for a conglomerate that owned more than 400 separate profit centers. This was one of the models used to establish the Baldrige Quality Award criteria. Michael initially studied quality improvement with Dr. Deming and Dr. Juran in the early 1980s.

Michael is an executive with broad domestic and international industry experience in business process redesign, Six-Sigma, Kaizen/Lean methods, post-ERP business process performance improvement (financial and operational), project team development, lean accounting and continuous improvement.

He has worked in a variety of environments including: high and low tech manufacturing, electric utilities, USAF, USN, software, newspaper publishing and non-profits. Clients include: Motorola, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Hallmark Cards, 3COM, American Electric Power, The Houston Chronicle, Hamilton Sundstrand, Verizon, SBC, Flextronics, Elkay Manufacturing, Department of Financial Services (DFAS), Veterans Administration, NAVAIR, and a variety of Air Force and Navy weapons acquisition related teams.

He is the lead author for “Six Sigma Financial Tracking and Reporting” published December, 2005 and a co-author for “The Six Sigma Black Belt Handbook” both published by McGraw Hill.

Michael has been a speaker for the American Quality & Productivity Center, the Association Manufacturing Excellence and spoke at the White House Conference on Productivity. He serves on the national board of the Association Manufacturing Excellence and is a past board member of the Strategic Management Association and Board President of Old Town School of Folk Music.

Michael has a Bachelors of Science Degree in Business from the University of Missouri – St. Louis, he is CPA, a CMC, and a Motorola Certified “Six Sigma Black Belt.” He has published a number of articles on process improvement, corporate strategy and performance metrics.

Six Problems with Performance Metrics

Lean in the Office

Six Sigma Black Belt Handbook

Six Sigma Financial Reporting and Tracking