Gary Butler

Background

Gary Butler is an Executive in Residence in the Management Sciences department. He came to Fisher in 2008 after spending more than 30 years at Eastman Kodak Co., where he managed operations in Europe, Asia and North America. While working as an executive at Kodak, Butler from 200306 taught operations and supply chain management at the Rochester Institute of Technology’s E. Philip Saunders College of Business and served as a visiting professor at the U.S. Business School in Prague, Czech Republic.

Butler has extensive experience in quality assurance, lean methodology and manufacturing management, which gives him an ability to mentor others in business system changes that are reshaping manufacturing and service organizations today. He has worked with R&D, manufacturing and marketing sales units to optimize these programs from concept to post production. At Eastman Kodak, he led graphics through its lean journey, achieving significant cost and inventory reductions while maintaining the outstanding quality and delivery performance to the customer.

At Fisher, Butler also serves as the codirector of the Master of Business Operational Excellence degree program, where he finds, vets and coaches all of the leaders assigned as coaches to students. In addition to working with more than twodozen lean coaches through the MBOE program, Butler himself has coached students from ThedaCare, Lehigh Valley Health Network, Akron Children’s Hospital, Clopay Plastic Products, Boeing Co., Owens Corning, GE Aviation, Tegrant Corp., and more.

In recent years, Butler has privately consulted with and served on advisory boards of private and publicly held companies and organizations.

Areas of Expertise

Quality assurance Lean methodology Manufacturing management

Education

MBA, University of Rochester, Simon Business School BS in Chemical Engineering, University of Pittsburgh

Courses

BUSMGT 7262 MBOE Capstone/Cornerstone Project

Capstone Project is a supervised practical project executed by the student with the help of a team in the student's own workplace. A faculty coach supervises and guides the effort and a company sponsor supports the effort of the student team. Prereq: Enrollment in MBOE. Not open to students with credit for 841. Repeatable to a maximum of 6 cr hrs.

BUSMGT 7268 MBOE Six Sigma Projects

Six Sigma Project is a supervised DMAIC project executed by the student and with the help of a team in the student's own workplace. A faculty coach supervises and guides the effort and a company sponsor supports the effort. Prereq: Enrollment in MBOE. Not open to students with credit for 811.

BUSMGT 7270 MBOE Managing the Extended Value Stream

A focus on working across functions, companies and cultures and managing the Extended Value Stream. Prereq: Enrollment in MBOE. Not open to students with credit for 848.