Wally Johnson - Mr. Johnson was one of the founding executives in the successful startup/turnaround of EPIC Technologies LLC, joining the company in 2000 as Vice President, Supply Chain Management. Working in close partnership with COO Jochen Lipp they implemented a synchronous flow manufacturing process supported by kanban material replenishment which reduced inventory and lead-times by 80%, inventory by half, costs by 25% while improving customer OTD (on time delivery) from the mid 80′s to virtually 99.9%. Mr. Johnson built a globally competitive supply chain organization which enabled EPIC to use this foundation to win business in face of international competition and grow from $30M to $280M over the next seven years. He was also responsible for IT and the development of EPIC’s proprietary kanban software which allowed remote personnel to manage signals to and from suppliers through EDI.
Mr. Johnson joined Ford Motor Company Electronics Division in 1989 as the lead buyer for Electronic Components for Audio Products. Over the next 10 years he was successively promoted to positions of increasing responsibility and when he left in 2000 he was the lead for worldwide Electronic Component Strategy.
In 1984 Mr. Johnson joined a startup machine vision company, Perceptron Corporation (Farmington Hills, MI). as employee number 36 and developed the critical software for calibrating the laser based measurement sensors. He then took on the role of group leader of manufacturing engineering with lead responsibility for their contract manufacturing partner. At the time of his departure, Mr. Johnson was Manager of Operations reporting to the CEO.
From 1980 to 1984 Mr. Johnson worked for Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Numa Logic Division in Madison Heights, MI designing programmable controller equipment.
Mr. Johnson received his MBA in Finance from The University of Michigan in 1991, a Masters in Computer Engineering from Wayne State University in 1985, and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University in 1980.
