James Kadunc

kadunc@whitehallgroupllc.com

James Kadunc is an experienced Operations and Quality Manager with over 40 years of experience in the Automotive and Truck Industry. Mr. Kadunc has held leadership positions in Operations, Quality, Material Control, Purchasing, Sales, Finance and Supplier Development. His experience includes 10 years of hands-on lean assessments and major continuous improvement projects in the areas of quality, through-put, and supply chain management.

At Whitehall, and previously at GM and Delphi Automotive, Jim was focused primarily on Continuous Improvement in the areas of Quality, Operations and Delivery (Material Control). He is experienced in a wide variety of operational processes including assembly, plastic molding, metal stamping and forming, aftermarket (assembly, packaging, and delivery) appearance items / trim, plating, automotive interiors and rubber molding. Jim claims one of his most interesting projects involved food processing quality improvements in a potato chip factory. Although well versed in the three major Quality Strategies he finds that he is not typically involved with a client in (1) Quality Planning – which is often not done well. Instead he is called in to improve the operation requiring a focus on (2) Quality Control and (3) Quality Improvement because quality at the source is implemented after SOP, not before.

During his career at GM / Delphi Jim had a three year assignment in Sao Paulo, Brazil where he was Commercial Manager of his Division and was responsible for Sales, Marketing and Strategic Planning. He has headed up Lean and Quality Workshops throughout the world including Canada, Mexico, 8 countries in Eastern and Western Europe, N. Africa, China and S. America. When he left Delphi he was involved in the implementation of the “Lean Enterprise” at his home division while also heading up the Purchasing Department’s Supplier Development Program.

Jim holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Bowling Green University in Bowling Green, Ohio and an M.B.A. from Case-Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He believes in “Continuous Education” and besides attending Quality and Lean Workshops has trained at NUMMI and under 2 Japanese Toyota Sensei’s. He also holds a 6 Sigma Green Belt.