Michael Harding has been on the board of directors of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence since 1988 and is C.P.M. and CPIM certified.
Michael is a principal of Harding & Associates a firm specializing in lean manufacturing and supply chain management related consulting and training.
His firm has worked since 1989 with a number of Fortune 500 and smaller companies to improve operations results and reduce inventory investment while substantially improving product quality, profit, and cash flow. Many clients have achieved 90 percent improvement in process cycle times and reductions of 40-70 percent in inventories. One client recently reported inventory turns improvement from 4 to 34. A pharmaceutical company reports a production cycle time reduction from 60 to 5 days. His clients are located in North and South America, the Far East, and Europe.
Michael has over twenty-six years of industrial experience including positions as Operations Manager, Director of Purchasing, Manager of International Purchasing, and Supplier Quality Manager with such companies as Digital Equipment, Texas Instruments, RCA, TRW, General Electric, and Goodyear Aerospace. Former Corporate Manager of JIT Training and Education for Digital Equipment Corp.
Michael holds degrees in business, law, and a Masters in Purchasing. He authored the books Profitable Purchasing and Service Velocity and co-authored Purchasing. He is a contributing author to Leading Manufacturing Excellence and The Purchasing Handbook: A Guide for the Purchasing and Supply Professional, 6th edition. His business articles have been featured in Electronic Buyers News, Target Magazine, Supplier Selection & Management Report, The Distributor’s & Wholesaler’s Advisor, Insights Magazine, and the Hospital Material Management Quarterly. He has been a guest lecturer at the Beijing Materials College and the Alfred P. Sloan School at M.I.T. Mr. Harding conducts seminars for AME, ISM, APICS, Clemson University, University of Wisconsin, Duquesne University, University of Dayton, the National University of Singapore, and INCOLDA (Columbia, S.A.).
Mary Lu Harding, C.P.M., CPIM, CIRM
Mary Lu is a principal of Harding & Associates, and specializes in consulting and education for business and materials management. She co-authored the textbook, Purchasing, published by Barron's Press and is a contributing author to the C.P.M. Study Guide, 6th & 7th Editions and The Purchasing Handbook, 6th & 7th Editions. She is also a frequent contributor to InfoEdge and Inside Supply Management magazines. She authored a video on systems contracting and served as a writer and reviewer of questions for the C.P.M. certification examination.
As a purchasing manager, she was a member of the team that led Digital Equipment Corporation's Burlington, Vermont, facility to Class A MRP II certification. After attaining Class A, she developed training in Just-in-Time philosophy and techniques that were implemented throughout the operations. She also trained and coached many of the first teams started in the plant. She works with organizations, small and large, as a consultant and educator during their efforts to implement business process improvements.
Professional Contributions
Publications:
Harding, Michael & Harding, Mary Lu, Purchasing, Barron’s Press, 1992, 2001.
InfoEdge:
Understanding Total Cost of Ownership, August, 1996 & May, 2000
How to Buy Purchasing Software, September, 1995 (Co-author)
Ethics Training, June, 1997
ISM video: Systems Contracting (Content author)
C.P.M. Study Guide, 6th & 7th eds. (Contributing author)
The Purchasing Handbook, 6th & 7th eds. (Contributing author)
Numerous articles for Inside Supply Management magazine