Eric Ethington

Eric has distilled his passion for and knowledge of lean thinking and practice in product and process development, nurtured over 30 years of work experience, into The Power of Process: A Story of Innovative Lean Process Development (2022). Before founding Lean Shift Consulting and becoming a coach and program manager at LEI in 2016, he gained leadership experience implementing lean in automotive, defense, aerospace, consumer products, and financial industries at four divisions of Delphi, Delphi’s corporate headquarters, and Textron.

As LEI’s chief engineer, process and product development, he leads the development of learning experiences that enhance design professionals’ lean development knowledge and capabilities while advancing the discipline’s body of knowledge.  

Before founding Lean Shift Consulting and becoming a coach and program manager at LEI in 2016, he gained leadership experience implementing lean in automotive, defense, aerospace, consumer products, and financial industries at four divisions of Delphi, Delphi’s corporate headquarters, and Textron. 

At Delphi’s headquarters, his team developed and operated a “lean boot camp” for its 650 executives. Later, Eric extended his industry know-how to include medical equipment, healthcare, software, and distribution when he founded Lean Shift Consulting. Guided by a lesson learned at his first job as an industrial engineer, he continues to explore the balance of technical knowledge and interpersonal skills required to achieve a continuous improvement culture.  

Eric holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from General Motors Institute (now Kettering University), a Master of Business Administration in Operations from the University of Michigan, Flint campus, and a six-sigma black belt in design.