Christopher Kluse, Ph.D.

Prior to coming to BGSU, he was an Adjunct Lecturer at Eastern Michigan University teaching graduate, online courses in Quality Management/Systems, Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma. Furthermore, he was appointed part-time at Southern New Hampshire University where he was a Subject Matter Expert (SME) and adjunct instructor in the quantitative studies and operations management program.

Prior to his full-time appointment in Academia, he was employed, full-time for 25 years, in the automotive industry as a Quality Manager, Quality Engineer, and Operations Manager. He left industry in August 2015 to teach full-time in the Quality Systems program at BGSU. In his industrial career, he worked in a Lean Manufacturing Environment for over 15 years and have worked with most of the major OEM's including GM, Chrysler, Ford, Toyota, Nissan, BMW, and KIA.

He is an industry trained Six Sigma Blackbelt and have lead many successful Six Sigma projects while in industry. Additionally, he is a Certified Manger of Quality & Organizational Excellence through the American Society for Quality.  He was a senior leader when in the automotive industry, he is experienced with many of the techniques and practices we will explore in the Quality Systems Program. Experience coming from both success and failure. He managed within a Lean Environment for approximately 20 years, most within the automotive industry.  He has observed and experienced many aspects of Lean including great success and failure. He had the chance to visit many, many OEM's including Toyota, Honda, Nissan, General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler (formerly), to see Lean principles in practice. Additionally, he has visited a vast number of tier I and tier II automotive suppliers that use the principles of Lean and or Six Sigma.

He is the Quality Systems eCampus Coordinator at BGSU.

Education

• Ph.D. in Technology Management, Concentration in Quality Management, Eastern Michigan University, 2012
• MS in Industrial Engineering Technology Concentration in Quality Management, Eastern Michigan University, 2003
• BS in Industrial Systems Management, Lake Erie College, 1998
• Certified Manager of Quality and Organization Excellence by The American Society for Quality, Cert #3815.

Areas of Research

• Failure Mode Effects and Analysis
  
• Lean Manufacturing
  
• Six Sigma Methods for Improvement
  
• Competency Based Education for Quality Systems
  
• Applied Tools of Quality, and Quality Auditing

Courses Taught

• QS 3550: Lean Systems for Manufacturing & Service
• QS 3610: Quality Management System Audits
• QS 3710: Six Sigma Overview
• QS 3800: Lean Six Sigma
• QS 4600: Quality Management System Planning
• QS 4650: Leadership for Lean & Manufacturing & Service Operations
• QS 4700: Kaizen Program
• QS 6100: Quality Management System Planning
• QS 6260: Six Sigma Systems
• QS 6270: Lean Systems Analysis
• QS 6160: Quality Culture Assessment
• QS 7020: Quality Change Culture
• QS 7260: Quality Systems
• QS 7270: Documentation Based Process Improvement