About qlbi solutions

Alex Burnett is Principal Owner of QLBI Solutions, a consulting and training firm specializing in quality, Lean Management, and Business Intelligence.  Alex's mission is to help motivated clients transform from Red to Green.  The Lean services include assessments, developing Lean management systems, value stream mapping workshops, Kaizen workshops and Lean Product and Process Development.  Alex is an expert in Business Intelligence and offers data analysis assessments, services to build dashboards and reports, teaching Power Query, Power Pivot and Power BI. Quality services are also offered in ISO 9001:2015 certification, lead auditor and statistical analysis.

Prior to QLBI Solutions, Alex held a corporate role supporting FLIR Systems’ Defense Technology Segment.  His Director of Continuous Improvement role spanned 15 manufacturing and engineering sites across 5 countries.  Alex’s experience with FLIR Systems included work with handheld explosives detectors, chem/bio detectors, radiation detectors, mobile mass spectrometry equipment, the world’s smallest military qualified drone, unmanned ground robots, and airborne/land/weapon imaging systems.

 He has led over 35 Lean workshops and trained over 500 manufacturing, management and engineering personnel on subjects related to Lean management.  There he trained personnel in Business Intelligence.

Prior to this, he served as Director of Manufacturing for FLIR Systems’ Explosives Manufacturing vertical.   FLIR Systems, is known to have the most sensitive vapor-based explosives sensor on the market.  During this role, Alex served as the ISO management representative, lead internal auditor, and led the development of a new phased product development along with the related SOPs.  In this role, Alex had the lead manufacturing role in three new product introductions: Fido X3 explosives detector, Fido PaxPoint TATP detector, and CHIRP (Chemical Hazard Indicating and Ranging Pack).   PaxPoint was developed and produced within 6 months of a request from TSA to address the shoe bomber incident and liquid explosive risks.  He was also instrumental in development of Lean manufacturing in the handheld electronics assembly and polymer deposition process.  

Prior to FLIR Systems, Alex was at MEMC (now SunEdison Semiconductor) where he held multiple progressive roles including QA Engineering Manager, Quality/Product Services Manager, and Operations Manager of a 500-employee site.  While in these positions, Alex led, managed, and performed work in areas of lean manufacturing and product development, quality systems implementation and certifications, DFM/A, product development teams, business intelligence deployments and manufacturing management.  His representative experience includes:

-  Developed proposal for executive review and won the approval from Executive VP of Defense Technology segment within FLIR Systems to pursue the introduction of LPPD (Lean Product and Process Development) in the R&D groups across three divisions within FLIR Systems.  Subsequently, coordinated three training events for R&D staff with the Lean Enterprise Institute and kicked off pilot programs at 7 sites.

- Conducted Product Design Value Stream Map workshop for R&D Engineering group in FLIR Systems, UIS Division.  Resulted in 5 Kaizen bursts to explore and eliminate high levels of the 12 design & development wastes and reduce the development lead-time. 

-  Developed and deployed a stage-gate approach for new product development, which incorporated Design for Manufacturability reviews. Rewrote the SOP for product development at the FLIR Stillwater site, which was later held as the gold standard across the Detection division.

-  Negotiated and managed service depot contract ($832k) with TSA/Siemens for the TATP explosives detector that was designed and built in less than six months.

-  Developed and taught “Lean 101” course to ~150 employees in Kaizen affected sites Billerica, MA; Oak Ridge, TN; Eggemoen, Norway; West Lafayette, IN; Wilsonville, OR.  Course involves lecture as well as hands-on simulation.

- Conducted Leader Standard work training in Norway and 5S across Waterloo, Canada, and Norway.   Developed one-page training summaries to support 7 Lean topics, in addition to our standard slide decks. Conducted Leader Standard work training in Norway and 5S across Waterloo, Canada and Norway.  product lines in FLIR Systems, Surveillance.  Assisted in a corporate cost reduction project and coordinated with all sites in Defense Technology Segment during transformation effort resulting in $38M in savings.   Organized corporate presentations across the Defense Technology Segment for quarterly Steering Committee presentations on TFM (The FLIR Method), similar to TPS/Toyota Way, which led to ~$10M savings. 

- Conducted Leader Standard work training in Norway and 5S across Waterloo, Canada, and Norway.  Developed one-page training summaries to support 7 Lean topics, in addition to our standard slide decks. Conducted Leader Standard work training in Norway and 5S across Waterloo, Canada and Norway. 

-  Developed cross-functional teams and relationships across FLIR to promote a culture and mindset around The FLIR Method (TFM), like TPS.  There he conducted multiple virtual sessions on inventory management and Lean best practices.  Directed the use of Supplier Management Agreements in FLIR Systems to drive lower inventory through rolling forecasts with requirements for supplier owned FG, which is pulled via JIT calls.

-  Developed numerous Power BI reports and dashboards for FLIR Systems to support needs of the Sales, Finance and Manufacturing teams.  There he has taught classes in Business Intelligence, Power Query, and Power BI.

- Obtained and leveraged State of Oklahoma funding to train personnel in Value Stream Mapping and Kaizen events.  Project resulted in WIP reduction of 78%, labor hours per unit reduction of 47%, yield improvement from 85.3% to 98.6% and overall cost reduction of 35%.

- Led FLIR Systems - Explosives Vertical business units (R&D and Mfg) through Quality System development and ISO9001 certification.

-  Managed the quality organization within MEMC Southwest to establish green-field quality system for a new $300M silicon wafer manufacturing facility (600,000 sq.ft.) and managed  customer relationship with Texas Instruments during startup.  Developed an accelerated process qualification system to drive unprecedented approval of new factory with Texas Instruments.  Subsequently, transitioned two silicon wafer factories from ISO9002 to QS9000 certifications.  Led teams to utilize PPAP, SPC, Six Sigma, FMEA, Control Plans, and MSAs to drive continuous improvement.

He has won several awards within organizations he has served: Pinnacle Award – ICx Technologies, Quality Excellence Award – MEMC Southwest, Technical Excellence Award – MEMC Southwest, Quality Excellence Award – Texas Instruments, <3% of population.

Mr. Burnett received a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Technology and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Dallas. He was certified as an ISO 9001 Lead Auditor by RAB/QSA Int’l.   Alex has been trained by Lean Enterprise Institute in Lean Product and Process Development