Larry E. Fast is a veteran of 35 years in the wire and cable industry, 27 of those in senior management roles at Belden for 25 years and General Cable for 10. As Belden's VP of Manufacturing he led a transformation of plants in the late 80s and early 90s that included cellularizing about 80% of the equipment around common products and routings (known today as value streams) and the use of what we now know as Lean and Six Sigma tools.

In 1997, he joined General Cable Corporation (GCC), one of the world's largest wire and cable companies. As the Senior Vice President of Operations, Fast launched a manufacturing excellence strategy in 1999 that became an enterprise-wide priority in 2001. After a 1999 acquisition he had 28 plants reporting to him as well as Corporate Sourcing, Quality, Manufacturing Systems and Advanced Manufacturing Engineering. Later as plants were consolidated to less than 20, he was given expanded responsibility for the North American Supply Chain. Since the launch of the Manufacturing Excellence strategy at GCC in 1999, there have been 34 Industry Week "Best Plants Finalists including 12 "Best Plants" winners since 2001.

His book, The 12 Principles of Manufacturing Excellence-A Lean Leader's Guide to Achieving and Sustaining Excellence, 2nd. Edition, was released September, 2015 by CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, as a Productivity Press book. The original book, a best seller, was published in October, 2011.

Fast holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Management and Administration from Indiana University. He also is a graduate of Earlham College's Institute for Executive Growth and successfully completed the thirteen week "Program for Management Development" at the Harvard University School of Business.

Fast is a long-time member of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) and a Director for the Southeast Region since 2009. He has served on university advisory boards including the School of Applied Sciences, Miami University and the Industry Advisory Board of the Tauber Manufacturing Institute, University of Michigan. He became a judge for Industry Week (IW) magazine's "Best Plants in North America" competition in 2009. Since 2013 he writes a column for the IW online magazine under the byline of "Ask the Expert-Lean Leadership and Continuous Improvement". In 2014 he joined the GLG (Gerson Lehrman Group) as a consultant/advisor for their manufacturing clients. He also occasionally writes as a guest columnist for other organizations and publications.

In 2007 Fast's company, Pathways to Manufacturing Excellence, LLC, was established. In addition to his writing, he continues to consult, train and coach for companies who seek to achieve and sustain manufacturing excellence but need help to start the journey; to recover and restart a faltering initiative; or require assistance developing their Continuous Improvement strategy. He can be contacted at his website: [...]

Leading the Revolution-From the Top. 12 Principles of Manufacturing Excellence. The Manufacturing Excellence Strategy. Manufacturing Principle 1: Safety. Manufacturing Principle 2: Good Housekeeping and Organization. Manufacturing Principle 3: Authorized Formal Systems. Manufacturing Principle 4: Preventive/PredictiveMaintenance. Manufacturing Principle 5: Process Capability. Manufacturing Principle 6: Product Quality. Manufacturing Principle 7: Delivery Performance. Manufacturing Principle 8: Visual Management. Manufacturing Principle 9: Continuous Improvement. Manufacturing Principle 10: Communication. Manufacturing Principle 11: Training. Leading Manufacturing Excellence. Manufacturing Principle 12: Operator-Led Process Control. Plant Manager's Role. Manufacturing Managers Role. Materials Manager's Role. Process Engineering Manager's Role. Maintenance Manager's Role. Quality Manager's Role. Human Resources Manager's Role. Sustaining Manufacturing Excellence. Appendices: The 12 Principles of Manufacturing Excellence. Manufacturing Excellence Audit. Manufacturing Excellence Reading List, 1986-2010. Formulas for Selected Metrics. Example of a Communications Plan Calendar. Example of a Training Plan.