David Berger, a Certified Management Consultant (C.M.C.) registered in Ontario, Canada, is a Principal of Western Management Consultants, based in the Toronto office. Mr. Berger was formerly Managing Director, Management Consulting, located in the Toronto office of Grant Thornton from 1998 to 2001. He had responsibility for the management consulting practice. He is a Professional Engineer registered in Alberta, Canada and has an industrial engineering undergraduate degree and an MBA. Mr. Berger is an adjunct professor at York University in Toronto, and has taught operations management for the MBA program over the past fifteen years. He is Founding President of the Plant Engineering & Maintenance Association of Canada, Past President of the Toronto Chapter of the Canadian Society for Industrial Engineering, and a past Vice President, Canada region, for the Institute of Industrial Engineers based in Atlanta. He is also Past Chair of the Executive Committee of the Council on Industrial Engineering, an international body representing senior IE executives from large corporations around the world.
From 1994 to 1998, Mr. Berger was Vice President, Projects and Process Engineering, Operations & Technology at the CIBC. He was responsible for the fundamental design and re-design of the business processes and information technology in order to achieve significant measurable improvements in performance and delivery of CIBC's products and services. From 1978 to 1994, Mr. Berger held several positions in industry with Maple Leaf Foods (formerly Canada Packers Inc.) and Ferranti-Packard Electronics Ltd.; as well as in consulting, as Partner in the Toronto office of Price Waterhouse responsible for the Information Systems & Operations Management Group, President of The Lamus Group, Inc., a management consulting firm based in Toronto, and consultant in the Calgary office of Ernst & Young (formerly Woods Gordon).
Mr. Berger has written more than 200 articles on a variety of topics such as maintenance management, operations management, information technology, e-commerce, organizational design, and strategy. In Plant Services magazine, he has written a monthly column for the past 14 years on maintenance management in the United States, as well as three very extensive reviews of maintenance management systems available in North America. Mr. Berger was recently awarded the Sergio Guy Memorial Award in recognition of his significant contribution to the maintenance and asset management profession.
Mr. Berger has done extensive work in the areas of strategy, information technology and business process re-engineering. He has developed a unique methodology of developing performance measures and targets with senior management, then simultaneously re-engineering processes and developing a systems specification for operations, maintenance management, shop-floor data collection, materials management, engineering, human resources, sales/marketing, and accounting systems. This grassroots, participatory process has been used successfully across many industries including manufacturing & distribution, financial services and government. Mr. Berger has also been involved with subsequent implementation of the resultant process improvements and new information systems including CMMS/EAM, ERP, plant automation and e-commerce based solutions. As well, he has conducted numerous strategic, operations and information systems reviews.
In the specific area of maintenance management, Mr. Berger has conducted numerous maintenance audits; helped senior management develop a maintenance strategy involving maintenance, operations, and engineering; assisted companies in implementing process improvement initiatives with significant results; and led a variety of IT projects, from developing a detailed specification to package selection and implementation, for CMMS/EAM, PdM, RCM, and supply chain software. He has experience with maintenance management for mobile equipment (eg, automobiles, trucks, fleet), infrastructure (eg, roads, bridges, pipelines), facilities (eg, property, buildings, fire equipment), and plant (eg, production equipment, heavy machinery, material handling equipment), across a wide range of industries including, resource-based industries, manufacturing & distribution, utilities, service companies, and government.