Our Team

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About Us > Our Team

ESPI offers a seasoned and well-balanced team of consultants to address your business concerns.

Peter H. Christian, President

Mr. Christian has been a highly successful business executive for 30 years. As a director of Operations, Quality Assurance and Research and Development at Crayola, a major manufacturer of consumer goods, he played a significant role in their 700% growth of sales and profitability. Taking his extensive experience in strategic planning, domestic and international business and manufacturing, organizational development and management, quality assurance and product development, he began his career assisting companies to make improvements in these areas. He has done so for the past 11 years, working with 100 businesses. In that time, he has a distinguished record of accomplishments in operational strategic planning, Continuous Improvement, Lean and Cellular Manufacturing, facility planning and layout, profit and process improvement, project management, Activity-Based Costing/Management (ABC/M) development, and team building. Through his efforts, clients have collectively realized millions of dollars in cost reductions and profit improvements, while adding and retaining thousands of jobs. Mr. Christian holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Rutgers University and a M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University . He is a certified Jonah with the Goldratt Institute and is formally trained in a number of progressive manufacturing practices. He is a guest lecturer at the Lehigh University 's Industrial and Systems Engineering Department and previously taught Industrial Technology courses at NCACC. He is a member of the ASQC and Vistage and has held memberships with SME, ASQC, IIE, and the IOPP. He has been published in the IIE Magazine on Work Measurement, Computers in Industrial Engineering, International Journal on Capital Management, Industrial Management magazine on Project Management, the Packaging Journal, the ASQC Journal and IIE Solutions.

Vinay Govande, Executive Vice President

Mr. Govande has over 16 years of operations and project management experience in productivity improvement and implementation of manufacturing systems and processes. He has directed multi-disciplinary teams on over sixty different projects to accomplish rapid productivity improvements and successful ERP system implementations. His projects have resulted in considerable returns on investment for clients. He began his career as a manufacturing engineer at Cummins Engine Company in India and then moved on to work as a manufacturing engineer for Cook Technologies where he set up new manufacturing processes and improved productivity through the application of Lean Manufacturing practices. He worked as a project manager at the Enterprise Systems Center at Lehigh University . His expertise includes lean and cellular manufacturing, process and productivity improvements, business process analysis, constraint management, computer simulation, factory design, plant layout and design, and implementation of management information systems. Mr. Govande holds an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the College of Engineering, Pune, India, and a graduate degree in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from Auburn University . He is certified in Demand Flow Technology and Business Strategy by JcIT and teaches lean manufacturing as a visiting lecturer in Lehigh University 's Industrial and Systems Engineering Department. His papers have been published in IIE, and in proceedings from the Conference on Industrial Engineering Applications and Practice, and the Modeling and Simulation Conference. He is a member of APICS and a past member of SME and ASQC.

Thomas D. Bull, Senior Consultant

Mr. Bull has over 25 years diversified experience in production, industrial engineering and facility management in the manufacturing and corporate environment, with specific operational experience in the consumer products, small assembly and food industries. He has expertise as a results-oriented leader, trainer and manager in the areas of cellular/flow manufacturing, facility planning and layout, project management, cost savings/avoidance and industrial engineering practices. In addition, he has been extremely successful with demand flow and Kanban implementations, team training and development, and safety and technical support. He has developed, implemented and managed a skilled training program for the technical trades and initiated the formation of a cross-functional and multi-skilled workforce. Mr. Bull holds his B.S. in Industrial Management, Electrical Engineering Sequence from Gannon University. He has completed various development seminars and educational training, including Zenger Miller certification and D&B Software AMAPS/Q Manufacturing and Materials System certification.

James Rebarchick, Senior Consultant

With more than 25 years of industrial engineering and management experience in the manufacturing sector, Mr. Rebarchick has successfully developed and introduced production technology combined with a cross-functional workforce in highly labor intensive and competitive environments. In addition, his accomplishments include evaluation and acquisition of capital equipment, budget planning, formation and implementation of engineering principles in operational departments, product costing and development and establishment of resource supply chain management. He has a notable record of accomplishments in areas such as workflow analysis, standards development, performance measurements, TQM, cost reduction, plant layout, lean and cellular manufacturing and ergonomic disciplines. He has worked with companies to generate operational improvements through strategic planning and implementation of best practices, integration of technology, skill set utilization and capacity growth. Mr. Rebarchick holds a degree in Management Engineering from the State University of New York. He has completed various professional development seminars in manufacturing and leadership skills, receiving certification from Clemson University, Penn State University and Kings College. He is a past member of the American Institute of Industrial Engineers.

Keith H. Cowan, Consultant

Mr. Cowan has a strong engineering background with over 25 years of experience in manufacturing, industrial engineering and information technology. He has practical experience in systems design and development, database development, computer-aided design, all aspects of activity-based costing and management (ABC/M), new product and process development, machining, sheet metal fabrication, and cellular manufacturing. As a research engineer doing consulting work for the Enterprise Systems Center at Lehigh University, he designed and implemented operational and manufacturing process improvements through the utilization of group technology, demand flow technology, and constraints management. Mr. Cowan holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University and has completed ABM 5.5 and 6.0 training. He is certified by JcIT in Demand Flow Technology and Business Strategy and by SAS in Strategic Performance Management.