John Kiff
Biography
After an early career in strategic marketing in the car and consumer-durable industries, John joined Dan Jones at the Lean Enterprise Research Centre at Cardiff Business School in 1994 as the Senior Researcher and subsequently Director for the ICDP (International Car Distribution Programme). ICDP was co-founded by Dan Jones and set up not only to study the future directions for car distribution, retailing and after sales but also to investigate how Lean principles could be applied to all the activities ‘downstream of the factory gate’.
During his time with ICDP John wrote numerous briefing papers and reports including:
- Are Sales Standards Relevant and Reasonable? Pilot Study of Sales Standards in the UK, ICDP Management Briefing 50, 2007
- What Consumers Want From Dealers
ICDP Management Briefing 49, 2007 - Changing Channels for Business Cars
ICDP Research Report 01/05, 2005 - Used Cars - A New Model?
ICDP Research Report 03/04, 2004 - Local Distribution Centre After-Sales Simulation: Case Study
ICDP Research Report 02/04, (with David Simons and Ben Waller) - After-Sales and Parts Supply Systems
ICDP Research Report 07/02 (with David Simons) - Transformation to a Lean Dealership - Stage Two
ICDP Research Report 06/01 (with David Brunt) - Customer Fulfilment: Right First Time on Time, Every Time
ICDP Research Report 04/01 - Transformation to a Lean Dealership - Stage One
ICDP Research Report 07/00 (with David Brunt) - The Concept of Customer Fulfilment: Beyond Customer Satisfaction
ICDP Management Briefing 5, 2000 (with Prof. Dan Jones) - Parts Supply Systems in the Franchise After-Market
ICDP Research Report 08/98 (with Thomas Chieux and David Simons)
John has also contributed to the UK Government’s Automotive Innovation and Growth Team and co-chaired its Working Group on Car Servicing and Repair Standards.
Since 2000 John has also worked with Dave Brunt in carrying out a series of project-experiments in numerous European countries learning how to enable car dealers to implement Lean principles in their businesses. This experience has enabled Dave and John to write a workbook entitled ‘Creating Lean Dealers’ published in 2007 by LEA and available here [hyperlink to book]
John now divides his time between work for LEA and carrying out lean transformations and other projects with firms, primarily in car distribution.
