University of St. Thomas

Interests and expertise

Continuous process improvement training, customer satisfaction survey design and deployment, integration of quality planning with strategic planning.

Career

Gary Floss is the Director of Quality Assurance and Continual Improvement for Marvin Windows and Doors. In this role, Gary is responsible for leading the quality and process improvement initiatives for this 5,000 employee fenestration industry business anchored in Minnesota. Gary previously served as the Managing Director of BlueFire Partners, a consulting firm specializing in providing services to organizations to improve enterprise-wide business excellence. Gary has extensive quality leadership and operational management experience in high-tech global industry Fortune 500 companies at Medtronic, Inc. and Ceridian, Inc. (formerly Control Data Corporation). His quality leadership experience includes applying the principles of process management and continuous improvement to a wide range of application areas including development, manufacturing, field support, customer requirements and relationship management, and administrative support functions. Gary's operational experience includes general management and program management for large-scale computer and peripheral development programs. Gary's strengths include: developing customer-focused quality strategies; leading results-oriented process improvement projects; coaching management championing of business process improvement projects and designing balanced metric scorecards to measure business progress.

Gary served on the Quality Research Committee of GOAL/QPC (a training and consulting organization) for seven years, now serving on their Board and has deployed many of the ideas gained through this experience. He is serving in his 21st year as a member of the Malcolm Baldrige Board of Examiners having also served as a Baldrige Judge for three of these years. He has conducted numerous Baldrige site visits and delivered more than 40 presentations regarding the Baldrige criteria. Gary was a principal designer in establishing the Minnesota State Quality Award in 1991 and served on the MCQ Board of Directors and now is in his 3rd three-year term as a judge in this process. Gary also served on the Visiting Committee for Advanced Technology for 6 years that provides an advisory role to the National Institute of Standards and Technology. 

Education

B.S. 1964, Electrical Engineering, University of Kansas, Lawrence
Graduate Study 1964-65, Electrical Engineering, University of Minnesota