Paul Hoernschemeyer, Director of Operations Having worked with the principles of Lean Manufacturing for more than 30 years, he developed (pun intended) a keen sense of appreciation for Just-In-Time scheduling, the relentless elimination of waste in all its forms, and the need for eminently flexible processes to accommodate normal variation in the day-to-day habits of consumers. In photofinishing, customers’ rolls of film travel hundreds of miles to and from the processing laboratory in all kinds of weather, are developed and printed overnight with top quality, and returned to each consumer in less than 24 hours… or it’s given away for free. This “put up or shut up” environment, applied 364 days a year, makes a great training ground for the high stakes, high pressure homebuilding industry. Paul graduated cum laude with a BA in Communications from Michigan State University, was formally trained in Eastman Kodak’s version of the Toyota Production System, and has attended countless management seminars, including the University of Michigan’s School of Business Strategic Planning and Implementation program. He was a trained facilitator in Xerox’s Interpersonal Managing Skills and has led national marketing, manufacturing, advertising and customer service functions across the USA. He served eight years as a Regional Director of Operations for several processing laboratories around the Great Lakes and overlapped four of those years as President of Qualex Canada, Kodak’s Canadian processing subsidiary. With more than 1,000 employees and a $100 million budget, Paul discovered the immeasurable value of totally engaging a team under a unified goal. In 1995 Paul recruited and led a cross-functional team in bringing a product concept to life. In less than seven months, the concept was test marketed, endorsed, engineered, refined, manufactured, shipped and on shelves, complete with publicity, advertising, and merchandizing in almost 30,000 locations. The lessons learned in teamwork, simultaneous development, and communications serve him well at TrueNorth. In 1981, at the height of the oil crisis, high interest rates, and interest in energy conservation, Paul designed and built a passive solar house, later adding a Rumford fireplace. Anyone familiar with a Rumford fireplace knows it defies conventional thinking but works better than any other fireplace designed; this is the way Paul approaches working with the clients of TrueNorth… not necessarily conventional, but highly effective. Married for 21 years, Paul and Sue have two children, Jake and Jill, both of whom accompany Paul each summer working with the Appalachia Service Project, one of two charities that TrueNorth actively supports. Interesting Facts: Favorite Place: Munich, Germany; and Boyne City, Michigan (not that they’re at all alike)
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Paul traveled an unusual path into homebuilding, having come from the photofinishing industry where he worked with a subsidiary of the Eastman Kodak Company. There he learned quality can only be measured from the perspective of the customer, that its presence can only be assured through efficient and well designed systems, and that no system is complete without dedicated, trained, and engaged employees.