About Us

The Midwest OpX Solutions story started over 30 years ago with Brian’s realization that he was, without a doubt,

Ambitiously Lazy - he would work hard to create Operational Excellence so he could provide greater value and at the same time spend less time at work.

Over the years, this mindset has transformed into the OpX40 Program which has benefited a multitude of employers and clients by helping leaders create an environment of operational excellence fueled by employees who are passionate about Continuous Improvement - leading to millions of $ in savings and improved employee engagement!

It all started with his first job job in manufacturing as a Sr Cost Accountant. During his first week, Brian was presented with a stack of paper 3 feet high and was told that he would need to come in over the weekend to sift through that stack, pull out certain pages and input numbers into an Excel spreadsheet. He was informed that it normally took up to 3 hours.

One thing you need to know is that Brian had moved to Colorado with his wife to enjoy hiking, mountain biking, golfing and skiing - not to be inside on weekends to be a paper pusher. His Ambitiously Lazy attitude kicked into full gear. He worked with the IT department to write a report that would replace the manual task and allow Brian to spend 2 minutes on the task rather than 3 hours. He continued to cut out and automate additional non-value added duties in that job and ultimately cut that job in half – big win for Brian and $ savings for his employer. It allowed him to not only have more free time but to take on higher value work activities. In fact, his mindset let to him to becoming the youngest Director ever at that company.

Soon after that, Brian started taking his eyes off of himself and began focusing on using his approach to help others enjoy the opportunity to provide more value at work, feel empowered and accelerate professional growth - all with making sure their personal life/work balance was optimized.

Fast forward to the time Brian spent with a global asset management arm of a major insurance company that was not only putting in a shiny new enterprise system but was also going from a Mutual to a Public ownership structure. Brian noticed a couple of key issues - the project plan for the new system did not include a scrub of the current financial reporting business processes and many of the activities that were previously performed on a quarterly basis would now have to be completed every month. If these issues were not addressed, there was great risk for project failure and overworked and frustrated staff.

This was the point where Brian created and executed a series of Operational Excellence workshops that focused on giving the staff members the Operational Excellence mindset, process and tools required to scrub their business processes. This not only contributed to the success of the new system implementation but most importantly made sure that staff could handle the burden of monthly reporting without negatively impacting their personal lives. In fact, at the end of this story, the Financial Reporting Department was able to transition to the new Public ownership structure without having to substantially increase resources.

Next on Brian's radar was helping leaders spend more time working ON the business rather than working IN the business. The opportunity arose when he began working with the leaders in a large procurement department that was responsible for procuring 100's of millions of dollars of feedstock at a large manufacturing company. These exceptionally talented leaders days were filled with meetings, supervising staff, and also a lot of 'Doing'.

To meet this need, Brian developed and executed an Operational Excellence Leadership program that gave the leaders the mindset, processes and tools they needed to optimize their time (more leading, less 'doing'), strategically delegate work to staff and deliver the Operational Excellence program directly to their staff. In the end, these leaders were able to free up a significant portion of their time, empower and equip their staff to make more decisions on their own and save a few hundred thousand $'s on just the first four ideas their staff came up with.

Even with all the success of the OpX40 programs, there was still room for improvement. Enter Brian's son Austin. With a degree in Mechanical Engineering, experience from several positions held in manufacturing and construction management and a passion for continuous improvement, project management and employee engagement, his talent is opening up new opportunities to bring operational excellence to smaller organizations and budding entrepreneurs.