Richard C. Ling

Dick is recognized as the creator of Sales and Operations Planning and well regarded as an educator, speaker and consultant. He coauthored the first book on Sales and Operations Planning.  After graduating from the University of Rochester, Dick joined IBM where he gained valuable experience helping manufacturing companies utilize the computer.  The most notable of these was Wilmot Castle Co., in the early sixties when Dick helped them implement time phased, level by level requirements planning before it was called MRP.

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Dick’s interest in manufacturing applications led him to Arista Information Systems in North Carolina where he implemented MRP systems for companies such as Ingersoll Rand and Warner & Swasey in the early seventies. He and his staff developed MRP software with the first Master Scheduling capability in the industry. This software also had the first planning bill capability.

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Ollie Wight recognized what Dick was accomplishing at Arista and he asked him to conduct “Hands on MRP” class for the Oliver Wight companies in 1974. Dick ran that class with Walt Goddard and in later years with Al Stevens and John Sari.  Ollie decided to expand his education offering and asked several people to join him to conduct education classes and consult with clients. Dick became an Education Associate in 1979 and worked with the Oliver Wight organization until 1992. He conducted classes in the US, the UK and Australia, helping to grow the business and groom other instructors. Dick’s specialties were the Master Scheduling class and The Sales and Operation Planning class which he authored.

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Ollie Wight passed away in 1983 with cancer and Dick was tapped to be a teacher in the Top Management class. Dick was teaching a class in Chicago when he got some valuable feedback from a General Manager who was in attendance. He said “Dick, I don’t get it. You say that sales and marketing, finance, operations and engineering, need to be involved in aggregate planning which you call Production Planning. Why do you call It Production Planning”?  The term Sales and Operations planning was born. Dick launched the first Sales and Operations class for the Oliver Wight Companies in 1985.

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In 1987, he co-authored the Book Orchestrating Success which was the first book about Sales and Operations Planning. Dick began collaborating with Andy Coldrick, who had joined Oliver Wight in 1986.That collaboration lasted 28 years until Andy’s death in 2014. They worked together at Oliver Wight, and as a duo in Ling-Coldrick from 1986 till 2014.  In 2009 they self-published “Breakthrough S&OP, An Assessment Guide”.  Dick would like to dedicate his efforts in this book to Andy who he worked with for so many years and had so much respect for.

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In addition to Education and consulting with numerous clients, Dick has been a prolific speaker at APICS events. He spoke at 27 straight international conferences and over 500 APICS events. In 2000, APICS presented Dick with a lifetime achievement award for his contributions to APICS.

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Dick and his Wife, Natalie, live in North Carolina. They have three children and 5 grandchildren and one great grandchild.

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Carol Ptak

Carol Ptak is currently a partner with the Demand Driven Institute (www.demanddriveninstitute.com) and was most recently at Pacific Lutheran University as Visiting Professor and Distinguished Executive in Residence. Previously, she was vice president and global industry executive for manufacturing and distribution industries at PeopleSoft where she developed the concept of demand driven manufacturing (DDM). Ms. Ptak spent four years at IBM Corporation culminating in the position of global SMB segment executive. 
 
A leading authority in the use of ERP and Supply Chain tools to drive improved bottom line performance, Ms. Ptak's expertise is well grounded in four decades of practical experience as a successful practitioner, consultant and educator in manufacturing operations. Her pragmatic approach to complex issues and dynamic presentation style has her in high demand worldwide on the subject of how to leverage these tools and achieve sustainable success. 

 

She holds an MBA from Rochester Institute of Technology and completed the EMPO program at Stanford University. Ms. Ptak is a frequent educator at the university level and presents at many key technical conferences around the world including South Africa, France, Israel, Australia, Ireland, the Netherlands and eleven APICS International conferences. She is the author of numerous articles and the books DDMRP (Industrial Press, 2016)  and Orlicky’s Material Requirements Planning 3/E (McGraw-Hill, 2011)  with Chad Smith, in addition to MR and Beyond and ERP, Tools, Techniques and Applications for Integrating the Supply Chain, Theory H.O.W. with Harold Cavallaro, Necessary but not Sufficient with Dr. Eli Goldratt and Eli Schragenheim. Together with Dean Gilliam she updated Quantum Leap, originally written by John Constanza. 

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Ms. Ptak is certified through APICS at the fellow level (CFPIM) and was certified in Integrated Resource Management (CIRM) with the first group internationally. Ms. Ptak was the President and CEO of APICS, The Educational Society for Resource Management for the year 2000. Prior to her election as APICS President, she served on the Society in a variety of positions.

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Carol Ptak currently makes her home on a working cattle ranch in the Pinal Mountains near Globe, AZ with her husband, Jim, three horses and the largest fold of purebred registered Scottish Highland cattle in Arizona.

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Chad Smith

Chad Smith is the coauthor (with Carol Ptak) of the third edition of Orlicky’s Material Requirements Planning (McGraw-Hill, 2011) and Demand Driven Material Requirements Planning (Industrial Press, 2016) and Precisely Wrong – Why Conventional Planning Fails and How to Fix It (Industrial Press 2017).  He is also the coauthor (with Debra Smith) of Demand Driven Performance: Using Smart Metrics (McGraw-Hill, 2014). He is a cofounder of and partner in the Demand Driven Institute, an organization dedicated to proliferating demand driven methods throughout the world.

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In 1997 Mr. Smith co-founded Constraints Management Group (CMG), a services and technology company specializing in demand driven manufacturing, materials, and project management systems for midrange and large manufacturers. He served as Managing Partner of CMG from 1998 to 2015. Clients, past and present, include Unilever, LeTourneau Technologies, Boeing, Intel, Erickson Air-Crane, Siemens, IBM, The Charles Machine Works (Ditch Witch), and Oregon Freeze Dry. Mr. Smith is also a certified expert in all disciplines of the Theory of Constraints, studying directly under the tutelage of the late Dr. Eli Goldratt.

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Chad Smith makes his home in Wenatchee, Washington, with his wife, Sarah, and two daughters, Sophia and Lily.