Greg Kinsey: Industry 4.0 & Industrial Transformation

01About

A strategic partner who has stood on the floor.

Greg is an independent advisor to industrial companies, technology providers, consultancies and investors, bringing an external view that both validates and challenges. He has delivered tangible results in productivity, quality, OEE, safety, environmental sustainability, operational agility, customer satisfaction and revenue growth, working with clients, partners and delivery teams across seventeen European countries, and with colleagues in Japan and Silicon Valley through a decade at Hitachi.

01
Start with the problem
A measurable operational issue comes before any technology choice.
02
Challenge the plan
Targets, technology, workforce practice and culture are tested together, before the money is spent.
03
Prove it small
An ROI-led case, then a pilot or proof of concept that earns the next step.

02Experience

Forty years of the factory, layer by layer.

Greg’s career runs alongside the history of industrial transformation itself. Each era added a layer to the factory, and he worked in every one of them. Scroll to build it.

1982Automation

1982–1984Akron, Ohio

Automation

Goodyear · Process Engineer

Developed manufacturing processes and automated, robotic materials handling; wrote specifications, evaluated equipment suppliers, conceptualised automation layouts and learned to program a PLC.

At 23 he coached engineers in their thirties, forties and fifties through a new CAD system: his first lesson that technology change is people change.

1984–1994Boston & Munich

The connected shop floor

Digital Equipment Corporation · Director, Marketing & Business Development

Commercialised BASEstar, born as a bespoke project for GM: a pioneer of integrated IT/OT manufacturing platforms, collecting and analysing shop-floor data from automation equipment over ruggedised Ethernet.

$280Ma year: the European manufacturing software and services business he helped build

1994–1998Paris & Munich

Operational excellence

AlliedSignal (now Honeywell) · Siemens

On the core team that pioneered the Six Sigma deployment model later adopted by GE, certified as a Six Sigma Executive Champion by Dr Mikel Harry. Then led the first full Six Sigma deployment in the Siemens group, and helped develop some of the early thinking behind Industrie 4.0.

€500m+annual bottom-line impact at Siemens, two consecutive years

1998–2011Paris

Transformation at scale

Independent · IBM · HP · BMGI

Business transformation for C-level teams at Wrigley, Amcor, Cable & Wireless, Motorola and Siemens; then partner at IBM, managing director at HP and managing director EMEA at BMGI, leading consulting businesses across Europe.

$400mEMEA business turned around at HP, back to 15% annual sales growth

2011–2022Paris, Tokyo, Santa Clara

Industrie 4.0 and industrial IoT

Celerant · Hitachi Consulting · Hitachi Insight Group · Hitachi Vantara

Built Hitachi’s Industrie 4.0 business in Europe, incubated its industrial IoT start-up, launched the Lumada co-creation model and led development of a six-phase digital transformation roadmap that became an industry reference.

Hitachi Fellowand member of the Digital Manufacturing Executive Council, DIGITALEUROPE

2023–nowEurope

Physical AI, with judgement

Argon & Co · Independent Advisor

Partner and Industry 4.0 Lead of Argon & Co’s global manufacturing practice, then independent: senior advisor on smart factories, physical AI, the intelligent asset lifecycle and industrial IoT, with an external view that validates and challenges.

Every layerfrom the PLC to physical AI, seen from the floor

The recordLeadership roles, in situation, task, action and result

2014–2022Paris · Tokyo · Santa Clara

Hitachi Consulting · Insight Group · Vantara

VP Industrie 4.0 & Manufacturing Practice; Industry Executive and Hitachi Fellow

2014VP, Transportation Industry Practice
2015VP, Industrie 4.0 Practice
2016VP, Industrial IoT Solutions
2017VP, Manufacturing Practice
2020Industry Executive / Hitachi Fellow

SSituation: Hitachi held deep industrial, R&D and IT capability across many group companies, but no single Industrie 4.0 offer for European manufacturers.
TTask: Conceive, launch and grow it: from a small consulting practice to the “One Hitachi” Industrie 4.0 practice in EMEA.
AAction: Created the cross-Hitachi Community of Practice; worked with the Yokohama R&D Lab and Omika Works on advanced manufacturing; led the “Optimized Factory” use cases on the Hitachi Insight Group leadership team; launched the co-creation working model; directed European R&D investment and coached sales teams to open new accounts.
RResult: Hitachi’s first wave of industrial IoT proofs of concept and value across aerospace, machinery, automotive, metals, chemicals and consumer goods; a six-phase digital transformation roadmap that became an industry reference model; named a Hitachi Fellow.

2005–2008EMEA

Hewlett Packard

Managing Director, Manufacturing Industries EMEA

9 monthsto turn a stalled $400m business around

SSituation: A stalled $400m consulting and integration business inside a complex matrix, serving 65 strategic accounts in 9 vertical markets across more than 28 countries.
TTask: Create clear strategic focus, rebuild organisational confidence and restart growth.
AAction: Transformed the sales process around issue-based consultative selling, built a new organisation of 55 Client Principals across Europe, launched solution offerings and ran European strategy, quota, forecast and large-deal qualification.
RResult: The business turned around within nine months and achieved 15% annual sales growth over two years.

2000–2005EMEA

IBM Business Consulting Services

Vice President (Partner); Director, Organizational Change Practice

$280Melectronics industry practice built

SSituation: IBM consulting needed to move upstream of client IT budgets, into strategy and organisational change, and to grow its industry practices.
TTask: Lead a 120-consultant organisational change practice, then the EMEA electronics industry practice.
AAction: Repositioned the practice into strategic change, launched eBusiness strategy offerings, focused on management consulting plus SCM, PLM, MES and ERP, and worked with IBM Japan, China and North America on global accounts; contributed to the PwC Consulting integration.
RResult: Double-digit revenue growth over three years, building a $280M business.

1996–1998Munich

Siemens

Worldwide Director, Productivity & Quality

€500m+annual bottom-line impact, two years running

SSituation: One of the largest divisions of Siemens, around $13B, needing a step change in productivity and quality.
TTask: As Chief Quality Officer and change agent reporting to the CEO and Executive Board, lead a worldwide operational excellence initiative.
AAction: Led the first full Six Sigma deployment in the group, certifying Black, Green and Master Black Belts in Germany and Singapore, alongside process-based organisation, balanced scorecards, KPI trees and a bottom-up culture of continuous improvement.
RResult: Over €500m annual bottom-line impact for two consecutive years; elements of the culture change were later adopted by Siemens AG.

1994–1996France & Europe

AlliedSignal (now Honeywell)

European Director, Operational Excellence

7countries of automotive operations

SSituation: European automotive operations, from braking systems and turbochargers to airbags, seat belts and spark plugs, at the birth of operational excellence.
TTask: Lift productivity across sites in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, England, Wales and Ireland.
AAction: Deployed Six Sigma, Lean Production and TQM, tied every change initiative to bottom-line results, and personally delivered reengineering projects in supply chain, procurement and supplier quality.
RResult: Part of the core team that pioneered the Six Sigma deployment model, Black and Green Belts included, later adopted by GE and copied by hundreds of corporations.

Also

2023–2024Argon & CoPartner, Industry 4.0 Lead, Global Manufacturing Practice
2011–2014Celerant ConsultingSenior Vice President: led the Celerant Institute and a brand refresh
2009–2011BMGIManaging Director EMEA: P&L across ten countries, plus a Turkey partnership

03What he helps solve

Find where the losses hide, then choose the fix.

Productivity, quality, uptime, workforce performance and environmental efficiency look like separate priorities. On the floor they are one equation. Switch fixes on and see which ones actually move it, and whether they are people, process or technology.

An illustrative plant: the losses and effects are for demonstration, not results from a client. The point is the method: name the biggest loss, then pick the lever that removes it.

04Field topics

Concrete operational stories, not generic Industry 4.0.

Greg’s workshops and briefings go deep on a real operational situation, tailored to where your plant is today, and end with the lessons that transfer.

When hundreds of process variables shape quality, as in polymer mixing, how can analytics and machine learning move a plant from inspecting defects to predicting and preventing them?

Which variables matter, and how to find out
Predictive versus prescriptive quality
What operators need for the model to be trusted

The operational and technology considerations in robotised painting: where automation pays, where it does not, and what it changes for the people around the cell.

Quality, throughput and rework trade-offs
Integration with the line and the data around it
Skills and roles after automation

Define the operational ambition first, then select the industrial IoT, analytics, AI and automation that serve it, rather than the other way round.

From vision to a sequenced roadmap
Use cases with an operational owner and a metric
Co-creation with technology partners

Why seemingly separate priorities are linked, and why every technology proposal should be judged against operational and financial outcomes.

OEE as a shared language
Hidden capacity before new capital
Building the ROI case leadership will back

Workforce, culture and market realities differ by country; operating assumptions that work in one plant can fail in the next.

Transferring an operating model with care
Workforce engagement and retention
Leading across cultures, in three languages

05Work with Greg

Well-scoped work, for serious industrial buyers.

01 · Advisory

Industrial diagnostic

Diagnose the operational issue, establish the baseline, shape an ROI-led case and plan the pilot or proof of concept, coordinating with solution experts.

02 · Leadership

Executive challenge session

A neutral, informed perspective for a leadership team: where priorities really differ, and a tailored challenge that aligns them across functions.

03 · Stage

Keynotes and workshops

Digital transformation in manufacturing, high-value use cases and a critical view of AI today and tomorrow, in English or German.

04 · Investors

Investment evaluation

An operator’s view of an industrial technology or business: will the use case, the team and the plan actually work?

05 · Learning

Expert learning and coaching

Teaching that turns decades of transformation into methods teams can use, from the classroom to the leadership team.

06Speaking, teaching, credentials

On the stage, in the classroom, at the table.

Upcoming · Workshop

Business Transformation Europe Summit

A 90-minute workshop developed with Minitab, the statistical software long associated with Six Sigma and data-driven improvement.

Where: Amsterdam
When: 3 November 2026
Format: 90 minutes

Lecturing

Visiting lecturer, Innovation & Design Thinking

Management Center Innsbruck (MCI), Austria

Lecturing

Guest lecturer, business transformation

Institute for International Management Consulting MBA, FH Ludwigshafen

Policy

Digital Manufacturing Executive Council

DIGITALEUROPE, Brussels, representing Hitachi Ltd

Speaking

Keynotes and conference workshops

In English and German, on innovation, digital transformation and Industrie 4.0

BScMechanical EngineeringCarnegie Mellon University, 1978–1982
MBABusinessGeorgetown University, 1986–1988
6σSix Sigma Executive ChampionCertified by Dr Mikel Harry, Six Sigma Academy
HFHitachi FellowHitachi Vantara, 2020–2022
3Working languagesEnglish, French and German