ThroughPut Inc. Appoints World-Renowned Just-in-Time, Lean & Kaizen Expert Mr. Takao Sakai to Executive Advisory Board

MENLO PARK,SILICON VALLEY,Calif.,Dec. 4,2018 -- ThroughPut Inc.,the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Supply Chain pioneer that enables companies to detect,prioritize and alleviate dynamic operational bottlenecks just-in-time today announced the appointment of global lean & Just-In-Time expert,Mr. Takao Sakai,to the Executive Advisory Board. Takao Sakai currently serves as the President of Global People Solutions Inc.,and as the Founder of Lean X. His family is responsible for inventing the renowned "Just-In-Time" philosophy that is commonplace across all leading supply chain operations today.

Mr. Sakai's great-granduncle is Dr. Kotaro Honda,the father of the "just-in-time" philosophy,inventor of Kichiei Sumitomo Steel,and Nobel Prize-nominated Physicist. Dr. Honda helped Kiichiro Toyoda from an early stage with his startup,Toyota Motor Company,until the 1950s. Those that Kotaro Honda advised were called Honda School Leaders. While he performed technical consulting for Toyota Motor,Honda sent many of his fellow workers into the company for the purpose of establishing an automobile industry in Japan. The family has continued his legacy for generations.

"We are incredibly honored to have Takao Sakai join the ThroughPut advisory board",stated Ali Raza,CEO of ThroughPut Inc. "Mr. Sakai's family is responsible for bringing the concept of Just-In-Time to the world. Just-In-Time has become the global benchmark for manufacturing and supply chain efficiency. Nearly every ThroughPut client demands Just-In-Time implementation. Today,we are fortunate to have someone influence our platform from the family that helped create Toyota Motor Company,perhaps the greatest corporate exponent of just-in-time ever. Mr. Sakai and ThroughPut share the common vision of creating world-class Just-In-Time Kaizen software. We hope that ThroughPut's platform ELI can one day be accessible to every operations team in the world to democratize the Just-In-Time culture,reduce excess inventory,and eliminate waste across global supply chains."

When asked about the appointment,Mr. Sakai commented "I am very happy to advise the ThroughPut team in the Industry 4.0 era. I believe this team is creating the ideal process improvement software that enables process value and profit sustainability in the manufacturing industries of Japan,as well as those around the world. As Ali showed me at our first meeting at the San Jose Marriott in 2017,ThroughPut's Kaizen AI is truly unique in its current capabilities and ambitions."

When prompted about how software can influence the future of manufacturing & supply chain,Mr. Sakai shared "I believe through software,we can now democratize Just-In-Time to be available at unprecedented scale to all Kaizen professionals and related areas such as Lean Manufacturing and Lean Six Sigma. With Industry 4.0 and IOT initiatives around software,there is excellent potential for manufacturers to optimize end-to-end production processes throughout the product lifecycle. Industry 4.0 may finally help engineering managers everywhere do what Toyota Product Development (TPD) and Toyota Production System (TPS) achieved decades ago. These concepts are technically complex and hard to translate often outside of Japan. I believe through software they can be simplified and made accessible to a greater audience for bigger,more sustainable wins. With the adoption of data analytics,organizations can now leverage Japanese principles at a speed and scale to run leaner and be more profitable. I believe ThroughPut can continue to digitize this knowledge. The ThroughPut ELI Artificial Intelligence (AI) system can thus now augment the Chief Engineer system. This platform can be Kaizen-for-the-people,helping everyday workers,factory line managers,process engineers,data analysts,financial officers and company executives run smoother,less stressful,zero-waste operations."

Takao Sakai is a Graduate School of Engineering at The University of Tokyo. He joined the NTT (Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Corporation) Research Center upon graduation. He later started his own business for consultation around talent management,organizational structures,and TPD style product development strategies for technology companies. He gives seminars globally,evangelizing the Toyota-Way of product development,product development organizations,and talent management. He has written two bestselling and award-winning books titled,"The Age of Talents: Corporate Talent Management Strategies of Companies that Continue to Win" and "The Secret Behind the Success of Toyota",analyzing the detail of human resourcing and talent management at corporations that have made large impacts across global industries.

In addition to Takao Sakai joining the Board of Advisors,the Founder of NetIQ and a University of Pennsylvania-Wharton MBA,Mr. Hon Wong,as well as an Apple Computer Product Launch Expert & serial entrepreneur,Mr. Cameron Nazeri,have also joined the team as well recently,along with other renowned industry experts and entrepreneurs.

About ThroughPut Inc:

ThroughPut Inc. is the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Supply Chain pioneer that enables companies to detect,prioritize and alleviate dynamic operational bottlenecks in real-time. ThroughPut's Supply Chain AI Platform,ELI,includes the only Bottleneck Management System (BMS) that utilizes existing enterprise databases,such as ERP,MES,IMS,TMS,WMS,PLC,SCADA and other data systems,to solve the bottleneck problem across global supply chains already today. ThroughPut's systems are designed by Fortune 500 geomarket logistics leaders and Silicon Valley analytics and domain experts with decades of experience in the space. ELI thinks like an operations manager and provides human domain expertise and insights,which current static Business Intelligence and Analytics tools do not effectively capture. ThroughPut's dynamic insights include real-time resource allocation recommendations,granular root causes,and operational process stability analysis. ELI enables process improvement experts and operations managers to reduce cycle times and operational unpredictability across some of the most advanced process industries,including automotive,manufacturing,oil & gas,transportation & aviation,chemical processing,and energy. More information about ThroughPut is available at www.throughput.ai

Contact:

Tina Jacobs

+1 215-606-8552

Marketing@ThroughPut.ai

ThroughPut Inc