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David Crabtree is the principal instructor of GMCS and has been instrumental in the development of the company's current programme of eleven courses. In particular, Crabtree was very largely responsible for developing and instituting GMCS's former flagship 3-day course held from time to time in Stratford-upon-Avon: The Foundation Workshop in Manufacturing Essentials.

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It was during the many years required to build and refine the 3-day class that he conceived the idea of writing and publishing a comprehensive guide and reference covering the complete spectrum of manufacturing practice, such a work to include not only chapters on logistics and inventory planning but, as well, chapters on commercial and other professional disciplines practised within industry. One purpose of the book was that it should explain the topics that were to be included in crystal-clear language and at a depth sufficient to allow the manager fully to comprehend their subject matter and the way in which they interlink. The understanding thus gained would enable the manager to contribute to and influence debate within his own company. A second purpose was that it should become a companion and reference for the manager new to industry - a reference free of the constrictions and tone of the academic textbook, yet having the same rigour of correctness and bearing the same authority.

As the world now knows, the result of David Crabtree's endeavour was the publication of The Manufacturing Manager, the widely acclaimed book of 20 chapters and 930 pages published by Oak Tree Press.

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To his book, to his training courses and to his company, David Crabtree has brought and continues to bring a lifetime's experience in manufacturing industry. He was born in the cathedral city of Worcester, UK, in 1939, moving with his family after WWII to Manchester. He attended The Manchester Grammar School as a foundation scholar from 1951 to 1958, the school then being under the famous highmastership of the late Lord James of Rusholme. From MGS he won an open scholarship to Brasenose College, Oxford, reading natural sciences from 1958 to 1962. His first job in manufacturing industry was as an R&D chemist with Texaco, in Toronto, Canada. Next followed jobs within production itself in engineering companies in North West England, and in due course an appointment to the HQ of ICI's Dyestuffs Division, an international organisation then controlling ten factory sites in the north of the UK (the Division later to be reorganised as Organics Division).

A landmark in David Crabtree's career at ICI was his participation as a section leader in the development of a large-scale, complex MRPII system involving all products and production sites within the Division, and employing in-house software. In 1980, the organisation was awarded Oliver Wight MRPII Class A status. In the mid-1980s, David Crabtree left ICI to join GMCS.

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David Crabtree holds the degree of MA from the University of Oxford. He is a Fellow of the British Computer Society and a Fellow of the Institute of Operations Management, and is a Chartered Engineer. On a personal note, he is married to Kathryn and has two grown-up children. He lives in the small market town of Garstang, near the Forest of Bowland in north Lancashire, UK.

email: info@gmcs.co.uk .