About Us
Learn more about Tom and Virginia
Tom Humphreys
Tom Humphreys has over 30 years of experience in the quality field. He is the founder and owner of Quality in Action Inc, an international training and consulting organization dedicated to helping organizations achieve world class performance and productivity.
Tom has worked with the Iowa & Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MNSCU) and with the Minnesota Department of Corrections industry program: MINNCOR to improve staffing and workload issues and was a member of the Minnesota School Boards Association (MSBA) as an elected school board member and Board Chair.
Tom trains and coaches clients in Lean Manufacturing, Lean Enterprise and Lean Transformative Thinking, Quality Systems Auditing, Six Sigma, Dynamic Problem Solving, Failure Mode & Effects Analysis (including FMEA-VDA method) and quality practices in various industries worldwide including: Singapore, Japan, India, Croatia, and the United Kingdom. Mr. Humphreys initial training in Lean thinking started as a critical parts supplier to Toyota Motor Corporation.
He has worked in the development of advanced laser machining systems, aerospace, medical, semi-conductor, and automotive quality systems and has designed and managed quality systems compliant to ISO, and IATF standards.
Tom also consults organizations in Environmental Management Systems compliant to ISO 14001. He has developed business processes for high tech manufacturing companies, telecommunication industries, printing industries, government services, architectural firms, mortgage companies, woodworking companies, high tech machining companies, healthcare facilities, food industries and distribution service organizations.
He was the Corporate Quality Director at Quadion Corporation and the Quality Assurance Director and Environmental Manager at QMR Plastics, River Falls WI, an IATF 16949 registered injection-molding company specializing in high performance materials and assemblies that is a major power-train supplier to the auto industry.
He is an instructor at the University of St. Thomas; Center for Business Excellence and the School of Engineering, Hennepin Technical College, Century College and Normandale Community College in the Twin Cities.
Tom is a Senior Member of the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and holds these certificates: Certified Mechanical Inspector (CMI), Certified Quality Manager (CQM) and Certified Quality Auditor (CQA).
He also holds Certification as an ISO 9001:2015 & IATF 16949:2016 Auditor through AIAG/Exemplar Global.
Virginia Humphreys
Virginia Humphreys has over 30 years of experience in office administration and management. She is currently the co-owner, Business Development Manager and Lean Office/Lean Team Trainer for Quality In Action Inc. (QiA).
QiA teaches Lean Transformative Thinking, Lean Manufacturing, Lean Enterprise, Lean Office, Team Ontology, Six Sigma, and a wide array of quality systems training to companies worldwide.
Her recent work includes: working with a large health care provider bringing Lean Thinking to their revenue cycle, training Lean Office at a 300+ employee construction company in Minnesota, and co-developing Lean training for a global training company in Croatia, Europe.
Her industry expertise in the evolution of the modern business office comes from establishing, managing and working in business offices in state government, in the private financial sector as a branch owner/manager; in the areas of international marketing/contracts/engineering as an Executive Administrator, Human Resources Coordinator and Event Planner at Sperry Univac (now Unisys); as well as Office and Finance Manager at a multi-million dollar construction company working with state and county contracts; plus as the Executive Assistant and Event Planner for the President of the nation’s largest lifelong learning consulting company Learning Resources Network (LERN).
She has extensive training and experience in team management, team leadership and the ontology of individuals, teams and offices.