An operator first. A consultant second.
I’m Paul Kohn. For more than 25 years I’ve run operations in automotive, regulated medical devices, metal fabrication, biotechnology and international consulting, in unionized and non-union plants, in Canada and abroad.
Across all of them I kept seeing the same thing. Plants rarely underperform because of their equipment. They underperform because priorities aren’t clear, standards aren’t held, trust has worn thin, and good people spend their days firefighting. Fix how the operation is led, and the systems and technology start paying off.
That’s what Adaptive Edge Partners does. I step in, often as an interim or fractional operations leader, run the operation alongside your team, and fix what’s really holding it back. Just as important, I build the supervisors and managers who will keep it running after I leave. I’d rather leave you a stronger team than a thick report.
Twenty-five years on the floor and in the boardroom.
- 2025 –
Adaptive Edge Partners
Founder & Principal
Operations consulting and interim leadership, including nine months as interim operations leader at a CFIA-licensed biotechnology production site.
- 2022 – 2025
Carl Zeiss Vision Canada
Head of Operations (de facto COO, Canada)
A $50M, 130-person Health Canada–regulated medical device operation. Strongest financial year in company history; first-pass yield from 88% to 93%.
- 2017 – 2019
G.W. Anglin (now Drive Products)
Director of Corporate Operations
Made three PE-backed plants run as one operation, through to a successful sale.
- 2016
Tesla
Head of Lean & Continuous Improvement (contract)
Embedded during the Model S production ramp; helped launch three new facilities, with throughput up 50% and downtime down 80%.
- 2007 – 2013
R3D Consulting
Director, then VP & Partner
Built an SAP/ERP practice from zero and grew it from $17M to $32M across seven countries, including a 24-site, $32M-savings program for Faurecia.
- 1997 – 2006
Ford Motor Company of Canada
Material Handling Engineer to Corporate Services Manager
$18M in savings across 150+ automation and material-handling projects; led the Canadian headquarters capital project, two months early and $2.3M under budget.
People first. Systems smart.
I use a simple model, the Adaptive Maturity Model, to read an operation across four dimensions: Leadership, People, Systems, and Technology & Insight. They don’t all need to be at the same level, but leadership is usually the one that decides where the others end up.
I’m practical about tools. Lean methods, value stream mapping, statistical process control and, increasingly, AI all have their place, but only once the foundation is there to use them.
B.Eng., Industrial Engineering, and B.A., English: Technical University of Nova Scotia / Dalhousie University · Six Sigma Green Belt (Ford) · OpEx Society Advisory Board, 2016 to present