Taylor Ehlmann
Operations Leader · Continuous Improvement · ISO 9001:2026 Lead Auditor
I'm an operations leader who has served as Operations Manager for a $2.75M manufacturer and as Fractional COO and Fractional Continuous Improvement Director for a $30M company.
I've lived every small-business scaling problem from the inside. I've been the operations lead, the finance department, HR, purchasing, and the person who wrote the SOPs, all at once.
Before manufacturing, I spent years in aviation and air medical communications, where the plan has to work when the system goes down. That's where I learned that good processes and well-trained people are what hold up under pressure.
I started Deliberate Approach as a place to share what I've learned: what works, what doesn't, and what I wish someone had told me sooner.
Processes don't exist on paper. They exist in practice.
- Experience & credentials
- Fractional COO$30M company
- Fractional Continuous Improvement Director$30M company
- Operations Manager$2.75M manufacturer
- ISO 9001:2026 Lead AuditorExemplar Global
- Lean & Six SigmaKanban, 5S, root cause analysis
Lessons with numbers behind them
From building a 15-person precision manufacturer's operations from the ground up.
Raised in 90 days with KPI tracking and workflow redesign.
Measured 90 days after a Kanban and safety-stock system went live.
Operations, finance, HR, ERP selection, and purchasing built from scratch to support the growth.
What I write about
Continuous improvement
Building a culture where getting better is part of the job.
Lean operations
Kanban, standard work, visual management, and error-proofing.
Root cause analysis
Finding the real cause and making sure it stays fixed.
ISO 9001 & quality
Quality systems and document control people actually use.
Leadership development
Coaching, training, and leading people through change.
Project management culture
Owners, due dates, and full team visibility.
AI in small business
Practical first steps for automating the most painful work.
Scaling a small business
What breaks as you grow, and how to build ahead of it.