About Alastair Semple
Alastair Semple is a Specialist with the Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service (SMAS),
specialising in Lean, Operational Excellence and AI-enabled business improvement. With
over 15 years\' experience in continuous improvement, project delivery and organisational
development, and a decade supporting businesses through SMAS, he helps organisations
combine proven Lean methodologies with emerging AI technologies to improve productivity,
capability and competitiveness.
Holding an MEng in Product Design Engineering from the University of Strathclyde and
Luleå University of Technology, alongside qualifications in Lean Six Sigma, Project
Management and Leadership, Alastair has extensive experience delivering operational
transformation across manufacturing and service sectors.
Throughout his career, he has led and supported improvement programmes focused on
productivity, quality, safety and capability development. A notable achievement was
supporting the Glasgow COVID-19 testing laboratory during one of the most critical periods
of the pandemic, helping scale testing capacity from 5,000 to 85,000 tests per day through
the application of Lean and Operational Excellence principles, workforce development and
robust problem-solving systems.
Alongside his Lean and operational excellence work, Alastair has maintained a long-
standing focus on digital transformation and advanced technologies. He authored SMAS\'s
Industry 4.0 insight report, drawing on findings from over 180 business diagnostic
assessments, helping identify patterns, barriers and opportunities in technology adoption
across Scottish industry. This work provided valuable insight into how manufacturers could
leverage emerging technologies to improve productivity, resilience and competitiveness.
More recently, Alastair has become a leading advocate for practical AI adoption within
Scottish businesses. He has designed and delivered AI and Microsoft Copilot workshops to
more than 50 businesses and over 80 delegates, helping organisations identify and
implement practical AI use cases that enhance productivity, improve decision-making and
reduce waste. His work focuses on combining Lean thinking, operational excellence and AI
technologies to deliver sustainable business improvements and build organisational
capability for the future.
Alastair is passionate about helping organisations develop improvement cultures that unite
people, process and technology to achieve measurable business outcomes.
