As more industries implement Lean and Six Sigma to improve efficiency and effectiveness, another trend has emerged. Young workers are learning the methodologies in bigger numbers.
Manufacturing Engineering’s 2018 Class of 30 Under 30 provides the latest example. The list contains many young professionals who have learned Lean and Six Sigma skills and put them to use to make a name for themselves in their respective industries.
It’s not the first and is likely not the last such example. Recently, the “30 Under 30 Supply Chain Stars” awards recognized Denver Water Department employee Rhianna Galen as a rising star in supply chain.
In just two years, Gallen has applied Lean Six Sigma methodology to save the department more than $400,000.
30 Under 30 Stars
In the new awards from Manufacturing Engineering, a number of winners mentioned Lean and Six Sigma use as key to success early in their careers. They include the following.
Women in Manufacturing
Women have increasingly created an impact in the world of Lean and Six Sigma. This ranges from innovators in healthcare to higher education. In the Manufacturing Engineering awards, the list included these two notable women.
Melinda Dean
Dean is a technical manager who oversees manufacturing engineers at Pratt & Whitney. She manages $15 million in capital expenditures. A graduate of Loyola University in Baltimore, she went on to earn a master’s degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
She said one of the main reasons she returned for graduate school was to “gain a greater knowledge of Lean principles and apply them. It was important for me to be able to achieve better product flow, faster cycle times and improved production quality.”
Maeve Guilfoyle
Guilfoyle is a former music major who decided to switch to engineering after taking a job at Takumi Precision Engineering in Limerick, Ireland. She now works while attending college at the Limerick Institute of Technology.
Takumi has grown 25% since she joined the company. Her boss said Guilfoyle is part of that growth because of her focus on efficiency.
Guilfoyle said at school – where she is at the top of her class and also the only woman in her class – she most enjoys learning about Lean, Six Sigma and statistical process control because “I love anything that makes a system flow better, work cleaner and makes processes as close to poka yoke as possible, which I feel is important for any small company.”
Other Award Winners
Parth N. Khimsaria, an immigrant from India and graduate of Oregon State University, works at Lam Research as an operations analyst in the continuous improvement department. As part of his job, he coaches other employees in Lean Six Sigma methodologies.
William McCall is a manufacturing engineering with AKG North American Operations. He said a trip to a BMW plant and seeing thousands of people working together for one goal opened his eyes to the complexities and possibilities of manufacturing. His supervisor said he is “always focused on continuous improvement.”
Jeremy Miller has led or participated in more than 40 Lean improvement projects with his employer, Olympic Steel.
Ragava Reddy Sama, who has a master’s from California State University, also is a Master Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma. At his job with Master Power Transmission in Indiana, he’s already reduced inspection time by 50% and reduced tool inventory.
James Strausbaugh holds a Green Belt in Six Sigma, which he got after working on a project to reduce cycle time in an emergency room while in college. He now works for Global Shop Solutions in The Woodlands, Texas and is known for finding and fixing problem areas that affect costs.
This is yet another list of achievers who have made a name for themselves, partially because of a focus on process improvement and an education in Lean and Six Sigma tools and techniques.
