Day: August 29, 2014

Welcome Elizabeth Wohlford!

The Office of Continuous Improvement has hired a new Student Process Improvement Coordinator. Elizabeth is a third-year Mechanical Engineering major and also does research in the Biomedical Engineering department under Dr. Neuman, is Vice- President of Michigan Tech’s student chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and is webmaster for Michigan Tech’s Society of Women Engineers. She brings to the office previous experience in Six Sigma and Lean Practices from previous internships with Johnson Controls and Kimberly-Clark along with a willingness to learn more about the world of continuous improvement.

Here Elizabeth will introduce herself and share some thoughts about her new role:

When I went into my first industry experience as an intern for Johnson Controls I had very minimal exposure to the world of continuous improvement. I was given a process improvement project dealing with automotive door panel scratch testing and tasked with identifying the variables that affected performance. I was able to go through Green Belt training with using the project to learn Six Sigma methodology. While working at a mill for Kimberly-Clark in Utah I was exposed to Lean practices and how crucial it is to have standard processes in the world of mass production manufacturing. When I found out about this open position in the office of Continuous Improvement, I knew it would be a great opportunity to continue the learning process and be a leader in conducting improvement efforts on campus.

Over the past few weeks that I have been working in the office, I have put together a training course for teaching about Lean practices. I will be working on assisting with the coordination, data collection and facilitation of Kaizen Events.

I am grateful to be given this opportunity and look forward to adding value in the office by executing on initiatives that drive Michigan Tech’s campus to the next level.

WohlfordElizabeth