Extreme Engineer of the Month

Education: B.S. in Industrial Engineering, Wichita State University M.S. in Industrial Engineering with an emphasis on Systems Engineering, Wichita State University MBA from Webster University Favorite Classes: LEAN manufacturing, production system, facility layouts, and work methods and analysis. Best Skills: Organization, working with others, and a strong sense of responsibility. Hobbies: Needlework, cooking, and reading. Role Models: Lillian Gilbreth, the mother in the book "Cheaper by the Dozen," Joan of Arc, and Miss Piggy. Joan says that women of her generation look up to Miss Piggy because she's "comfortable taking charge in high heels." Advice: Stay organized. Set your priorities and understand what needs to be done and what doesn't. Understand priorities, and do that work as soon as you can. You can be pulled in so many directions, that you have to set priorities. In the workplace, take on every opportunity you can—even if it sounds horrible up front—go for it. You'll learn something. Doing the stuff other people didn't want to do will endear you with the higher ups.

The idea of finding ways to do things efficiently and effectively totally appealed to Joan. She liked math and decided she'd become an engineer. One day she was going through some of her parents old books, and she picked up "Cheaper by the Dozen." She absolutely "loved and adored" the book, and it led her to enroll in mechanical engineering. At Wichita State University she soon discovered that industrial engineering was closer to the book, so she quickly changed majors.

Joan enjoyed all the classes in industrial engineering because they were about eliminating waste and unneeded actions. The mentality of constant improvement really appealed to her. "There's always a way to do things better… to simplify what you're doing," she says. She also liked keeping the human aspect in perspective. "To accomplish work, there's a complex human element to incorporate," she added. "The human is telling the computer or machine what to do or doing the work. Industrial engineering is the only engineering discipline that fully appreciates that component."

After graduating she decided to pursue a master's degree in systems engineering with emphasis on continuous improvement, LEAN manufacturing, and Six Sigma. In addition she took electives in psychology and safety. She also did an independent study project and wrote a paper on Lillian Gilbreth, wife of the author, and her contributions to industrial engineering.

At the same time she accepted a job with a small, family-owned manufacturing firm in Wichita, where she worked for nearly six years while completing her master's in systems engineering. There she received broad exposure to the operations by rotating through all the manufacturing departments, getting to know the people on the shop floor—and gaining their respect. This had a huge payoff for her later when she needed help solving a problem or implementing new processes.

After deciding it was time to take the next step in her career, she accepted an offer from Boeing in the company’s Wichita plant. Six months later her division and two others were divested and became Spirit Aero Systems. The company is the world’s largest supplier of commercial airplane assemblies and components; its core products include fuselages, pylons, nacelles, and wing components. Here her focus is project management for facilities projects—working with large equipment installs and remodeling projects. She works with all the people involved—customers, equipment engineers, plant engineers, and construction personnel—to build schedules and make sure it all gets done.

Some days are all paperwork for Joan. Other days are spent on the shop floor. One project she particularly enjoyed was the challenge of meeting a tight deadline in installing a piece of new equipment. The company had bought it at a trade show, and Joan had three months to get it installed and up and running. She had planned six weeks to design the foundation and electrical for the machine, three weeks to do the prep work and demo the area, one additional week for prep, one week for concrete work, and three weeks to let the concrete set. The standard time frame for installation was 36 weeks, but Joan's team was able to compress the schedule to 12 weeks—well ahead of the three-month deadline. "It was an IE dream to be able to go in with a process and compress everyone's schedule to something that ends up really fast," she says. She had finished the install—including concrete and electrical work—before the shop was able to have the programs ready to run the machine.

Joan completed an MBA last year. She works on a lot of capital budgeting. She was frustrated when one day a colleague from business management said, "you don't understand this because you're just an engineer." She had already decided she wanted to go back for an MBA, but that comment moved up her time schedule.

As far as future goals, Joan is interested in leadership, but loves what she is doing now. And she is still inspired by the tale of Frank Gilbreth and his book in her quest for constant improvement.