Lean Institute Trains Louisiana Technical and Community College Faculty in Lean Manufacturing

Dr. Alok Verma, Ray Ferrari Professor and Director of the Lean Institute was invited by University of Louisiana to train faculty members from the Louisiana technical colleges and community colleges in Lean Manufacturing. The workshop was held at the South Louisiana Community College in Lafayette from May 19-23. The workshop offered an opportunity to test the newly developed training program and simulation in Value Stream Mapping, Lean Design was the topic for the second day of the workshop.

Lean Manufacturing is a philosophy, which aims to improve productivity by cutting down waste throughout the organization. The goal of this workshop was to train faculty in the principles of Lean Manufacturing so, they can use this productivity enhancement philosophy in their workplace and develop curriculum in this area to improve workforce. Part of the weeklong workshop was also taught by Prof. Greg Butler from Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO. In addition three graduate students from Lean Institute provided help with the training program.

The workshop was organized by Prof. Suren Dwivedi who is a faculty member at the University of Louisiana and who is a well known expert in the area of Concurrent Engineering (CE) and Integrated Product and Process Design (IPPD). Feedback from workshop attendees has been very positive. The program was funded by the State of Louisiana Board of Regents to improve the quality of technical education and to enhance the workforce for economic development of the state.