Lessons from the first female Manufacturing Leadership Certificate graduate

With ample experience in manufacturing, Lukisha T. “Shun” Griffin (pictured above) recently became the first woman to earn GaMEP at Georgia Tech’s Manufacturing Leadership Certificate. Knowing she always had a knack for working with machines, Griffin, who is currently studying Industrial Engineering at Kennesaw State University (KSU), enrolled in the program to gain the skills necessary to further her career and become a manufacturing manager.

Having worked for big names in manufacturing such as Ford Motors and Berry Plastics, Griffin came to Atlanta after being recruited by Solvay and has worked her way up in the company’s ranks ever since. Griffin’s perseverance, determination, and strong work ethic have helped her succeed in her classes with great efficiency — she completed her certificate in only nine months! Griffin credits the Manufacturing Leadership Certificate’s interactive curriculum with teaching her how to practically apply the concepts she learned to advance her career. In this interview, Griffin reflects on her experience and how it has helped shape her career thus far.

What motivated you to take the Manufacturing Certificate while simultaneously enrolled in the Industrial Engineering program at KSU?

I knew I could accomplish this goal because the Manufacturing Leadership Certificate is designed for people who are working and want to take their career to the next step. My motivation to stay the course was knowing that I need the knowledge that these programs have to offer in order to become an expert in the manufacturing industry.

What did you expect to gain by taking the program and did it meet your expectations?

I have an extensive background in manufacturing and managing daily operations from the floor. However, I knew I had a lot to learn about leadership, the dynamics around managing assignments, the different metrics needed for standard operating procedures, and checks and balances to keep companies in the green with operations and deliverables. I went in with the mindset of being a sponge, knowing that whatever they had to teach me, I needed to learn. The program taught me so much and definitely exceeded my expectations.

What did you find most valuable about the program?

Creating Metrics to Drive Performance and Best Practices in Workforce Development: Building Your Team for World Class Performance are the courses that I dove into the most. They hit home for me because I manage the logistics of inventory and assist with the weekly scheduling for our group.

How have you used what you learned in the certificate program in your current position or in your current studies?

The classes also broadened my scope of implementing and facilitating group projects while managing the work in progress (WIP) and warehouse space. The training gave me a head start on what to expect moving forward with my Industrial Engineering degree. I have also been able to create live ongoing tracking metrics that my supervisor and I use weekly to stay on top of our experiments and projects.

Where do you see yourself career-wise in the next five years?

I chose a degree in Industrial Engineering because it provides access to many other options, but the Manufacturing Leadership Certificate is what determined my decision to stay in this career field. Five years from now, I plan to be completing my Master’s in Manufacturing Leadership at Georgia Tech.

In your opinion, what does it take to be successful in the manufacturing field?

When I was a young child, my father drilled two words into me: consistency and persistence. Along my journey, I realized that you also must enjoy and have a passion for what you do. My personal opinion is, if you are consistent and persistent in working hard, complete tasks and assignments with integrity, and are open to implementing continuous improvements along the way, you’ll be successful in the manufacturing field.

Is there a moment in your career that you thought you failed, but instead it lead to something better?

Yes, I have had moments where I felt like I had failed or had become stagnant in my career. I have learned that when we don’t receive the results or the recognition that we feel we deserve or have earned from others, we charge that as failure. I have grown to view those moments as learning curves and an opportunity to take advantage of the space and time to perfect whatever project I’m working on. The approval isn’t the goal – it’s the result!

This profile is part of a month long celebration of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), in honor of International Women’s Month. View profiles of other influential women in STEM careers here.

 

Manufacturers from across Georgia attend the GaMEP at Georgia Tech open enrollment training course, Lean Boot Camp.

Originally published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, Aug. 24, 2018. View the original here.

Working with new and emerging leaders in more than 800 manufacturing plants a year, our team continued to hear, “I have the technical skills, but need help on the soft skills to be an effective leader,” or “I need to better communicate my organization’s goals to team members.”

That had us wondering how could the state’s second-largest industry — which employs more than 340,000 people — have difficulty training its managers on leadership skills? In speaking with those leaders, we realized many were promoted within their plants. They were once workers on the shop floor and are now leading teams. They can tell you how to do the work, but don’t understand how to develop metrics, deal with conflict, or effectively communicate with their team.

These findings led the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership team at Georgia Tech to collaborate with manufacturing leaders from metro Atlanta and across the state. The leaders at these companies we’ve worked with over the years, such as Seasons-4, Southern Aluminum Finishing, and LioChem, provided insight into their managers’ needs and what defines success in their organizations. As a solution to this challenge our clients and other manufacturers were facing, we developed the Manufacturing Leadership Certificate to address the necessary skills gap for leaders implementing or managing continuous improvement cultures in their plants.

Our first two program graduates had similarities aligned to the issues we were seeing and hearing. Chris Shipman graduated from Valdosta State University and began working for CJB Industries. He started as a lab technician and is now the production manager. He said, “For me, it was not just learning how to solve issues, but teaching my team how to solve them. Since implementing tactics I learned in class, our error rate has decreased, enabling us to make products faster and deliver them to customers quicker than before.”

Similarly, Chantrey Reece of BorgWarner in Asheville, N.C. joined the team in 2005 as a freight unloader and is now the master scheduler, where he oversees final assembly and five machining departments. He registered for our Lean Boot Camp class and then received an email announcing the certificate program.

“I looked into the certificate further and saw that it addressed a need for me,” Reece said. “Although I had been with BorgWarner for years, I was new to my position, and it was the first time outside of my military career that I had to manage people.”

According to Training magazine’s 2017 Training Industry Report, 28 percent of organizations increased their staff from the year before and manufacturers, on average, spent $1,200 per learner on training. The data showed us that not only were many individuals promoted from within, but they were also hired from other manufacturers, meaning they were products of their previous companies’ internal training or in many cases, the lack thereof.

So, we took this certificate idea and refined it to address specific areas, such as effective leadership practices and building and engaging leadership teams; creating the right metrics and using them to optimize operations; hiring, training, and coaching employees; efficient project management skills; technology applications such as robotics, additive manufacturing, and composites; and more. The result was an immediately implementable, hands-on, activity-based program.

“I not only learned the importance of good communication, well-defined processes, and employee engagement,” Reece said, “but I learned how to be a good communicator, a leader for process improvement, and how to engage my team so their voices are heard and they buy into the team and organizational goals.”

About the Manufacturing Leadership Certificate

The Manufacturing Leadership Certificate consists of five required and two elective courses. The certificate is taught by GaMEP team members, with years of practical experience working in manufacturing companies. Learn about the certificate: www.pe.gatech.edu/mlc

The Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP) at Georgia Tech sat down with Chantrey Reece, master scheduler at BorgWarner in Asheville, North Carolina, who recently became the first recipient of the GaMEP Manufacturing Leadership Certificate, to learn what he gained from the program and how he’s using it at BorgWarner.

Tell me about yourself.

I’ve lived in Asheville my whole life, with the exception of when I was in the military. After leaving the Army, I came back to Asheville and began working for BorgWarner, an automotive components manufacturer, and I’ve been with the company for 12 years. On the weekends, I like to take advantage of the outdoor recreational opportunities in North Carolina, where I hike, bike, and raft with my wife and two kids.

What is your role at BorgWarner and how has that changed over the years?

I joined BorgWarner in 2005 as a freight unloader and have worked my way up through the organization. I’ve held positions in the warehouse, as a material handler, shift lead, and multiple roles in the scheduling department.

Today I’m the master scheduler. I oversee the scheduling of five machining departments and the final assembly department. Our team is in charge of the scheduling of components that are going through the assembly lines, as well as predicting any downtime needed for maintenance on the machines. In my role, it’s important to use capacity planning to make sure our products are produced on time and that we are able to meet customer demands.

How did you hear about the Manufacturing Leadership Certificate program, and why did you feel it was the right program for you?

A few of my teammates and I signed up for GaMEP’s Lean Boot Camp to gain more knowledge about lean practices. A few weeks before the course, I received an email saying that Lean Boot Camp was a core course of the new certificate program. I started looking into it a bit further and saw that it really addressed a need for me.

When I started in my current position, it was the first time outside of the military that I had to manage other people knew the technical aspects of my job really well, but I didn’t have the leadership skills necessary to support and grow our teams. I felt that this certificate would help close that gap.

What was your favorite course in the certificate program, and why?

Leading for Organizational Excellence was the course I enjoyed the most. It taught me how to put together a strategic plan and carry it through to execution within my teams.

What were your top three takeaways from the certificate program?

I learned a lot from the courses that I took and have implemented many of the things I’ve learned, but I think the three biggest takeaways for me were:

1. It takes good communication to be successful with change.
2. You need to have well-defined processes and if you don’t, you need to start there.
3. Employee engagement is a must. Management and the teams need to work together and be open to giving opinions and receiving feedback. If that relationship can be established, things will fall into place and happen much more quickly.

 So knowing all of this, how has BorgWarner benefited from the certificate program?

Based on the skills and outlook that I brought back, BorgWarner quickly saw the benefit of it.

First, I sat down with others in the company, walking them through the classes I took, answering a lot of questions, talking about how the concepts could be applied. We then began conducting value-stream maps — a lean tool — in specific departments. It gave us some quick wins, and people across the company began buying into the changes. We got people involved in ideas and decisions who had never been involved before, and they became eager to participate and have their voices heard.

We are only a few months into implementing what I and others have learned in these classes, but we are starting to see a culture shift in the organization, and that is exciting.

We now have six other people going through the certificate program.

Besides what we’ve discussed, is there anything else you plan to do with the knowledge you’ve gained from these classes?

Absolutely! The skills that I learned are applicable to many different aspects of my life. After taking the project management class, I now make lists of must do’s, should do’s, and could do’s in order to help organize and manage my personal time in addition to my work schedule!