2022 In The Rearview
Year in Review
This year marked a return to normalcy as TMAC began operating much as we did before the pandemic. Today all classes, workshops, kaizen events and project work are held in-person. Still, we see the benefit of – and have gotten very comfortable using – virtual platforms for meetings and coaching sessions.
But the year didn’t start this way. Our plan going into the new year was to wrap up the Fall 2021 Black Belt class during the week of January 10th. This particular BB class had already been a bit of a roller coaster ride. It began back in October 2021 with an online format due to a COVID spike. Then we transitioned to in-person training for Weeks 2 and 3 as the risk of infection waned.
A side comment: Having experienced both online and in-person training the feedback from these BB students was overwhelmingly in favor of the in-person format. Our staff was in complete agreement. I was struck by how much better the class went in terms of interaction, communication, and the overall learning experience. I recall students who were quiet and withdrawn online that became talkative and engaged when we switched to in-person.
Back to the BB class: Due to yet another spike in Covid cases in January we decided to move Week 4 of the class out to February. That proved to be the right decision as we were able to wrap up the class without anyone having any health issues. Special thanks to those students for their flexibility.
In February we also rolled out a completely new txlean6-dev.utahosting.cloud website. Huge kudos to TMAC’s Marketing Team – especially Rebecca Holmes and Yesenia Zamora – for all their hard work in making this a reality. Rebecca also does a great job with our monthly LSS Newsletters (which become blogs on our website).
In March TMAC MBBs Alberto Moreno-Yáñez, Ph.D. and Diana Martinez, Ph.D. traveled to Indiana to teach a LSS Green Belt class for Knauf Insulation. This class had 15 students from various facilities. After the class wrapped up in April TMAC began providing monthly coaching support for these belts, along with other BBs and GBs trained previously. Additional coaching help was provided by Pedro Menendez and Chris Lawson of Exactus. That coaching has continued all year long. The Knauf LSS Program achieved over $5.66M in cost savings in 2022.
I attended two different conferences in March. First was the 6th Annual Business Analytics Symposium held right here at The University of Texas at Arlington. Attendees saw some fascinating presentations on the current and future of data science. The other conference was the Lean and Six Sigma World Conference.
Also in March, we taught a 2-day LSS Yellow Belt workshop for the City of Arlington. TMAC has worked with a variety of government organizations from cities and counties here in Texas to the Province of Alberta, Canada. This workshop was taught by TMAC instructors Mike Boyte and Alberto. We taught a second YB class for the COA in April.
Starting later that month we kicked off a new LSS Black Belt course with students from USG Corporation, Coorstek, and Transplace. This class was taught at the TMAC Event Center in Arlington. Instructors included Alberto, Mike, and Chris Meeks.
Another project I am working on kicked off in April to test different types of tourniquets. I am part of a TMAC team including Heather Beardsley, Cyrus Rahimzedah, and Juan Paramo. While not a true LSS project it has given me the opportunity to utilize some of my statistics knowledge in the development of the sampling plan.
The BB class which kicked off back in April wrapped up in June. To celebrate the entire class went to see a Texas Rangers baseball game! [delete sentence about kaizen event]
In August I got in some much-needed R&R with a vacation trip to Portland, Oregon with some friends. We had fabulous food, visited the Japanese botanical garden and art museum plus enjoyed a day trip to a nearby park where we got in a hike past several beautiful waterfalls. It was a nice break from the Texas heat!
We kicked off another Lean Six Sigma class in September with a new format: 2+2. For the first two weeks we combined Black Belt and Green Belt students. They got the same content, training materials, and exercises. The GB students wrapped up their class in October, and the Black Belt students continued with more advanced topics until they finished this past week. Both students and instructors liked the new format, and we plan to use it going forward.
This format allows previously certified Green Belts to attend just the last two weeks in order to complete their Black Belt training. We had two GBs from USG Corporation who took advantage of the new format to increase their skillset.
In October TMAC participated in the Manufacturing Day event at Selmark Corporation in Mansfield, a suburb of Fort Worth. I enjoyed visiting with TMAC customers including those who were former LSS students from Remis America, USG Corporation, Safran Aerospace, and Recaro Aircraft Seating.
In November TMAC delivered two different Statistical Process Control workshopsfor Texas Lime Company. Mike Boyte and I facilitated these workshops.
Over the course of the year TMAC certified 11 Green Belts, 12 Black Belts, and an impressive 8 Master Black Belts. The total combined financial impact for this group was $10.2M. This does not count the savings for Green Belts who were being coached by the Black Belts and Master Black Belts. I feel sure if we did so that would add another million or two to the total. Check out the list of certifications for the second half of the year at the end of this month’s newsletter.
In closing, I want to thank each of our customers. Without you TMAC would not exist. We appreciate your hard work, creativity, enthusiasm, and perseverance through good times and bad. You are why we look forward to going to working every day. I would also like to recognize my coworkers at TMAC for their commitment to excellence and customer service.
All of us at TMAC wish you a Safe and Happy Holiday Season, and much success in the New Year! And we look forward to celebrating the 20th Anniversary of TMAC’s Lean Six Sigma Program in 2023!
