Lean Manufacturing Boot Camp opens World to Mechanical Engineering Student

Kevin Hansman is a graduate of Brossart High School in Cold Spring , Kentucky . Majoring in mechanical engineering, Kevin decided to participate in UK 's Lean Manufacturing Boot camp option. Below is his description of his co-op work experience that began in summer '06 (tour #1 May - August) and continued into the fall '06 semester (August - December) with Terex, location Sherman , TX .

"In August, I continued to be involved in lean manufacturing training with fellow employees. It felt really good to be able to take what I had learned in my classes, go on a co-op tour, and actually use the tools from Lean Manufacturing Boot Camp. In the past four months (fall '06) I have been involved in two major projects regarding the lean strategy of the business. The first project dealt with the organization of our outside inventory. The outside inventory mainly consists of large parts such as tracks, cabs, frames, booms, and dust collectors. Before I was given this project, the process of receiving parts was to find an empty spot to put them. My job was to organize all the parts so that similar parts were stored together, and to design a process that took into account first in - first out. Unfortunately, I was not able to complete this project because the quote I needed to have signed to bring in gravel and asphalt was too large. It had to be sent to corporate. The quote most likely will be signed next year and the completion of the project will follow shortly after.

  The second project involved planning for a major kaizen event (click for an explanation of Toyota's Lean Manufacturing Principles). During each quarter there is one major kaizen event held at one of the plants within Terex Material Processing and Mining. Fall quarter it was held at our plant. We had six teams of about seven people each, participating. The teams consisted of General Managers and Lean managers from all over the world. My role with this project was to determine the appropriate focus for the kaizen teams. I accomplished this by facilitating meetings every week with my team made up of managers, supervisors, and assembly workers. During our meetings, we determined what materials and information we needed to provide to the kaizen teams.

  A real highlight occurred in October; I was sent to our plant in Mexico , Terex Unit Rig, in order to tour the plant and familiarize myself with the process."

Terex has production sites all over the world and plans to send its co-op students to Australia, Germany and Mexico.