Applying LSS to Kevin’s Bakery

Not your “typical” Lean Six Sigma Student

Howdy LSS Newsletter subscribers!

My name is Loren Hitchcock and I’m not your “typical” Lean Six Sigma student.  I’m a member of the TMAC team, and work in business development. Basically, I’m responsible for growing and developing our customer base here in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex area. This means I get to visit companies and economic development organizations in the region to learn more about how TMAC can partner with them to better serve their customers.

I was fortunate to get to participate in the LSS Green Belt course which began in September. It was important to me to complete this class for two reasons. First, so I could get a fresh perspective on what our customers need.  Second, to learn new skills to help TMAC improve our internal processes.

My background is in marketing, not manufacturing. All of the other students were from manufacturing companies except for one. He worked for a third-party logistics business. I really enjoyed being the “odd woman out” in the class because I got to hear first-hand from fellow classmates on how they will implement the things they learned back at their facilities. 

One thing especially noteworthy was the fact that I got to experience TMAC’s first combined Green Belt-Black Belt format course. That is, we had a mix of both GB and BB students in the class. The format was the same in that we had a week of class, then a three-week break, followed by the second week of class. Everyone learned the same course content. After those two weeks the Green Belt students, like me, were done. The Black Belt students continued on for more advanced topics and will wrap up their class in December.

One thing I enjoyed the most was the chance to learn from the more experienced members in the class.  This happened through the project presentations made by both GB and BB students. This allowed all of us to gain a little exposure to a variety of technologies and business problems. Although several of the quality problems were more technical in nature, the root causes were somewhat common across the different businesses. For example, poor communications seemed to be a major root cause of the problems being tackled by my classmates.

I expected a lot of math out of this class and quite frankly it was something I worried about. The instructors made it easy to understand even for someone like me that’s struggled with math my whole life. What I was not expecting was the way I’d get to express my creativity. When it came time to do the teachbacks I was assigned Voice of the Customer. After thinking about how to teach my classmates about VOC an idea immediately popped into my head: Was there a way for me to include one of my pets?

Anyone who talks to me knows I have two great loves in life: my horse, Jake and my dog, Kevin. Kevin, who is an American Bulldog (think Chance from Homeward Bound) and I have been competing in American Kennel Club (AKC) Obedience Trials for 4 years. I immediately wanted to include him in my project. The idea of Kevin’s Bakery was born! 

I spent one evening taking all kinds of pictures of Kevin working through the stages of his VOC research.  It was so fun to be able to express my creativity in such an unexpected way!  I’ve heard if you’re going to sign up for a future class you might get to see my entire presentation about Kevin’s Bakery as an example of a teachback.

All in all, this was a great experience and one I would recommend to anyone.  My advice would be to come with an open mind about the class even if there’s a part you’re concerned about. The LSS instructors are top-notch and always willing to help and explain things. It’s a jam-packed two weeks, but there are so many ways to implement what you learn – even beyond your facility!

Hope to see you in class soon!