A Unique Engineering Masters for Lean Manufacturing

Co-created with General Motors (GM), Kettering University’s online Lean Manufacturing Masters program is the only one of its kind in the United States, offering training in Six Sigma and lean manufacturing.

“Every business and organization today wants to know how to do more with less and how to reduce waste,” said Dr. Christine Wallace, vice president for Kettering Global. “This is at the core of Lean manufacturing.”

The program launched about a decade ago in direct partnership with GM, after the company identified a need for Lean training within its workforce. 

Since then, the program has expanded to be available for other bachelor’s degree holders looking to gain the skills to operate Lean.

Formerly the General Motors Institute, Kettering’s programs have been ranked as number one in private colleges for return on investment in the state of Michigan and number ten for the country by CNN.

“We have over 1,000 C-level alumni currently in business today,” said Wallace.

Masters Curriculum Focus: Supply Chain or Operations Management

The curriculum provides students the skills they need to optimize products and processes and to eliminate unnecessary steps that reduce efficiency. The ability to assign a specific dollar value to the use of lean processes provides students with concrete added value for their organization and their resume.

General Motors has reported savings up to USD$300 million since its employees started taking the Lean manufacturing program.

The program consists of a core of seven courses, in addition to students selecting at least one of the three available graduation certificates to determine which three electives to take. 

Consequently, once students decide which graduate certificate they would like between operations management, supply chain management, and global leadership their first three electives are set. 

Students may obtain additional certificates at conclusion of master’s program for additional specialization if desired.

Classes are online and asynchronous, allowing students to log on, attend classes and complete assignments at the times that are most convenient to them. Instructors hold two office hours per week and respond to student emails within 24 hours. Students can also schedule one-on-one time with an instructor at a time that’s convenient for both parties.

Kettering bifurcates its terms seasonally, offering a significant degree of flexibility in applying to the program. For more detailed information, see the chart below:

Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing for Engineers and Others

Wallace recommends the Lean manufacturing program to mid-level managers and any business owner looking to gain knowledge of Six Sigma and Lean. “This might be someone in a manufacturing facility, but it could just as easily be someone in retail, a healthcare system, the USPS, UPS, FedEx and so on,” said Wallace.

Since the program is intended to be accessible to students in a wide variety of industries, engineers should not expect courses to drill down into their particular niche areas. Although several of the courses focus specifically on manufacturing, the majority are pitched at the much more general management level.

The program provides real-world applications by encouraging students to use projects and issues in their own organization to apply what they learn in the classroom.

For their final project, students are given the opportunity to identify a wasteful process in their organization and make it Lean. This can directly benefit the student’s organization as well as their career.

“For our GM students, the projects are chosen by GM leadership to have special importance and significance to the company,” said Wallace.

The program has its own quality assurance process, in the form of student reviews. “We review student comments and meet with instructors at the end of every course to see where it can be improved,” said Wallace. “We’re also adding more media and short focused pieces to aid instruction.”

Wallace gave the following advice to students working fulltime while completing the Lean Manufacturing Masters degree program: “Start with one course and a plan. Plan time for your degree. Although you aren’t driving to a classroom or spending time sitting in front of a professor at a specific time and day, you still need to set aside a time and place to study.”

For this reason, it’s worth letting your friends, family and colleagues know that you’re going back to school. The stronger your support group, the better your chance of success.

Kettering University has sponsored this post. They have no editorial input to this post - all opinions are mine. Ian Wright

Required Core Courses:

• MFGO 601 – The Globally Integrated Manufacturing Company
• MFGO 619 – Six Sigma for Manufacturing
• MFGO 633 – Lean Production Systems
• MFGO 635 – Work Analysis for Lean Production Applications
• MFGO 639 – Quality Assurance and Reliability
• MFGO 649 – Metrics for Lean Production Improvement
• MFGO 659 – Integrative Capstone Project

Plus three courses for Supply Chain Management Graduate Certificate:

• IME 652 – Designing Value in the Supply Chain
• IME 654 – Enterprise Resource Planning
• MGMT 669 – Supply Chain Operations

Or three courses for either:

Operations Management Graduate Certificate:

• IME 676 - Lean Six Sigma
• MGMT 609 - Technology Management
• MGMT 619 - Project and Change Management

Global Leadership Graduate Certificate:

• BUSN 689- Organizational Behavior
• MGMT 649- Ethics and Leadership
• MGMT 679- Leadership