Academics: Below you will find a representative set of the papers and presentations that I completed while working on my MBA at the University of Missouri—St. Louis.
Strategic Planning at UPS
This presentation provides an overview of the Harvard case study of the same name. It was done as part of my strategic planning class at the University of Missouri-St. Louis in Spring 2009. View in Powerpoint.
Furniture Brands Case Study
This presentation was created to share information gathered during a group case study of Furniture Brands International. It was done as part of my strategic planning class at the University of Missouri-St. Louis in Spring 2009. View in Powerpoint.
Ditch DRM Persuasive Speech
This presentation was created for communications to develop a persuasive speech and presentation. The topic of the speech is to convince the class that DRM is a bad technology for consumers and the music industry as a whole. View in Powerpoint.
Lean at Barry-Wehmiller
"Lean will allow us to build more than great products - Lean will allow us to build an organization of great people." With those words, Bob Chapman, president of Barry-Wehmiller began the company's lean journey in 2005. Although, still in its infancy, the company has dedicated itself to lean thinking by integrating the ideas of continuous improvement and worker empowerment directly into the company's culture. This paper will document the lean conversion of the Barry-Wehmiller company. Specifically, it will focus on the organizational-level by describing the steps and processes put in place to implement lean. It will also provide insight into the benefits and problems that arose during the conversion. Read more.
Microformats: Simple application of Friedman's Third and Fourth flatteners in Modern Application Development
This paper will focus on how the third and fourth flatteners in Thomas L. Friedman's book The World is Flat are being applied in modern application development. It will look at a technology known as microformats which are simple standards built on top of HTML to better describe data. The paper will describe how these simple standards are changing the way we communicate. It will show how microformats relate as a practical application of Friedman's third flattener and provide real world examples of how they are being used to build the social communities that Friedman describes in his fourth flattener. Read more.
Lean IT
IT supports lean manufacturing by facilitating communication, providing access to information, maintaining hardware, supporting software, and creating technology that enables lean processes. In terms of facilitating communication, IT allows manufacturing to better communicate a signal. Signals are an important part of lean. They indicate real time demand, provide feedback on quality measurements, and help facilitate kanbans. In order for a signal to be effective it must be communicated rapidly, accurately, and efficiently. In addition, signals must be communicated both internally (on the shop floor) and externally to partners and suppliers. Read more.
Review: Easier, Simpler, Faster: Systems Strategy for Lean IT
Easier, Simpler, Faster: Systems Strategy for Lean IT by Jean Cunningham and Duane Jones focuses on the Information Technology (IT) issues faced in the lean transformation of Lantech, a packaging company in Louisville, Kentucky. Lantech is a familiar icon in the lean manufacturing world because it was prominently featured in the popular Lean Thinking text by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones. Easier, Simpler, Faster differentiates itself from that text by focusing on the specific IT decisions and lessons-learned that were discovered during the company's lean transformation. Read more.
Lean Thinking Description
Lean Thinking by James Womack and Daniel Jones defines lean production as simply doing more with less. To accomplish this goal, the authors describe five key components of lean thinking: value, value stream, flow, pull, and perfection. Value is the benefit the customer receives from the product. The authors challenge the readers to rethink value in terms of the customer for the product as a whole. This holistic thinking carries over to the value stream. The authors describe the value stream as any steps necessary to produce the product. They emphasize mapping out the entire stream including suppliers and distributors and finding steps that do create direct value to the customer. Read more.