About Pawley Lean

After joining the Pawley Lean Institute in 2014, I wasn't quite sure what we would be doing. But I think what I've always tried to focus on is the belief that Dennis had, was that his vision of providing students with Lean coursework and developing skill sets, would allow them to become more employable once they graduated from Oakland University and sought employment.

I've been involved with the Pawley Lean Institute since day one; creating the initial course, lean principles and application. Once they finish that course, they now have the tools and understand what lean is and how to apply it and that leads to the project-based learning. And we apply that mostly through our senior design course where students will take those tools to do continuous improvement projects that are run at local companies. The students are actually embedded at the local company, led by the company on a project and that has been a big value add for students.

I think the impact of the Pawley Lean Institute is fairly obvious. We've had over 500 students that have attended high school workshops we've completed 11 community service internships, which means we've awarded $55,000 to students, the scholarship fund that you set up has given nearly $50,000 out and when you look at internship placements in general, we're close to 130 internships over an eight-year period of time.

I was fortunate enough to receive two scholarships from the Pawley Lean Institute, both of these were extremely helpful. in reducing the financial burden of tuition, on me. Then due to this, I was able to focus more on academics and participate in two internships. One was at Humble Design and the other one was at Leader Dogs for the Blind, both of these taught me real world examples of how lean processes are used. What I was interviewing for a full-time position, I was able to speak on these experiences which helped me land my dream job at General Motors as an Industrial Engineer.

And the Pawley Lean Institute has been recognized by industry. We now have corporate partners that are supporting many of the programs that we put in place.

AT&T's partnership with Pawley Lean began in 2015, with support of their high school outreach workshops, which expose high school students to careers in science and technology. Currently, we're helping Pawley Lean students to develop their personal career development plans which helps them to hone their soft skills. Pawley Lean is creating the next generation of critical thinkers which will help companies, like AT&T, continue to thrive innovate with a well-prepared workforce of the future.

So, as the Pawley Lean Institute reaches its 20th year, its impact is incredible. We see it in the programs, we see it in the students and we see it in the graduates.