Presented at the 2013 Lean Educators Conference at Ohio State University on October 4th 2013.

1. David Cochran, Ph.D.
Gordon Schmidt, Ph.D.
Jason Barnes, M.S.
Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne
BUILDING AN INTEGRATED
LEADERSHIP AND LEAN SYSTEM DESIGN
MASTER’S DEGREE

2. STATE OF
“THE ART”
• Companies need engineers and managers who
understand Lean principles.
• Engineers are taught mostly to “fix” a problem with the
product, not with the process or the company.
• Leadership and systems knowledge must go hand in
hand.

3. CENTER OF EXCELLENCE IN
SYSTEMS ENGINEERING
• Mission:
• Offer IPFW students an education in Systems
Engineering that enables the student to lead
enterprise change and develop superior products.
• Provide the industries and enterprises of Northeast
Indiana with the Systems Engineering leadership
and research facilities to sustain and grow their
businesses.
• Currently offers master’s degree specializing in
Systems Engineering.

4. OUR VISION:
INTEGRATING THREE ASPECTS OF SYSTEMS
• Product systems:
• Traditional SE focuses on the lifecycle of a product.
• Enterprise systems:
• The company or organizational design should also
be considered a system (the value stream). There
is a need for a language for system design.
• Leadership:
• Leaders provide the common vision for design
development, implementation, and use. This must
be achieved through collective agreement.

5. DEPARTMENT OF ORGANIZATIONAL
LEADERSHIP & SUPERVISION
• Mission:
• To integrate theory and practical application in
developing leaders for roles in the dynamic
organizational environment of the 21st century.
• Located in the College of
Engineering, Technology, and Computer Science.
• Has associate’s, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees in
Leadership.
• Teach future leaders and HR professionals in
Northeast Indiana.

6. THE IMPORTANCE
OF LEADERSHIP
• Goal:
• Preparing leaders to lead workers in creating and
sustaining an environment of continuous
improvement
• Crucial concepts:
• Empowerment, Shared Leadership,
Transformational Leadership,
Path-goal Leadership, Goal Setting,
Motivation, Engagement, Teamwork

7. John: The CounterWill: The GrillTed: The ManagerWelcome!
This restaurant is losing money due to a lot of waste.
Orders often have mistakes and take longer than they
should to get out to the customers.
How should the manager Ted approach the problem to
reduce the overall system waste?
EXAMPLE ORGANIZATION:
BRUTUS’ BUCKEYE BURGERS

8. BRUTUS’ BUCKEYE BURGERS:
AT THE GRILL
Will only cooks three burgers at a time.
There are many times when Will is doing
nothing but watching the burgers, even
though extra grill space may be available
and orders waiting.
Ted realizes that Will is inefficient and
has him load the grill until it is either full
or there are no more orders waiting.
No more waste… right?

9. BRUTUS’ BUCKEYE BURGERS:
AT THE COUNTER
John rings up customers’ orders and
writes them on a slip of paper used as an
order ticket. Then John goes back into the
kitchen to hand the order to Will.
Ted can’t cost justify a fancy electronic
ordering system. But he has come up
with an idea that cuts down on waste:
John can just shout the orders to Will.

10. BRUTUS’ BUCKEYE BURGERS:
SYSTEM VIEWPOINT
At the counter, Ted has eliminated a means of
documenting the orders, possibly adding more errors.
Do the changes Ted has made at the
counter and grill help reduce the
restaurant’s waste?
At the grill, Ted has made the operation go faster, which
will only increase the number of errors in a given time.
Ted has focused on improving individual operations
(point Kaizen) rather than the waste of the overall
system (value stream). In doing so, he has eliminated
the context of the waste.
Ted should instead focus on making sure that
customers get what they ordered, a top-level
functional requirement of this restaurant system.

11. LANGUAGE FOR
COLLECTIVE SYSTEM DESIGN
MFR
/KPPFR
PS
Standard
Work
A PS is a hypothesis
to achieve an FR
Customer
Needs
1st Step
of Design
MPS
/KPP
3rd Step
of Design
(as needed)
2nd Step
of Design
4th Step
of Design
(as needed)
Functional
Requirement
Physical
Solution
Performance
Measure
(on the FR)
Performance
Measure
(on the PS)
FR
PS
FR2
PS2
FR3
PS3
FR1
PS1
Collective System Design may be characterized as a
sequence of design relationships:
Functional Requirement (FR)
Physical Solution (PS)
– Measure on an FR is MFR
– Measure on a PS is MPS
Not every FR or PS requires a measure.
MFR
MFR1 MFR3
MPS
MPS1

12. LEARNING LOOP TO SUSTAIN
ENTERPRISE DESIGN
Plan (PSs)
Standard Work
(Hypothesis)
DO (PSs)
Standard Work
CHECK / Study
Standard Work &
Measures –
MFR and MPS
ACT
Make Changes
Change FR
Change PS
and Update Map
No Change
ED Map
Revised
System
Design Map
FR1 FR2 FR3
PS1 PS2 PS3
New MFR and/or MPS

13. COURSES TO SUPPORT INTEGRATED DEGREE:
SYSTEMS ENGINEERING
• Organizations as Systems (new course):
• Teach students to focus on the organization itself as a
collective system design.
• Advanced Manufacturing Systems and Processes
(new course):
• Lean as a system design and the resulting methods
and outcomes.
• Systems Engineering Management (SE 53000):
• Roles and activities of the team in managing and
coordinating product development.

14. COURSES TO SUPPORT INTEGRATED DEGREE:
ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP
• Motivation in Organizations (new course):
• Learning how to motivate workers through goal setting
and other motivational practices, as well as increase
overall employee engagement.
• Leading Others (OLS 51000):
• Learning skills of being a leader with a focus on
empowerment of a workforce and the mechanisms that
help facilitate shared leadership.
• Collaborative Projects and Teams (OLS 54000):
• Learning how to develop and work within a wide variety
of teams and engage in successful teamwork and
shared leadership.

15. NEXT STEPS FORWARD
• Creating a 2 track system for entry to the program
• Students in the OLS master’s that take SE courses to do
a concentration in Leadership & Lean System Design
• Students in the SE master’s that take OLS courses to do
a concentration in Leadership & Lean System Design
• Create a detailed structural plan for program
• Decide on other courses and determine what is
mandatory vs. elective
• Build support for the program within university
• Gain support of Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs
• Increase level of support from Dean and relevant
faculty

16. QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSION
David S. Cochran, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Director
Center of Excellence in Systems Engineering
Office (260) 481-0341
Email cochrand@ipfw.edu
Gordon B. Schmidt, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Division of Organizational Leadership and Supervision
Office (260) 481-6549
Email schmidtg@ipfw.edu
Jason Barnes
Associate Director
Center of Excellence in Systems Engineering
Office (260) 481-6370
Email barnesj@ipfw.edu

17. THE 7 FRS OF THE ENTERPRISE DESIGN
FOR STABILITY
FR Description
FR1 Provide a safe, clean, quiet, bright, ergonomically sound environment – fundamental
FR2 Produce the work as the customer needs it – from JIT
FR3 Produce what the customer wants – from JIT
FR4 Do not advance a defect to the customer of the work – from Jidoka
FR5 Achieve FR2-FR4 in spite of operation variation – robustness
FR6 When a problem occurs in accomplishing FR2-FR4, rapidly identify the problem condition and
respond in a pre-defined way – controllability
FR7 Produce product with the Least Time in System