Managing Capacity and Inventory Jointly

Cornell Students Participate in Lord Corporation Kaizen Projects


The students of the Semester in Manufacturing course from Cornell University's Johnson School have participated in Kaizen projects with the Lord Corporation for two years. The Cornell students have learned about continuous improvement processes in a real-world manufacturing plant and also gleaned more general insights into organizational issues. The Lord Corporation has benefited from the students' fresh perspective and an opportunity to highlight the importance of the Kaizen projects, and its lean manufacturing program in general, to its employees. We describe our preparation for successful events, summarize the insights gained by the students into the factors that most significantly affect the success of Kaizen projects, and summarize the benefits derived by the Lord Corporation. Thus, we demonstrate the motivation for undertaking such an education-business alliance, and make suggestions for structuring it. Moreover, in describing Lord's lean manufacturing program, we provide a case study for students of continuous improvement processes.