58 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine

the institute

Keeping pace with IISE

President-elect Poirier heads IISE election winners

Members select new ofﬁcers for 2019 plus regional VPs

New leaders for 2019 have been chosen in the Institute of In-

dustrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) annual elections, an-

nounced by CEO Don Greene.

Chosen to the 14-person board of trustees were David

Poirier, president-elect; Carl Kirpes, senior vice president, in-

dustry; and Gül Kremer, senior vice president, international

operations. The new ofﬁcers were elected by IISE professional

members and serve for three years. Terms begin April 1.

Poirier is founder and chief executive ofﬁcer of The Poirier

Group in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He has more than 30

years of industrial engineering experience.

“I am delighted and honored to have this opportunity to be

a part of the IISE leadership team,” Poirier said. “It is an orga-

nization that is close to my heart and has been a platform where

I have learned and grown and have met many colleagues and

friends over the years. I was pleasantly surprised when I heard

the results and am excited to continue to aid and support the

development of the ISE ﬁeld from students newly entering the

profession to seasoned professionals.”

IISE, which began in 1948 as the American Institute and

changed its name in 1981 to reﬂect its global membership, will

be led by a non-U.S. citizen for the ﬁrst time.

Kirpes is a crude oil strategy and analyst at Marathon Pe-

troleum Corp. in Findlay, Ohio. Kremer is professor and

Therkildsen Chair in the Department of Industrial and Manu-

facturing Systems Engineering at Iowa State University.

Newly elected as vice presidents of technical operations

were Diana Berry, supply chain specialist for Harsco Rail in

Columbia, South Carolina, and Elizabeth Cudney, associate

professor of engineering management and systems engineer-

ing at the Missouri University of Science and Technology in

Rolla, Missouri.

Elected as regional vice presidents were Zhibin Jiang, Asia;

Maria Catalina Ramirez Cajiao, Central and South America;

Luis Enrique Chavez Munoz, Mexico; Brian J. Galli, North-

east; Joey Canamo, Southeast; and Sean Genovese, Western.

David Poirier Carl Kirpes Gül Kremer

Lean Division rechristened as Operational Excellence

Members vote to make IISE division more inclusive to other performance ideals

The IISE’s Lean Division will be answering to a new name

after members voted to change the division’s moniker to Op-

erational Excellence.

In the vote, 37 percent of division members casting ballots

voted for the new name, 29 percent for keeping the old name;

22 percent for Lean Six Sigma; and 12 percent for Continu-

ous Process Improvement. The idea behind the change was to

make the division more inclusive and welcoming to members

who specialize in other areas of performance improvement.

“The Lean Division has evolved over several years to en-

compass more than Lean and Six Sigma,” division president

Valentine Boving told ISE. “We wanted to ﬁnd a name that

would embrace the quality pursuits of some of our other mem-

bers’ perspectives, such as ISO and Baldrige criteria. The new

Operational Excellence Division is more inclusive of the evolv-

ing quality applications for industry, service and academia. We

welcome new members who ﬁnd that our division is relevant

to their interests and needs.”

The new name will be ofﬁcially unveiled at the IISE Annual

Conference & Expo 2019 in Orlando, Florida.

March 2019 | ISE Magazine 59

There’s much to see, hear and absorb at Annual conference

Special events, workshops, networking on tap at IISE gathering in Orlando

A busy schedule of workshops, seminars and events are on tap

at the IISE Annual Conference & Expo 2019, scheduled for

May 18-21 at the Rosen Shingle Creek Hotel in Orlando,

Florida.

A unique slice of industry knowledge will be on the menu

at the Performance Excellence Track organized by IISE volun-

teers Scott Sink of Ohio State, Kaz Takeda of Disney, David

Poirier of The Poirier Group, Bob Pudlo of FedEx Ground

and Nathan Crable of West Monroe Partners. Presenters in-

clude featured speaker Jim Tompkins, chairman and CEO of

Tompkins International and winner of the IISE Frank and Lil-

lian Gilbreath Industrial Engineering Award in 2015. Tomp-

kins, a regular ISE columnist, will explain the Industry 4.0

transformation in supply chains. Other sessions and speakers

come from such companies as UPS, Disney, General Motors,

Ernst & Young, Ford, Tempur Sealy, Lockheed Martin and

Boeing.

Pre-conference workshops scheduled include “Communi-

cation Essentials for Engineers,” presented by Kaiwen Cheng

(read his article on Page 44); “From Industrial Engineer to

World Class Leader,” by Lee Cromarty, Tim Greene, Roman

Hlutkowsky, Dale Lucht, Beth Shapiro and Patrick Davidson;

and “Integrated Enterprise Excellence: Going Beyond Lean Six

Sigma and the Balanced Scorecard,” by Forrest W. Breyfogle.

The conference program also includes the Sunday welcome

reception at 6:15-8 p.m. May 19; honors and awards dinner,

ceremony and dessert reception, 7:30-10:30 p.m. Monday,

May 20; new faculty colloquium and doctoral colloquium,

7:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, May 18; and executive roundtable,

11 a.m.-noon Sunday, May 19 (limited availability)

Networking events will include a Saturday networking re-

ception from 6-7:30 p.m. May 18 and a student networking

mixer from 5-6:30 p.m. Sunday, May 19.

The keynote speakers for the conference are U.S. Air Force

Inspector General Lt. Gen. Stayce D. Harris on Sunday, May

19; Pascal Van Hentenryck, the A. Russell Chandler III chair

and professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and

Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, on Monday,

May 20; and Sylvia Acevedo, CEO of the Girl Scouts of the

USA, on Tuesday, May 21.

Registration is underway; those signing up before April 8

receive discounted fees. For more, visit www.iise.org/Annual.

ELSS conference set for Sept. 23-25 in Houston

Annual lean & Six Sigma event now accepting abstracts through April 15

Mark your calendars for the annual Engineering Lean & Six

Sigma Conference, which is set for Sept. 23-25 at the Mag-

nolia Hotel-Houston in Houston, Texas.

The event offers a global hub for sharing organization-

al transformation discoveries fueled by lean and Six Sigma

thinking. It offers an audience of industrial, management,

manufacturing and quality engineers, healthcare profession-

als, consultants, operational and supply chain managers and

professional educators.

Abstracts are now being accepted for lean and Six Sigma

discoveries within two extended tracks: LSS Applications

and Training and LSS Research and Education. The dead-

line is April 15. To submit an abstract, go to https://link.iise.

org/ELSSAbstract.

The Magnolia is rated as one of the world’s top 100 new

hotels by Condé Nast Traveler magazine. It is located down-

town amid the city’s many corporate ofﬁces and cultural

venues. For more, visit https://www.iise.org/LeanSixSigma.

The Rosen Shingle Creek Hotel in Orlando, Florida, will be site

of the IISE Annual Conference & Expo 2019 set for May 18-21.

60 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine

The institute

Skeens takes reins

as SHS president-elect

Veteran healthcare leader aims to increase

society’s proﬁle, reach

volunteer snapshot

Veteran healthcare executive Mary Ellen Skeens was

chosen by members as president-elect of the Society for

Health Systems for 2019 in the recently completed elec-

tion.

Skeens, director of solution design and delivery for

Philips Healthcare in Johns Creek, Georgia, has served in

various roles the healthcare industry over the last two de-

cades. She holds a master’s degree in health systems and

bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Georgia

Tech. An SHS member since 2002, she began as a stu-

dent volunteer and later served on the board of directors,

as conference chair, track chair and now president-elect.

“Volunteering is a great way to build your network, give back to the society, and learn from other people,” she

told ISE. “It is time well spent and I have always found that I get back way more than I give.”

Skeens aims to boost the society’s proﬁle and capitalize on its members’ skills and expertise.

“I look forward to partnering with our SHS Advisory Board on broadening the inﬂuence and awareness of SHS,”

she said. “This will include creating more visibility for the society and the value our members provide to healthcare

organizations. Our members truly are a gold mine of knowledge and experience. The SHS network is incredibly

powerful and can be leveraged to solve some of healthcare’s toughest challenges.”

Skeens is a native of Macon, Georgia, where her ﬁrst exposure to the healthcare ﬁeld came as a high school vol-

unteer with a hospital in Macon.

“I had a strong interest in healthcare and became fascinated with medical technology and processes,” she said.

“This led me to pursue a degree in engineering with the intent to use my knowledge and skills to help improve

healthcare.”

She later spent time in the management engineering department at Northeast Georgia Health System in Gaines-

ville and with metro Atlanta health providers as an intern and graduate student.

“My degree in industrial engineering has given me a great foundation for applying performance improvement

approaches and tools to healthcare,” she said. “From using statistical data analysis to develop z-score algorithms for

pediatric cardiology patients (see research at https://link.iise.org/pediatric), to developing database reporting solutions

to address, to consulting with clinicians on how to improve outcomes, I have regularly used my IE background to

solve problems.”

In her current position, she seeks to guide Philips through an era of global healthcare challenges through im-

proved methodologies, training and mentoring.

“It is a great honor and privilege to be able to help improve and save lives through healthcare solution enable-

ment,” she said. “Knowing there is a patient at the end of everything we do drives me every day.”

March 2019 | ISE Magazine 61

Former IISE President Moore featured in New Engineer

USC professor discusses ISEs’ unique aspects in magazine interview

Former IISE president James E. Moore

II, a professor of industrial and systems

engineering at the University of South-

ern California’s Viterbi School of Engi-

neering, was featured in an article in New

Engineer magazine in 2018.

In the interview, Moore discussed the

unique aspects of industrial and systems

engineering and how they are both alike and different.

“Industrial and systems engineers are as interested in the sys-

tem itself and its functions as in the nature of the process that

brings it about,” he wrote. “Industrial engineers and system

engineers both rely on a systems point of view that emphasizes

understanding and managing trade-offs associated with sys-

tem design, but a purely systems engineering approach is more

likely to be driven by functionality requirements. ... Both ap-

proaches involve a reﬁned capacity for systems thinking. In-

dustrial and systems engineering is a powerful blend of these

complimentary approaches.”

Moore also discussed the attraction of ISE study programs

for undergraduate and graduate students.

“Because industrial and systems engineering is the broadest

of the undergraduate engineering majors, every student who

explicitly considers the trade-off between breadth and depth

and concludes that a better education favors breadth is going to

at least consider making a transition into industrial and systems

engineering,” he said.

“There is only one person in the audience when a student

chooses an academic major: him- or herself.”

At Viterbi, Moore’s teachings specialize in economic impact

analysis relating to transportation engineering, transportation

systems and other infrastructure systems.

At IISE, Moore served on the board of directors and as se-

nior vice president for continuing education. He became pres-

ident-elect and CFO of the institute in 2014, served as presi-

dent in 2015 and immediate past president in 2016.

James Moore

My fascination

with industrial

engineering comes from

that never-ending search

for optimization and

efﬁcacy. We don’t only

search for solutions to beneﬁt manufacturing,

we also facilitate and improve people’s lives by

making products more affordable. We can make

basic daily tools readily available to improve the

quality of products and services. Reducing waste

and inefﬁciency also saves people time, which

they can dedicate to their close ones, family

and themselves.”

Give Back

to the Future

of the Profession

Donate to the

IISE Scholarship Fund

The IISE Scholarship Fund recognizes industrial

and systems engineering students’ academic

excellence and campus leadership. Last year,

IISE awarded more than $90,000 in scholar-

ships. Eenne Bausta is pursuing his B.S. in

Industrial Engineering with a minor in Systems

Engineering at ITESM – Queretaro in Mexico.

He won IISE’s Dwight D. Gardner Scholarship.

Visit www.iise.org/PlannedGiving to make a

donaon today.

62 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine

The institute

training time

Lean Green Belt and Lean

Green Belt for Healthcare

April 2-4, Norcross, Georgia

Three-day course provides an

in-depth understanding of lean

enterprise principles and how to

apply them within your organization.

Interactive simulations demonstrate

how each lean concept is applied

and its impact on the process.

Six Sigma Green Belt

for Process Improvement

March 12-14, May 14-16, Los Angeles

Design of Experiments

April 10-11, Norcross, Georgia

Introduction to Engineering Analytics

April 16-17, Norcross, Georgia

Advanced Engineering Analytics

April 18-19, Norcross, Georgia

Lean Black Belt and Lean Black Belt

for Healthcare

April 29-May 2, June 3-6, Norcross,

Georgia

WEBINARS:

Feature Extraction and Selection

Using Topological Data Analysis

2 p.m., March 19

The Industry Practitioner Track

Orlando 2019: Sneak Preview

Noon, March 21

Twofold Spatial Variation

Modeling for Roll-to-Roll (R2R)

Manufacturing System

2 p.m., April 23

Best in Class Integrated LeanSigma

Certiﬁcation Capstone Projects

Noon, April 24

For details, visit:

https://www.iise.org/TrainingCenter

UPS invests in IISE diversity efforts

Company’s foundation helps fund minority and women outreach

The UPS Foundation has re-

newed its decadeslong com-

mitment to IISE by providing

a grant of $15,350 to the in-

stitute’s Minority and Women

Engineer Outreach Program.

The UPS Foundation drives

global corporate citizenship

and philanthropic programs for

UPS. The donation was deliv-

ered Feb. 4 by Tandy Bailey,

department manager for the

UPS Enterprise Transforma-

tion Ofﬁce, to IISE CEO Don

Greene.

Recipients of the UPS scholarships for female and minority

student industrial engineers and the Excellence Award for Minor-

ity Advancement winners will be announced at the IISE Annual

Conference & Expo, scheduled for May 18-21 in Orlando, Flor-

ida. The scholarships provide ﬁnancial aid for up to four students

each year.

“A critical role of IISE is to promote the profession and do what is best for industri-

al and systems engineering. Diversity of our profession is a key pillar in IISE’s strategic

plan,” Greene said. “UPS has tremendous resources and is clearly very dedicated to

making this a better world and to making the profession stronger. We’re honored to

work with them and to serve as a conduit for UPS to be able to help students through

scholarships and awards. Industrial engineering is a leader in the engineering com-

munity in the area of gender and ethnic diversity and IISE is proud to play a role.”

Bailey told ISE the effect of such grant programs is being felt as more women and

minorities move up through the leadership ranks in industrial engineering.

“We start to see more women accelerating their careers, being able to achieve

higher levels of leadership and breaking through the glass ceiling,” she said. “More

of the females of the next generation, Generation X and millennials, are starting to

really emerge as candidates for the next opportunities.”

That same change is seen in promoting minority candidates into leadership roles.

“In just the last few months, with our retirements accelerating through our trans-

formation, a large number of minorities and females have been promoted to director-

level positions and above,” Bailey said.

Established in 1951 and based in Atlanta, The UPS Foundation identiﬁes speciﬁc

areas where its backing clearly impacts social issues. In 2017, UPS and its employees,

active and retired, invested more than $118 million in charitable giving around the

world.

UPS department manager Tandy Bailey meets with

IISE CEO Don Greene on Feb. 4 at the institute’s

headquarters in Norcross, Georgia, to provide a

donation from The UPS Foundation to beneﬁt IISE’s

Minority and Women Engineer Outreach Program.

March 2019 | ISE Magazine 63

kudos. Celebrate member achievements.

Natalie Scala was promoted to

graduate program director at Towson

University. She is former director and

board member with the Society for

Engineering & Management Systems.

Carl Kirpes has taken a new posi-

tion with crude oil strategy and analy-

sis at Marathon Petroleum Corp. He

is newly elected IISE senior vice

president at large, industry.

Alexandra Medina-Borja, pro-

gram director at the National Science

Foundation, was selected its execu-

tive secretary of the STEM Education

of the Future subcommittee of the

Education and Human Resources Di-

rectorate Advisory Committee. She is

a past board member for SEMS.

SHARE YOUR ACHIEVEMENT

Let your peers know about hirings, promotions, awards, appointments and other notable accomplishments.

Send Kudos items to Keith Albertson at kalbertson@iise.org.

OSHA course, city tour, jazz dinner cruise among highlights in New Orleans

cost of the annual Applied Ergonom-

ics Conference (AEC) March 25-28 at

the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans.

The conference gathers profession-

als from around the world to share

ideas and best practices in ergonomics,

healthcare, safety, human resources

and risk management.

Members and nonmembers who

the conference fees. Students can save

$20 by signing up early.

The four-day event in the Big Easy

includes featured speakers, presenta-

tions and awards and a full discus-

sion of best practices in ergonomics,

healthcare, safety, human resources

and risk management.

Attendees will be able to take ad-

vantage of several new events during

the conference, including an OSHA

10-hour course Sunday and Monday;

a city tour of New Orleans; and a 2

1/2-hour New Orleans Dinner Jazz

Cruise on Tuesday, March 26 on the

Mississippi River aboard the Creole

Queen, including a dinner buffet and

live music (additional fee required).

Keynote speakers are William S.

Marras, Honda Chair in the Depart-

ment of Integrated Systems Engineer-

ing and director of the Spine Research

Institute at The Ohio State Univer-

sity, on Tuesday; SangHyun Lee,

Ph.D., a professor and John L. Tish-

man Faculty Scholar at the University

of Michigan; and Donald R. Peterson,

Ph.D., of Northern Illinois Univer-

sity and chair of the American Society

for Testing and Materials Committee

F48 on Exoskeletons and Exosuits, on

Wednesday.

Pre-conference workshops are

scheduled for Sunday (OSHA course)

and Monday, March 24-25, open to all

registered attendees for a separate fee.

To register, visit www.iise.org/AEC.

Jeffrey W. Herrmann was ap-

pointed director of the reliability

engineering graduate program at the

University of Maryland. He is a pro-

fessor of mechanical engineering at

the A. James Clark School of Engi-

neering, a senior member of IISE and

co-chair of the 2012 ISERC.

The Mercedes-Benz Superdome dominates the skyline of New Orleans, site of the

annual Applied Ergonomics Conference (AEC) March 25-28 at the Hyatt Regency.