✕

Lucy Roche is an ASQ certified Six Sigma black belt with a master's degree in chemical engineering and a PhD in systems engineering.

Michelle: I know you've had a very successful career, and done a lot in quality, but can you start off by telling us how you got started with your career?

Lucy: I started it in, I guess, grad school. That's how I got into the Lean Six Sigma area, after graduation, my master and PhD, and I got into my first manufacturing job and I was a process engineer. That's when I really drilled into the continuous improvement area. That's my main focus. And that got me into quality.

And then I got to be the owner of our QMS for ISO 9001. And a big part of that is also continuous improvement. So that's how I got into that area.

Michelle: Did you always want to go into manufacturing, or how did you get interested in that?

Lucy: Yeah, I always wanted to go into manufacturing because, look around. Everything comes from some sort of manufacturing.

Michelle: Did your family, or you, have any people who worked in that when you were younger, as a kid? Is that what you wanted to do?

Lucy: No, nobody. But when my parents would be out working, my grandma used to watch me. And our bonding time is we watched How It's Made together, all day long. I think that really made a difference.

Michelle: With pursuing the continuous improvement, I know we talked that sometimes it's hard for people, if you're trying to change some projects or programs. And I know you've had a lot of success with that. Could you tell us how you were able to get people kind of on board with those kind of things?

Lucy: You see, typically, two types of people. If they want the change, those people are easy to have, to convince me. The second type is probably what you're referring to. And resistance to change. So, before we make a change we usually prove it out. Kind of have a theory behind it, or have a small-scale testing. And then that's how we try to sell it to the stakeholders to make sure they buy in before we implement it, or else we go in and make the change and nobody will follow up, so that will not be successful. That's my approach to it.