Thomas Lease

Staff Chief Engineer, NGC, Cooksville, MD, USA

Tom is a Staff Chief Engineer in the Mission Systems Continuous Improvement (MSCI) group.

He has worked for Northrop Grumman since November, 2004. Prior to working for MSCI group, he worked in Systems Engineering as the Manager of the Mission Systems Engineering – Specialty Engineering group and as a Risk and Opportunity Manager for various programs & proposals. In addition, Tom has worked in Manufacturing Operations as an Advisory Industrial Engineer.

His previous work experience also includes working as a Mechanical Engineer in nuclear power, working as an Industrial Engineer in healthcare, and working as a Project Manager in training systems & integration. Tom's areas of expertise include Process Improvement & Value Stream Mapping, Manufacturing, Factory Capacity Analysis, Labor Metrics & Performance, Systems Engineering, Risk & Opportunity Management, and Project Management.

Tom graduated from The Pennsylvania State University with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and The University of Memphis with a MS in Industrial & Systems Engineering.

He is a licensed Professional Engineer in Maryland and Virginia, a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP), a Certified Systems Engineering Professional (CSEP), and a Certified Master Black Belt.

We Can't Avoid Change: Change Management as Part of Problem Solving

We can’t avoid change. However, working in a highly technical environment, the impact of change is sometimes overlooked or minimized. Change is stressful for different reasons, but mostly because it impacts the way something is done, or the way people currently do their job.

However, impacting the way people currently do their job is part of a systematic problem-solving process.

There are several systematic problem-solving approaches: Define – Measure - Analyze - Improve - Control (The DMAIC® Way) is a common approach. Plan - Do – Check - Act (PDCA), is another with which most of us are familiar.

Using a system problem-solving approach is a thorough way to address technical problems. We change in a predictable process: Awareness – Desire – Knowledge – Ability - Reinforcement (ADKAR®); however, the psychological aspects of change associated with a systematic problem-solving approach are sometimes not discussed.

As part of the overall systematic problem-solving process, the soft skill of Change Management should not be overlooked or minimized. This presentation will describe both the DMAIC problem-solving process and the ADKAR change management process, and it will relate the ADKAR process to the different phases of DMAIC.

By relating the ADKAR process steps (Awareness – Desire – Knowledge – Ability - Reinforcement) to the The DMAIC Way process (Define – Measure - Analyze - Improve – Control), teams will gain a better understanding of how to work through the Change Management process to achieve buy-in of any improvement project to achieve greater success.

The DMAIC Way® is a registered trademark of the Creative Solutions Group.ADKAR® is a registered trademark of Quality Leadership Center, Inc. DBA Prosci Corporation. Approved for Public Release; NG22-1585; ©2022 Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation