Greg Sedrick, Professor of Industrial and Information Engineering and Chair of the Engineering Management Program at the University of Tennessee Space Institute, will be the speaker for February’s “Lessons from the Lake” luncheon seminar at UTSI.

Scheduled for Friday, Feb. 23 at 11:30 in the UTSI cafeteria, Sedrick will present a lecture entitled, “Lean Manufacturing/Six Sigma/TQM/Business Process Reengineering… and lions and tigers and bears – Oh MY!”

Sedrick describes his lecture, “We have plenty of continuous improvement philosophies touting the magic bullet to solve our manufacturing and organization ills.” “It also seems that a new guru and technique comes about weekly. What are we to believe is the ultimate solution for success?”

This seminar briefly discusses the history and application of these engineering and managerial approaches. More importantly this seminar provides a technique to mine the gems from all these approaches or how to get a false start back on track.

UTSI Director of Continuing Education Becky Stines said that, “Managers and continuous improvement team leaders should find attendance valuable.” “Engineers, scientists and technologists with managerial responsibilities should especially be interested in this seminar as well,” added Stines.

Sedrick has published and presented over 50 articles, reports and book chapters. He also established the Workforce Aging Management Program (WAMP) Initiative in the seven congressional districts of the Tennessee Valley Technology Corridor with a 37-member consortium of universities, colleges and technology centers. WAMP is a regional economic development initiative established to assist businesses in the application of new technology, and recruit the next generation of scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians. He has taught at eight universities in his career, and has his doctorate from The University of Missouri-Rolla.

The UTSI “Lessons from the Lake” luncheon seminar series features a new speaker and topic each month. Seminars are free to the public; the only cost involved is for lunch, which is not required for attendance. Please allow ample time to go through the lunch line by arriving no later than 11 a.m., or else have lunch afterwards. Please RSVP by contacting Becky Stines at (931) 393-7276.