Education from a Manufacturing Perspective

My name is Ed Shejen, I grew up in York, Maine and went to York schools. After graduating, I attended a local vocational school for Machine Tool Processes and spent 36 years in manufacturing.

During that time, there were four metrics that were drilled into our heads - Safety, Quality, Schedule and Cost. We would say that we wanted to "safely, produce a quality product, on time at the lowest cost".

After these metrics were established, the departments within the shop used established problem solving systems such as Lean Manufacturing, Deming Principles, Quality Circles etc. to identify problems, determine causes and implement solutions that gave the greatest impact for the least cost. We monitored metrics after solution implementation to determine the effectiveness of our recommendations.

After I retired from manufacturing I decided to take the problem solving skills that I had learned and apply them to education.

I organized these skills into the form of an audit and conducted that audit on the school district in my area.

The audit included -

1. A review of the district and school websites

2. Interviews with former students and parents.

3. Attending six months worth of school committee meetings and review of meeting minutes.

4. View of federal and state assessments of the schools in the district.

This book details my recommended actions: