OU’s Pawley Lean Institute finds creative ways to engage students

Ask Dennis Wade, the director of the Pawley Lean Institute, about the No. 1 priority of the Institute, and his answer is always the same: “student engagements.”

The Institute has done a remarkable job of meeting this objective from Wade’s perspective.

“I’ve been able to engage multiple partners within Oakland University (OU) and industry over the past 10 years that I have led the Institute,” Wade said. “I was pretty much given a clean sheet of paper in establishing the programs that we now support."

So, what are those student engagements?  First and foremost is working with students from the Human Resource Development (HRD/School of Education and Human services), Operations Management (POM/School of Business Administration), and Industrial Systems and Engineering (ISE/School of Engineering and Computer Science) to find potential internship or co-op opportunities. 

“The Institute has worked with 15 to 20 organizations directly that have hired OU students into internships, co-ops, or full-time positions and assisted in over 140 placements,” Wade said. This also includes Community Service Lean Internships that are actually run by the Pawley Lean Institute as paid internships. The Institute has also assisted in placing students into OU campus projects.

The Lean Community Service Internships are funded by the organizations such as AIC Equipment, AT&T, The Bosch Foundation, Jabil, The Lean Enterprise Institute, and the Mark and Paula Doman Foundation.

“This program is fairly unique where we place two students into a community service organization to complete a Lean project for the organization,” Wade said. “We assign a mentor from industry as well as a professor from OU to serve as a mentor for the students. The students work the project over a 10-week period of time (10 hours a week each), and complete both a midpoint update and final recommendation for their specific project. Each student earns $2,500 for the semester.” 

The program initially completed one project in fall semester and one project in the winter semester. Currently, two projects are completed in the fall semester and two projects in the winter semester. And there is now a variation of the program to support summer internships. This program has completed 19 projects and paid out $95,000 to date to OU students.

“This is a win/win for everyone,” said Dennis Pawley, founder of the Pawley Lean Institute “Our students get practical Lean experience, a paid internship, as well as a significant update to their resumes. The community service organization gets a completed project that makes them more efficient. And our funders are connecting with the community in an extremely positive way.”

The Pawley Lean Institute also awards scholarships at the undergraduate and graduate level to students that can demonstrate Lean skills, coursework, and/or projects. In conjunction with the recently added Mark and Paula Doman scholarship for Lean students, $8,000 was awarded in 2023 and $6,600 awarded in 2024. Just another dimension in Student Engagements.

There are also industry connections where students can attend third party training at no cost as means of enhancing their Lean knowledge and skillsets. Partnerships with the Lean Learning Center and the Lean Enterprise Institute have allowed student participation and the opportunity to earn certificates and enhancements to their resumes. There are also ways for students in the HRD, ISE, and Operations Management programs to earn Green Belt Certification, which will catch the eye of potential employers.

“I created the Lean Institute to give a differential advantage to OU graduates that are seeking employment,” Pawley said.

With that theme in mind, the Pawley Lean Institute has created a Professional Development program for HRD undergraduate students that are getting ready to finish their degree. The HRD program as implemented a Professional Development segment into its HRD 4950 Internship course. As of March 2024, 139 students have completed this segment as a part of their required coursework. The program also partnered with the Oakland University Career and Life Design Center to create coursework content.

Wade also works with the Industrial Systems and Engineering (ISE) Department in working with industry to create project opportunities for the ISE Senior Design Course. Industry partnerships including McLaren Oakland Hospital and Comerica working with three or four students on a team will complete a Lean project for course credit.

“Another opportunity to apply coursework to complex process issues, overcoming roadblocks, making recommendations that an organization can implement once the project is completed,” Wade said.

The same can be said for students that work on OU process issues for Lean projects within the campus environment. Students working on these projects have received course credit as an independent study.

The Pawley Lean Institute has also expanded into student engagements with high school students.

“We bring high school students into our Lean Lab in the Engineering Center and provide an overview of ISE, complete a hands-on Lean activity, and a visit to the Augmented Reality Center followed by a student led Oakland University campus tour,” Wade said.

Lunch is provided, and transportation costs are reimbursed, so there is no cost to the participating high school. The program also supports participation from disadvantaged schools, including a March visit from Detroit Public Schools, Academy of the Americas. This program has been visited by 675 high school students since its inception.

“The Pawley Lean Institute has supported Oakland University academic initiatives in the area of Lean as well as supporting Lean projects within the OU campus,” Wade said. “However, our priority will remain as a student centric organization that promotes student engagement.”