Lean Teaching Award 2013

Annual Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Lean Concepts

IIE's lean division offers a number of awards to recognize the contribution of individuals to advancing the knowledge and practice of lean concepts. The lean division's teaching award is given out annually to honor the services of a person/group of people who have developed curriculum and disseminated courses in the subject area. The lean division now invites nominations for the 6th Lean Teaching Award. The 2013 award will be presented at the IIE Annual Conference & Expo in San Juan, Puerto Rico, May 18-22, 2013.

2012 Winners 

  • Beth Cudney; Missouri University of Science and Technology 
  • Toni Doolen; Oregon State University 

Eligibility Criteria 

  • The candidate must be a member of IIE.
  • The course for which they are being recognized must be a lean course within an industrial engineering department or a closely related program (examples of closely related programs include systems engineering and engineering management, examples of course titles might be lean manufacturing systems, lean system modeling and simulation, lean logistics, lean supply networks, lean practice and management, just-in-time production system, lean six-sigma, etc).
  • Course materials for which they are being recognized must have been developed by the candidate.

Evaluation Criteria:
The following criteria will be used by the judges in evaluating the applications submitted. Applicants are encouraged to provide supporting documentation to demonstrate their contributions in these areas.

  • Leadership: demonstration of creating or fostering leadership and excellence in the teaching of lean techniques and tools. 
  • Design and Content Quality: the appropriateness/relevance of the course content to educating the target audience. 
  • Applied Learning: the development and use of materials to empower students to apply and implement lean techniques through the use of games, hands-on simulations and assignments/projects, etc. 
  • Innovation: use of innovative approaches to teach the principles and practices of lean systems. 
  • Student Satisfaction: evidence that teaching of lean concepts are of value to department, student and community as shown in the course evaluations and statements from students. 

Nominations may be made by a faculty colleague or a student who has taken the course from the candidate. The nomination package must consist of the following:

  • Letters of support from the nominator and two other individuals; at least one of the three letters must be from a faculty member and one from a student.
  • Course syllabus and supporting items such as samples of different instructional materials used.
  • Summary copies of teaching evaluations.
  • Curriculum vitae of the candidate.
  • A one-page reflective statement by the individual being nominated.

All supporting documents in the nomination package should be submitted in PDF format only. For large documentations, the submission can be made on a CD or via other means such as FTP access or www.yousendit.com.

Deadline for nomination is Jan. 25, 2013. Please e-mail the entire package to Fazleena Badurdeen, badurdeen@engr.uky.edu, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, University of Kentucky.

Past Winners 



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