Barb Nicol

With a degree in Industrial Technology, including a concentration in Manufacturing Engineering, Barb Nicol has over 20 years' experience in manufacturing ranging from Cost Accountant to Operations Management. Barb received training in the Toyota Production System over 15 years ago and, as a Manufacturing Engineer, she implemented lean principles (elimination of waste) on production assembly lines. Barb is certified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)/MEP System in Lean Manufacturing principles, which include Principles of Lean, Administrative Lean, Value Stream Mapping for Production and Administration, 5S, Setup Reduction, Cellular/Flow Implementation, Standardized Work, TPM, and Pull Kanban Systems.
As a Project Manager for the Northwest Wisconsin Manufacturing Outreach Center (NWMOC), Barb has helped organizations in many diverse industries reduce lead times, increase productivity, improve on-time delivery, reduce changeover time, reduce inventories, increase employee involvement, and implement manufacturing strategies. Barb has been with the NWMOC since 2000 and has trained thousands of people in the Lean principles, over 3500 employees in one organization alone.


Presentation: Administrative Lean
The goal of an organization is to become a Lean Enterprise – to apply the common sense business practices embodied by Lean Thinking to all areas of a business. There are many well documented successes in manufacturing applications. However, service organizations and administrative processes within manufacturing companies have struggled with applying these concepts to their unique information and activity flows. The participants will be shown common wastes within an organization and be introduced to various lean concepts that can put them on track to become a Lean Enterprise.