Page 68 - MetalForming October 2013

Special Report—Women in Manufacturing
and six-sigma manager at the John Deere Engine Works plant in Waterloo, IA. Tazegul notes that Deere’s Women- REACH (Relating, Enriching, Achiev- ing, Challenging and Helping) organi- zation has helped provide direction to her successful career at the company, which includes a stint as industrial engineering supervisor.
“WomenREACH meetings and edu- cational events,” she says, “provide opportunities for women at John Deere to share ideas and build professional relationships. We discuss challenges and share ideas to turn challenges into opportunities for improvement.”
Among such opportunities are those found on the plant floor as well as the often-discussed work-family balance issues faced by all families where both parents work outside of the home. For Tazegul, that has meant forgoing any job opportunities that required fre- quent travel so she could stay close to her family. Her solution differed great- ly from that practiced by Farrer, whose
husband, she says, took a primary role in raising their children. Different means to the same end—exactly the type of experience and idea sharing that Dressler and other young women in manufacturing can gain by becom- ing engaged in WIM.
The Industry Needs More Collaborators, Nurturers and Listeners
Like Farrer, Tazegul studied indus- trial engineering in college and earned a master’s degree (in operations man- agement), “because I wanted to work within the manufacturing environ- ment,” she says. “I enjoy working with the people on the shop floor, seeing how things are made and finding ways to make them more efficiently. I like to be around creative out-of-the-box thinkers ( Tazegul drops the name Leonardo da Vinci as a personal hero), and also enjoy helping to inspire that creative thinking in others.”
Prior to moving into her current
Mena Tazegul, a John Deere quality systems and six-sigma manager, believes that “women are collabora- tors, nurturers and listeners. Manu- facturers—all employers in fact—need these traits in their managers, and would benefit from moving women into leadership roles. I truly believe that when we put our ‘team-thinking’ hat on and when we collaborate, we always will find solutions to problems that are richer and better than if we try to develop solutions on our own.”
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66 MetalForming/October 2013
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