Ph.D. Candidate

University of Missouri – Rolla

Rolla, Missouri

(314) 541-6597

Elizabeth.Cudney@mst.edu

Elizabeth Cudney received her B.S. in Industrial Engineering from North Carolina State University.  She received her Master of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering with a Manufacturing Specialization and Master of Business Administration from the University of Hartford.  She is currently pursuing her doctorate in Engineering Management from the University of Missouri – Rolla and plans to graduate in May 2006. 

Prior to returning to school for her doctorate, she worked for over five years at Jacobs Vehicle Systems in Bloomfield, CT in various roles including Six Sigma Black Belt, Quality/Process Engineer, Quality Auditor, Senior Manufacturing Engineer and Manufacturing Manager.  As a certified Six Sigma Black Belt, she led four projects using process flow, cause and effect diagrams, process failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA), control plans, hypothesis testing and design of experiments.  Her training project focused on reducing defects and cost of poor quality for broken deep hole drills.  The project resulted in a 91 percent reduction in defects and a 98 percent reduction in cost of poor quality for a savings of $350,000.  One of her projects included reducing strain injuries in a machining and assembly area.  Using process flow diagrams, cause and effect diagrams with CNX, and the NIOSH lifting equation, she led the implementation of an ergonomic part transfer system.  The new system eliminated strain injuries in machining and reduced strain injuries in assembly by 75 percent.

Beth is an ASQ Certified Quality Engineer and Certified Six Sigma Black Belt.  Beth was a recipient of the 2006 Society of Manufacturing Engineers Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award.  She is the 2005-2006 President of the IIE Lean Division.  She was on the conference committee for the 2003 IIE Solutions International Conference and served as co-Chair of the 2005 IIE Lean Management Solutions Conference.  Beth Cudney is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Society for Quality (ASQ), the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE), the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), the Society of American Value Engineers (SAVE), the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), and APICS.   

Beth Cudney’s major areas of interest are in quality and lean manufacturing.  She has published over twenty articles on topics including the Mahalanobis-Taguchi System, Robust Design, Design for Six Sigma, and Lean Principles.  She also coauthored two workshops for APICS on standard work and 5S for their Lean Series Workshops.