Description: This session will look at how you live your life in the framework of an Enterprise Thinking Model.  Specifically, it will show how your life’s choices fit into the framework of a Taguchi Loss Function equation.  It will introduce the concepts of the “Taguchi Flower” and “Taguchi Star” which show a relationship between the various facets of your life.  The presentation will show examples and quotes from Ackoff, Rovin, Deming and others to give insight to your thoughts on what a systematic approach to your “working life” means.

Target Audience: The presentation is going to be for a general audience, how to apply Enterprise Thinking to your life, work, and relationships.

Organization Issues: The Taguchi Flower and Star can be also be applied to an organization.

Objectives: Present the theory of the “Taguchi Flower and Star” and examples, discussion and approaches of Enterprise Thinking.

Date: Thursday, April 15th

Length: 2 hours (5:15-7:15pm)

Location: Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne - 6633 Canoga Avenue, Canoga Park

Cost: None

Handouts: Available for download after the Forum

Felix, AKA Rocketdyne Slugger (left) with Bill Bellows

Biography: Felix Delgado was born and grew up in Bakersfield, California.  He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from California Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo.  He has recently earned an M.S. in Engineering and Productivity Management from Loyola Marymount University, where he took courses in Lean and Operations Management.

After graduating from Cal Poly, Felix worked on the Space Shuttle at Vandenberg Air Force Base for Lockheed Space Operations Company as a member of the Activation and Launch Team for the liquid hydrogen main propulsion system.  He then came to work for Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne as a Member of the Technical Staff, where he now has over twenty years of experience with space propulsion systems.  He started his career working on the National Aerospace Plane (NASP) designing a ground test engine that simulated operation at Mach 6.  He has also worked on the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME), Space Station and the propulsion systems for the Delta IV rocket, the RS68 engine. While assigned to the RS-68 program, he first applied the Enterprise Thinking concepts of Water Logic, Taguchi methods and Dr. Deming’s theories in the development of this engine's Main Injector.  In doing so, significant improvements were achieved in the fabrication of the Main Injector as well as the Gas Generator.  Felix is now applying these "lessons learned" from RS-68 to the design of the upper stage propulsion system for the Ares rocket the J-2X.

Contact: Felix can be reached by e-mail at felix.delgado@pwr.utc.com for additional information about this pre-conference session.



Joe with his daughter, April

Biography: Joe Onstott was born and grew up in Los Alamos, New Mexico. He acquired a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Oregon State University after which he hired into the Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne Canoga Park facility as a member of the technical staff. He also holds a masters degree in business from Pepperdine University and is an ASQ Certified Quality Engineer.

Joe has over 27 years of experience in the design, manufacture and test of rocket engines. He started his career designing hardware for the Space Shuttle Main Engine; hardware that he has designed is currently flying on the Space Shuttle. He then moved into management where he could focus more on improving the process of designing hardware and was responsible for both the Combustion Devices Design dept and the Engine Systems Design dept at different times. His emphasis for improving the Design Process is based on approaching the design of any component from the system perspective, understanding and integrating the manufacturing process and customer requirements into the design.

Joe is currently heading up the Engineering Quality and Continuous Improvement team where the team’s focus is improving engineering for the division. He is responsible for supporting the improvement of the engineering process by improving the infrastructure, management processes and the application of improvement tools. He also provides engineering support to the various products as needed.

Joe has spent a significant amount of time applying systems thinking and Deming’s theory of management to the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne business and currently teaches Managing Variation as a System and Design for Variation.

Joe has spent a significant amount of time applying systems thinking and Deming’s theory of management to the rocket business and currently presents PWR's Thinking Roadmap seminar, , as well as Design for Variation.

He is an ASQ Certified Quality Engineer and has recently received his M.B.A. from Pepperdine University.

Contact: Joe can be reached by e-mail at joseph.onstott@pwr.utc.com for additional information about this pre-conference session.