Front Royal, VA - Susan O. Schall is a woman with an extraordinary set of skills and engineering education that she parlayed into an engineering career followed by a consulting practice. While her PhD is in industrial engineering, and manufacturing operations are a major segment of those she supports, her work impacts many different operations, processes and levels of leadership. She has delivered $250 million in results driven by process improvements and organizational health methods.  In addition to providing operational management for SOS Consulting (clearly derived from her name) Susan volunteers for ABET, a nonprofit global accreditor of STEM education, aligned with her expertise in engineering and quality.

SOS Consulting was formed in 2004 in response to a friend who sought her out for assistance delivering Six Sigma training to a global food and beverage manufacturer. Recognizing her experiences and approaches have broad application, Dr. Schall diversified her offerings and provides training, coaching and thought leadership for a variety of clients and business segments.

“SOS Consulting creates a means for everyone to contribute and create an organization that is more effective and positioned competitively. Most of the clients are smaller manufacturers, teams who have been ignored by the local, state and federal economic development groups. Everything is changing all at once for them. We enable these organizations to deal with productivity, quality, technology, and organization health in this sea of change.”

While the bottom line is always ROI and turning a profit, people make it all happen. The best places to work recognize this, and create a workplace where everyone can flourish, impacts the bottom-line. Those who do, see  a higher return than those who do not (upwards of 13%). She enjoys making that kind of impact.

Dr Schall has over 30 years of experience that she leverages in all of her engagements. Client industries have included higher education, and non-profits as well.

Dr. Schall met with our hosts before and will review some principles she discussed in the past. She will also bring listeners up to speed on things that have occurred lately, for herself and in industry. She will talk about manufacturing challenges, including finding people to fill skill gaps and disappearing trades, such as welders and truck drivers. She will also talk about a forthcoming book, based on the 220+ blog posts she has created over the last 9 years. And she will discuss what it’ means to turn data into good decisions.

“We live in an age where we have access to more data than any time in human history, yet most people are uncomfortable using statistics. I teach people to think statistically, to look at the data as a story, and make good decisions using it.”

Susan will devote one episode of her extended 4-part series to what she calls The Six Essentials to Healthy Manufacturing One of them is this concept of statistical thinking. Another is cohesive leadership; the specific skills and vision it takes to inspire team cooperation and motivate people towards change. Strategic clarity is another key element. Many of these principles can be viewed in her SOS logo design.

In addition to operational and leadership improvements, Susan believes it is important to strengthen relationships with suppliers, customers, and stakeholders around a company.

Dr. Schall’s website further enforces the message: if we don’t execute on organization health and process improvements, we cannot stay competitive in a sea of change. There are  new challenges arising daily: digitization, tariffs, and geopolitical conflicts that impact manufacturers and their ability to thrive.

Learn more about her mission, philosophy and consulting practice in these two December shows.

For more information about Dr. Schall, visit: www.execute2compete.com