Six Sigma Black Belt Faculty

Dr. S. Tom Foster is a professor and author, in the field of operations, quality, and supply chain management. Among Dr. Foster’s areas of expertise are strategic quality management, supply chain quality, service quality, teamwork, quality in government, and operations technology management.

Tom is Area Leader and Associate Professor of Quality and Supply Chain Management at Brigham Young University and has experience in manufacturing, financial services, and international oil exploration. Dr. Foster has consulted for a number of companies including Hewlett-Packard, Trus Joist Macmillan, Cutler-Hammer/Eaton Corp., Heinz Frozen Foods, US West Corporation, Healthwise Corporation, and the United States Department of Energy. Tom served on the 1996 and 1997 Boards of Examiners for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

Dr. Foster is on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Operations Management, Quality Management Journal, Benchmarking for Quality Management, and the Quality Observer. He has published over 50 quality-related articles in journals such as the Decision Sciences, International Journal of Production Research, the Journal of Quality Management, the International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, the Quality Management Journal, and Quality Progress. His most recent book is entitled, Quality Management:An Integrative Approach (Prentice Hall) and he is listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in The World. Tom is founder of www.freequality.org, was awarded the ASBSU 2000 Outstanding Faculty Award, and received the prestigious 2002 Decision Sciences Institute Instructional Innovation Award. He is currently serving as guest editor for a special issue on supply chain quality for the Journal of Operations Management.

Dr. Val Hawks is the director of the School of Technology at Brigham Young University.  He teaches classes and has interest in the areas of quality systems, technical management and leadership, and ethics.  He has published one book and numerous journal articles in the areas of quality, managing new technology, and engineering ethics.  He has consulted for a number of companies in the area of quality, and taught classes in quality methods to numerous companies in China and has taught classes or seminars on quality systems in China, India, and Jordan.  He has been at BYU for 21 years and teaching in the area of quality for 17 years.

Dr Tony LaTurner is CEO of Pacific Rim Business Review, Inc. He has certifications in Lean and Master Lean, Theory of Constraints-Jonah’s Jonah, and Black and Green belts. He has taught for Brigham Young University, Weber State University, and Utah State University’s business programs for 9-10 years and taught for the last 15 years over 400 seminars in 20 foreign countries. He has worked with hundreds companies in industry as a private consultant both foreign and domestically. He is an expert in the Lean or Kaizen-Lean methods for continuous improvement efforts.

Certifications:
Villanova University Six Sigma Black Belt
Master Black Belt Certified
Master Project Management Certified
Goldratt Institute Jonah Certified
TOC Center Jonah’s Jonah Certified
Project Management
National Consultant Association—Professional Consultant

Teaching Experience—Industry:
Public Speaker—over 100 conferences and conventions
Seminars—over 400 in 20 foreign countries
Project Management (Lean, TOC)—1 month to 2 years in duration, 296 companies
Black Belt Certifications—120 students
Jonah Certified—Theory of Constraints; over 200 Jonahs
Green Belt Certifications, Six Sigma—72 students
Lean and Master Lean Certifications—over 200 students