James A. Erwin is a Master Black Belt with 33 years of experience in operations and Six Sigma and Lean. He is an executive director for ETS in its office of operational excellence. He has taught more than 1, 300 Black Belts and has been involved in projects that have yielded more than $50 million in first-year savings. He was part of the team that garnered the first Baldrige Award when he worked for Florida Power & Light. He can be reached at JErwin@ets.org.