Acknowledgements and Biographical Note
Professor David Cochran (Director
Production System Design Laboratory)
Jochen Linck (PhD student
Production System Design Laboratory)
Scott Ball (Masters Student –
Leaders for Manufacturing [LFM] Program)
Paul Gallagher – Research
Associate (LFM)
David McManus – Manufacturing
Manager
My entire family, for their
support.
Martin Mbaya was born in Nairobi, Kenya on October 19,
1977. He attended primary school at Catholic Parochial School (January,1984 –
March,1988) and Nyandarua Boarding Primary School (May,1988 – December,1991)
where he received his Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE).
Subsequently he joined Alliance High School (January,1992 – December,1995)
where he received his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE). Soon
after, he enrolled at Strathmore College (January 1996 – June 1996), a post
high school institution based in Kenya, to study Information Systems and
completed the first part of a diploma in IMIS (Institute for the Management of
Information Systems). Before completing the diploma, he got enrolled at MIT
(August 1996 – June 2000) where he will complete his Bachelors Degree in
Mechanical Engineering and a concentration in Japanese in June 2000. While at
MIT, he has traveled to China to carry out a seven-week Internet project at
Fudan High School in Shanghai, China. He has also spent eleven weeks working on
a machine design project at ULVAC limited (Japan’s leading producer of
equipment for the vacuum industry) in Chigasaki, Japan. While in Japan, he also
got to visit the Toyota Assembly plant in Nagoya and witnessed first hand the
Toyota Production System at work. In the USA, he has been involved in designing
a Lean Manufacturing cell for Middleton Corporation, a manufacturer of parts
for the aerospace industry. He has also studied the Lean Manufacturing system
at United Electric (a manufacturer of flow meters for the processing industry)
that has successfully implemented lean manufacturing principles in its plant
located at Watertown, Massachusetts. Over a two-year period he has taken
classes with Professor David Cochran, Director of the Production Design System
Laboratory. The PSD Laboratory is part of the Laboratory for Manufacturing and
Productivity in MIT’s Mechanical Engineering department. Martin is also a
cofounder of the MIT-AITI program, an initiative that is sending MIT students
to African Schools to carry out 5-week long Internet related projects that help
to bridge the digital divide between Africa and the West.