Stories

Lean Six Sigma Training Paves the Way from Accounting to Plant Floor

In a few short years, Shanda Gentry has gone from keeping the inventory to making the inventory.

The former LP Roaring River accountant was promoted to finishing superintendent in 2006, after two and a half years as one of the mill’s Lean Six Sigma Black Belts.

When she first applied for an accountant’s job at the LP mill in 2001, her goal was just to find a job closer to her hometown. But today, she oversees manufacturing, coating and packaging operations at the mill, which makes several product lines of LP® SmartSide® siding. “I got outside of my comfort zone,” she said of her move from the office to the plant floor.

“Shanda is a natural for the superviors job,” LP Roaring River Plant Manager Jim Reavis said. “She brings a wealth of knowledge of the business from her job in accounting and her three years as a Black Belt. But she also has the perspective of someone who isn’t weighed down with the knowledge that ‘it’s always been done that way.’”