The Power of Lean: Dr. Craig Seidelson Manufactures Change in Indiana Correctional Industries
Walking the corridors of an Indiana correctional facility, Dr. Craig Seidelson stops in front of a whiteboard covered with green, red, and yellow markers and project deadlines.
But the projects aren’t what catch his attention; it’s the names written beside them. They tell him who’s doing the work. When he first arrived, it was mostly supervisors’ names, something Seidelson hoped to change.
Seidelson, associate professor of operations and supply chain management at UIndy, has spent years mastering lean manufacturing. This management philosophy empowers workers to eliminate waste and improve the system around them.
Beyond teaching courses, UIndy professors are encouraged to pursue their interests and extend their expertise beyond the classroom. For Seidleson, that opportunity led him to Indiana Correctional Industries (ICI), where he has served as a consultant for more than a year.
People leaving prison face countless obstacles as they work toward stability, with employment often being one of the biggest barriers. That’s why ICI gives incarcerated individuals hands-on work experience, including sewing apparel, building furniture, and creating printed materials.
In his prior experience working with post-release individuals, Seidelson noticed that many of them had a passive approach to their work, leaving him wondering if he was intervening too late in the process. “Maybe the way to improve people’s employment prospects isn’t to do it after they’re released, but maybe do it while they’re still working and incarcerated,” he said.
The more time he spent teaching lean principles to his UIndy students, instilling them with confidence as they entered the workforce, the more he wondered if those same principles could prepare incarcerated individuals for release. “If they had those skills when they’re released, they would have a leg up,” said Seidelson. “They wouldn’t be starting from zero.” Recognizing the potential, ICI allowed Seidelson to help implement lean principles to strengthen efficiency and worker engagement.
After more than a dozen years helping build factories in China, Seidelson saw his fair share of manufacturing challenges. But correctional industries introduced obstacles he had never experienced. “I had no concept of it,” he said.
Before making a single improvement suggestion, Seidelson spent months touring different correctional facilities across the state, including Plainfield, Terre Haute, and Pendleton. His intention wasn’t to walk in with answers, but to observe and learn. “I needed to understand the constraints in their world, which are very different from how they would be in an outside environment.”
While helping facilities manage inventory more efficiently, the steepest learning curve was the amount of security that’s involved. “I remember thinking, ‘Okay, so when these things arrive, they just go in?’” Seidelson explained. “And they said, ‘No. They have to go here first, through a secure checkpoint, and they can only arrive at certain times.”
While Seidelson partnered with prison management, implementing three- to five-year strategic plans, he consistently emphasized that the people performing the work should play an active role in improving it. “People want to be listened to,” he said. “When you sit down with people and say, ‘Can you explain your job? Can you explain how it could be done better?’ the feedback has been very positive.”
Traditional job training encourages workers to arrive on time and follow directions. While those may be valuable practices, Seidelson took things a step further, using lean to help incarcerated workers solve problems, continually improve processes, and take ownership of their work.
“In lean, you recognize that the people who do something over and over again are the source of knowledge in the system,” he said. “If you understood that mindset of work, if work to you wasn’t being told when to arrive, told what to do, if you had this concept of ownership of a task, that would make you a lot more employable.”
These firsthand accounts not only informed his consulting, but they also helped transform his classroom. Drawing on what he learned inside Indiana correctional facilities, Seidelson has been developing new service-learning initiatives at UIndy. Working with community partners, including Goodwill Commercial Services, his business students observe workplace operations. Afterward, the class debriefs with professors from UIndy’s Department of Social Work to better understand the human element of the systems they’re studying.
Seidelson hopes his efforts will help reduce the likelihood of individuals returning to prison. Just over a year into the process, success can be difficult to measure. But as Seidelson clears the security checkpoint, he looks for the clearest sign that change is taking place. It appears on the whiteboards, in the names written beside the projects. “When I start to see incarcerated individuals’ names beside that, then I know we’ve been successful,” he said.