Minneapolis’ Kraus-Anderson hires process improvement pro

Minneapolis-based Kraus-Anderson Construction Company has hired Karen Tucker as Lean and Process Improvement Director. She will oversee the continued development of the company’s Lean culture to improve operational effectiveness, client experience and strategic market position.

Tucker is a six sigma master black belt, a rank assigned to the most experienced Six Sigma expert practitioners who have created portfolios of improvement projects for businesses and enterprises. She has more than 20 years of experience as a leader of strategic process improvement and transformation across complex organizations in the manufacturing, construction, utility and energy industries.

Tucker comes to Kraus-Anderson from Wanzek Construction in Fargo, North Dakota. As Wanzek’s director of quality and development, she established an organization-wide document control system and standard operating procedures for all priority construction and business processes. She also facilitated lean kaizens and taught lean and quality improvement methodologies to the organization.

In addition, Tucker also served in roles as the company’s renewable services technical director, and project management office director. Prior to Wanzek, she was the corporate operational excellence master black belt quality process manager for NextEra Energy, where she led quality improvement, lean and transformational change projects across the corporation.