Steve Prevette

Steve Prevette is a practitioner of Performance Measurement using the Theory and Tools developed and promoted by Dr. Walter Shewhart and Dr. W. Edwards Deming. He currently works as a statistician for Fluor Hanford in Richland, Washington, reporting to Occupational Safety and Health. He supports performance indicators in a broad spectrum of subjects, including safety, environment, operations, maintenance, and quality. His customers include three DOE sites (Hanford, Fernald, and Los Alamos), and several Department of Energy contractors. Steve provides his customers with more than 2,500 charts and files per month. Yes, Steve has a control chart of the number of charts made each month.

Steve has published articles both with the American Society for Quality, and the American Society of Safety Engineers. "Lead to Succeed" for the American Society of Quality appeared in the September 2005 issue of Quality Progress and "Charting Safety Performance" by ASSE in its Professional Safety magazine in May 2006. He has provided Dr. Deming's Red Bead Experiment for more than 2,200 persons, and leads a monthly training session in performance indicators. He also teaches evening statistical courses for City University's Richland WA site. Steve holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech, and a M.S. degree in Operations Research from the Naval Postgraduate School.

Other background includes: Born in 1959 in Pennsylvania, raised in New York State and Massachusetts. Steve received a B.S. degree from Virginia Tech in Civil Engineering in 1981. In addition to his engineering studies, he was a member of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets, and marched in the Regimental Band, the Highty-Tighties. Steve wrote half-time shows during senior year. Upon graduation, he joined the U.S. Navy, completed nuclear power and submarine training, and was assigned to the USS JACK (SSN 605) and USS WOODROW WILSON (SSBN 624). Steve attended the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey CA and received a MS in Operations Research, with honors. He was awarded the "Chief of Naval Operations Award for Excellence in Operations Research while a student. During his duty at a torpedo maintenance facility in Charleston, SC Stve was exposed to Dr. Deming's work, and was the Total Quality Leadership Coordinator for the facility. In 1992, he performed an analysis of military promotion rates by race and gender for the Defense Military Equal Opportunity Institute. The published paper used Statistical Process Control (SPC) in a previously unique application, and did provide some meaningful results for the Department of Defense.

With his wife Jennie, they care for two Lhasa Apso dogs that own them. Steve's primary hobby is model railroading, and is active in a local model railroad club and is the Vice President of the Pacific Northwest Region of the National Model Railroad Association.

Web sites:
work: http://www.hanford.gov/safety/vpp/trend.htm
model railroad: http://users.owt.com/prevette

Participant in the Deming Electronic Network, the Elsmar Cove, and ASQ Discussion Boards