Her Story
About Tiffany
Tiffany Taylor serves as Continuous Improvement Manager in manufacturing, aN INDUSTRY where she has worked for nine years. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from Mississippi State and later pursued a Master's in Business Administration from the same institution. Her professional journey includes obtaining Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, Black Belt, and ultimately Master Black Belt certifications. Taylor attributes much of her success to mentors who provided early guidance, high standards, and opportunities for growth. She values integrity, curiosity over judgment, and continuous growth, applying these in her efforts to institutionalize continuous improvement as a sustainable culture rather than isolated projects. She advises women entering manufacturing to be their own advocates while maintaining accountability and humility.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Tiffany
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute a significant part of my success to the mentors and leaders that invested in me early on in my career. They set high standards, provided constructive feedback before I knew how to ask for it, and trusted me with projects that stretched me to help me grow even though I was still trying to find my footing. That early guidance instilled a natural bias towards continuous improvement in me. It taught me how to stay curious, remain coachable, and hold myself accountable to realistic and measurable outcomes.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
During my first week of work, my boss told me, “If you walk in the room and everyone is laughing and talking and they go silent when you enter, put your back against the wall, one hand on your wallet, the other hand in the air, and ask what the hell you did wrong because for some reason they don’t trust you.” It was said in humor, but the underlying lesson has stuck with me: don’t shy away from uncomfortable truths and address tension directly. I have to be accountable for my decisions and how they impact others. Trust amongst a team is critical to success.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
My main piece of advice is that you are your strongest advocate, but that confidence and advocacy has to be paired with accountability. In manufacturing, especially on the shop floor, you aren’t going to just be handed a seat at the table. You have to speak up for your ideas and ensure that the impact of your work is seen and recognized rather than just sitting back quietly waiting on your hard work to be noticed. The quickest way to build the required trust with both operators and leadership is accountability. When you’re wrong or you’ve pushed too hard own it immediately and publicly. Respect is not earned from never being wrong, it is earned through having high standards and the humility to say that you missed the mark, but you want to fix it and move forward.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Being a continuous improvement manager in manufacturing, you have to take it from continuous improvement being cost-cutting projects to institutionalizing it as a sustainable culture. The projects are great and you can have quick wins that bring savings, but the challenge is making it sustainable. My primary opportunity is coaching leaders, supervisors, and operators, everyone on the team, on the tools and turning continuous improvement into daily operating habits rather than an external initiative led by just one person.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Integrity being at the base of everything. At work, that means following through on commitments, being transparent about risks, and doing the right thing even when it isn’t being looked at and tracked. With family and friends, it means being dependable and always being there when needed.
Having curiosity over judgement. When something unexpected happens, jumping to blame never solves the underlying issue. Staying curious allows me to dig for the root causes, understand why things happened the way they did, and keep learning.
Finally, growth and knowing that there is always something new to learn. I enjoy seeing people, systems, and myself evolving and getting better over time. I am always the person that asks, "What should I start digging into and learning next?"
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