There are hundreds of people at Pratt & Whitney Canada who work daily and diligently to build and maintain PT6 engines. It’s an impressive family of individuals, and this month we’re featuring a few PT6 family members whose passion for their jobs is clearly evident. These are some of the many people that make the PT6 engine great.

You might say that Lisa Martin, ACE leader at P&WC’s Centre of Excellence for the Assembly and Test of the PT6 engine in Lethbridge, Alberta, spends her days constantly looking to make things better. It’s her passion. ACE – an acronym for “Achieving Competitive Excellence” – is P&WC’s company-wide operating system that builds continuous improvement into all of its operations. “ACE is a mindset, a philosophy, of never resting on your laurels,” says Lisa. “We are always identifying ways in which we can improve processes as well as the quality of the end-product for our customers.”

Lisa joined the company in 2001 as an engine technician before becoming ACE leader four years ago, so she’s quite fluent in the language of the PT6. “That’s a tremendous advantage for me in my current job,” she says. “I have done most of the assembly jobs in the plant, so when there is an opportunity to make an improvement, I can help work with the team to come up with solutions using the perspective of a technician.”

When an improvement opportunity is identified, Lisa holds a meeting – called a “Quality Clinic” – of technicians and others equipped to take action. During these clinics, a variety of ACE tools are used to help break down the situation and identify improvements. Support staff at the plant help implement the solutions. “The engine technicians are great,” she says. “They come to the table knowing that they are part of the solution – and that’s the best place to start.”