# About Tsunami Swami

Jason Jones (a.k.a. The Swami)
The ops guy who always avoided consultants—yet here I am

## Who I Am
I am a problem solver by nature, an engineer by education, and an operations guy by experience. I cut through the noise, frame the problem, and implement effective solutions—with or without technology.

## My Story

## Transforming Bureaucracy Into Performance
I started as a field engineer in operations-intensive work—large crews, diverse equipment and materials, tight weather windows, and a 24/7, all-season operation (highway maintenance at the DOT). We were a large, inefficient, bureaucratic organization, but I saw that we didn't have to be. With support from trusting leadership, we transformed the outfit people joked about (what's yellow and sleeps four? (Answer: A DOT truck...)) into a lean, performance-driven operation—with measured outcomes and costs. We successfully changed the operations and the culture. Then I took it statewide. As Statewide Maintenance Director, the scale jumped: a 1,500-person staff, a nine-figure operating budget, and the responsibility to keep thousands of miles of roads and bridges in shape (and the Governor out of the news). With a team that bought into what I was trying to do, we built a performance-driven organization that cut costs, increased output, improved quality, and measured results. We knew our core business and our unit costs, and contractors couldn't compete with us (believe me, they tried). Along the way, we developed and empowered leaders who could sustain and grow the culture of performance.

## From Hard-hats to Software
After a couple of decades, I moved into software—something I knew little about. I went from a large bureaucracy to a 20-person startup: a software/hardware company providing a SaaS application and IoT telematics devices for tracking assets and managing large mixed fleets (think really large contractors). My operations background and experience managing large fleets, provided me with a good understanding of the customer needs, but software and hardware were completely new to me. With an outcomes mindset, and a lot of curiosity, I dug in wherever I could help. As small teams often require, I wore many hats—with my hands in product design and prototyping, software development, testing and validation, data analysis and cleaning (large datasets), customer support, custom client projects, and product documentation and training. Over six years, I learned to design, build, and apply technology that improves operations: tools people actually use and data shaped to their decisions—and I learned just as much about what doesn't work.

## The Consulting Chapter
I never thought I'd be a consultant; I always kinda hated consultants. But what started as a side job for a friend has turned into my focus… helping small and mid-sized organizations that want operations to run cleaner and cost less. I bring an outside set of eyes and a pragmatic playbook: define outcomes, map what's really happening, isolate the few levers that move results, identify where tools and technology add value, design simple steps people actually run, and set an execution cadence with visible measures. Depending on the job, that can mean an operational deep dive, process documentation, an AI readiness check or roadmap, lightweight tools/prototypes to prove value, or training and change support so improvements last. If tech or AI pays back, we use it; if not, we don't.

## How I Work
I'm small and hands-on, and I choose work where I can be effective and enjoy the problem—not a big-firm model chasing utilization and billable hours. When a project needs extra capacity or specialty skills, I bring in trusted people from my network and lead the work. If you're chasing measurable improvements—in ops, processes, or people—or you're considering where AI might fit, let's talk—maybe I can help.

## Beyond the Work
I'm good at building teams and growing people, turning messy processes into clean, lean systems, teasing out the real drivers from the busywork, finding the few critical pieces that move results, translating (and sometimes refereeing) between operations and engineering, and teaching technical topics to non-technical people without putting them to sleep. I enjoy thinking, learning, explaining, helping people grow, and solving problems—creatively, simply, and effectively (with or without AI). I like to travel and have a kitesurfing addiction (hence the logo—and the hair). I'm not a swami, but life ain't over yet.

## My AI Journey
I was able to jump on AI early. As luck would have it, I'd just finished a book on the history of AI and machine learning when ChatGPT landed in late 2022, so I was curious and ready to experiment. I've been using, studying, building—and failing—with AI ever since. I understand how it works, but more importantly, I know what it's good at and where—and why—it comes up short. AI is a great tool when used correctly and a force multiplier for the right work; applied poorly, it doesn't help.

## Some things we did along the way...
- Operational Efficiency (63% ↑): Shifted 1,500 employees and a $180M operating budget away from low-value activities toward the work that mattered most — boosting output in key activities by 63%, cutting overhead 52%, and reducing man-hours 13%.
- Crash Damage Recovery ($5.7M ↑): Crash damage routinely went unbilled — too slow to document, too late to prove who did it. Rebuilt the process end to end: police tagged damage at the scene, a rapid estimate system priced routine repairs in minutes, and billing went out within days. $5.7M recovered annually.
- Bridge Deficiencies (83% ↓): Developed a statewide bridge maintenance program that cut active deficiencies 83% and new ones 62% within two years — across 5,000+ bridges.
- Energy & Lighting ($1.5M ↓): Transitioned highway lighting to LED — the single biggest driver, saving $1M annually. Extended overhead sign life 20 years by designing reflective overlay skins built in-shop and bolted on, eliminating sign lighting on most structures. $1.5M saved annually in total.
- Vegetation Management ($4M ↓): Modernized vegetation management statewide — shifted to environmentally friendly methods while cutting $4M annually. Recognized by FHWA as a national best practice.
- Federal Funding (1st): The federal highway program didn't fund maintenance — and it certainly didn't pay state crews to do it. We changed both. Built preservation programs that proved our approach added value, then proved our in-house operation was more cost-effective than contracting. First state to win FHWA approval for a federally funded in-house preservation program.
- Alternative Fuels ($1M ↓): Converted 600+ state vehicles to alternative fuels and built a statewide fueling network — one of the largest projects of its kind in the country. $1M in annual fuel savings.
- Pavement Markings ($1.3M ↓): Instead of repainting every road line on a fixed schedule, measured which ones actually needed it — and only replaced what was worn. $1.3M saved per year.
- Budget & Staffing: Built statewide budget and staffing models tied to asset inventories, condition inspections, pavement deterioration models, and historical production data — answering 'how much money and people do we need, where, and why?' at a scale far beyond a spreadsheet.
- Performance Standards: Defined how every maintenance activity should be performed, tracked, staffed, and measured — statewide. Became the foundation for budgeting, scheduling, QA/QC, and ultimately federal funding approval.
- RFID Asset Tracking: Designed and deployed a low-cost RFID + cellular tracking system for equipment and tools — the AirTag concept, four years before Apple built theirs.
- QA/QC Programs: Built quality programs that measured maintenance by what the public actually experiences — not just internal metrics. Gave taxpayers, officials, and FHWA a clear picture of outcomes.
- Winter Operations: Proposed and advised the research behind Indiana's Winter Severity Index — a data-driven way to measure storm impact and match resources to conditions instead of guessing.
- Work Zone Safety: Part of the team that developed Indiana's Work Zone Traffic Control Guidelines — bridging federal safety mandates with day-to-day maintenance reality.

## Education & Career
- 1993–1997: B.S. Civil Engineering, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
- 1997–2005: Operations Field Engineer, INDOT — Provided engineering, operational, and technical support to field operations and crews.
- 2003: Registered Professional Engineer (PE), Indiana — Indiana PE No. PE10302393, Issued 2003.
- 2005–2009: District Maintenance Director, INDOT — Headed regional operations with 350 staff and a fleet of 1,500 vehicles/equipment, overseeing $50M OPEX within regional operations.
- 2009–2017: Statewide Maintenance Director, INDOT — Directed 1,500 staff and 5,000+ assets, overseeing $250M+ OPEX while driving efficiency, performance, and culture transformation.
- 2012: Governor's Public Service Award, State of Indiana — Team and individual recognition for operations leadership and public service excellence at INDOT.
- 2013: AASHTO President's Award, AASHTO — Awarded to INDOT's DamageWise program for performance excellence in transportation operations.
- 2015: National Best Practice, FHWA — Recognized INDOT's vegetation management program — environmentally sound methods saving $4M annually.
- 2017–2020: Client Solutions & Product Dev, Gauge Telematics — Worked across client solutions, operations, product development, and customer support. Interfaced with clients and dev teams to translate operational needs into usable software tools, while also contributing to early product design.
- 2021–2024: Product Manager / Product Dev, Gauge Telematics — Led product design and development for SaaS fleet/asset management platform and IoT hardware. Also managed the software development team for a period, overseeing priorities and delivery.
- 2022–Present: Independent Consultant, Tsunami Swami — Advising small and mid-sized organizations on operational efficiency, process improvement, and AI readiness.

> Instead of automating 10 things that don't matter, I'd rather find the 2–3 that actually move your results.

## Ready to tune up your operations?
Start with a 30-minute ops audit
Contact: info@tsunamiswami.ai