In a recent interview, Joy Mason, CEO and founder of Optimist Business Solutions discusses her background in continuous improvement, what led to the creation of The Six Sigma Racial Equity Institute™ (SSREI), along with some project examples. SSREI is an innovative leadership program designed to upskill Black Women to be complex problem solvers. She also […]
Tim Gebauer shares his thoughts on applying Value Stream Mapping (VSM) to a thrift store. He feels that one of the first things to do to improve a store is visualizing and understanding how things are really being done now. A VSM can identify the flow of raw donations through the facility. Once they arrive, […]
Written by Brion
Joy Mason helped found the Six Sigma Racial Equity Institute, which is a nonprofit in Indianapolis, Indiana that teaches Black female professionals problem solving skills to receive the institute’s Six Sigma green belt certification. Six Sigma training is normally $5,000, but the tuition is reduced for these women due to corporate sponsorships. Students meet all […]
Written by Brion
The Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) handles major transportation hubs and infrastructure within the state, including Logan Airport in Boston, waterfront property, cruise ship terminals and shipping ports. They have undergone a period of extensive reviews of its internal processes and project delivery workflow, and had identified two primary areas where improvements were desired: Internal Operational Efficiency Capital […]
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On April 9, 2021, La Soufrière volcano erupted for the first time in 40 years on the island of St Vincent and the Grenadines. SBP Director Andy Stofleth asked the question: What if the problem could be part of the solution? Perhaps SBP could use this ancient Roman process of using volcanic ash as building […]
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The James P. Womack Scholarship and Philanthropy Fund (JPW Fund) and the California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) teamed up with the primary goal to have two student interns analyze and improve core processes at a nonprofit organization, thus inspiring the organization to implement lean practices by showing them various methods to improve their operations. […]
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The James P. Womack Scholarship & Philanthropy Fund (JPW Foundation) reflects on the outcomes of their ‘lean internship,’ which offers a hands-on practical experience to students while helping nonprofits help more people. In a recently created guide, the JPW Fund explains how the first two interns started in the Fall of 2019, and how they […]
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Tim Gebauer writes a weekly blog about his experiences working in a thrift store. He shares tips and reasons why turning donated goods into sellable items helps bring back recurring customers, and why processes and systems are key to long-term success. He doesn’t talk specifically about Lean, but mentions backlog, wasted steps and motion (touching […]
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In this webinar, Colleen Johnson from ProKanban hosted Marcus Hammarberg from the School of Applied Technology </salt> and Steve Bell from Lean4NGO. The Salvation Army in Indonesia had severe damage to the roof, they were running out of money and their permit to operate had expired. Marcus was asked to help out with little to […]
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In this podcast, Evan Feinberg and Dr. Todd Rose unpack some of the broken paradigms that exist in philanthropy and exploring some necessary shifts in that vision. They discuss the science of individuality, and assumptions that the average is a real thing that represents most people, when in fact it doesn’t represent anyone. What if […]
Written by Brion