The true power of continuous improvement lies in its ability to help people reach their full potential. In this course, we visit The Lighthouse for the Blind, an extraordinary organization that provides employment opportunities for individuals who are blind, deaf, DeafBlind, and/or have other disabilities. With prestigious clients like Boeing, NASA, and the United States […]
Pat O’Connor has done volunteer work for many years. In this article, he shares lessons learned from his current volunteer work as a Chairperson of The Avenue of the Flags Program (a community fundraiser run by volunteers) and as the Head Usher at his local church. He implements Lean Six Sigma skills such as 5S, […]
Written by Brion
OU ISE students use ‘Lean Thinking’ to improve operations, optimize space at Humble Design warehouse
Utilizing “Lean Thinking,” Oakland University Industrial and Systems Engineering students Monisha Vasudeva and Sagar Bajaj have been helping Humble Design — a nonprofit that furnishes homes for individuals and families transitioning out of homelessness — improve their operations and optimize the space inside the organization’s warehouse in Pontiac, Mich. Humble Design staff members, ISE faculty […]
Written by Brion
IT Service Manager Lynn Underwood and Strategic Initiatives Analyst Matt Helton teamed up to tackle the problem as part of their Green Belt Certification at the University. After measuring the end-to-end prep time for nine separate Yellow Belt Classes, they found it ranged from 6 to 8 hours and averaged about 7 hours. Their Sponsor, Senior Director […]
Written by Brion
Brion Hurley gave a presentation on how to improve employee engagement through structured management systems from Lean. The talk was given at the Deconstruction and Reuse Conference (hosted by Build Reuse) in Pittsburgh, PA. He shared experiences working with reuse nonprofit organizations like ReStore and The Rebuilding Center. He gave recommendations to organizations on how […]
Written by Brion
Jim Shoemaker is streamlining a process to help King County landlords register as suppliers to veterans. The process required veterans to fill out 18 pages of documentation to verify landlords. Then staff had to process those 18 pages, if there was any missing information, it resulted in multiple delays. A “Virtual” walk exercise revealed they […]
Written by Brion
San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) employs approximately 900 staff. On average, hiring a librarian takes about six months, and SFPL can have as many as 90 hiring processes in progress at any one time. A long hiring process causes roles to remain empty and results in fewer library staff available to assist patrons. SFPL partnered […]
Written by Brion
Indianapolis Animal Care Services (IACS) protects and promotes the health, safety, and welfare of pets and livestock in Marion County (which serves Indianapolis, Indiana). Animal Care Officers (ACOs) are unable to meet the high demand of the City-County’s citizen calls, resulting in a growing service call backlog. The annual call volume for these service calls […]
Written by Brion
King County Wastewater Treatment Division successfully improves the Capital Design process featuring Roger Browne, an Engineering Supervisor. Roger realized that since the Wastewater Treatment Division was short on staff, they had to find a way to reduce the time it took to deliver capital improvement projects in order to free up resources to get more […]
Written by Brion
Toyota’s North American headquarters in Plano has a small group of dedicated improvement professionals with a specific set of skills. Their role is to share Toyota’s “secret sauce” with society, which is their Toyota Production System. The Toyota Production System Support Center (TSSC) is a 16-person team that shares Toyota’s culture of empowering employees to […]
Written by Brion