The James P. Womack Scholarship and Philanthropy Fund (JPW Fund) was created with the goal of creating and providing innovative gemba-based learning opportunities in order to develop more lean thinkers. The Fund epitomizes the use of lean principles and practices, including eliminating waste in work processes, going to the gemba, using plan-do-check-act (PDCA) problem-solving based […]
With a mission to make San Francisco residents the “healthiest place on earth”, the Department of Public Health developed a Strategic Deployment plan (Hoshin Kanri) in November 2021 with the assistance of their Kaizen Promotion Office (KPO). The plan identified 4 key areas over the next 12-18 months: The San Francisco Health Network (SFHN) also […]
The Agency for Information Services and Systems (Agence des Services et Systèmes d’information – ASSI) is a government agency that has been engaged in the digital transformation of Benin since 2016. What were the problems? They struggled to develop clear objectives, standardize processes, better manage the different types of requests received, and measure the work […]
Habitat for Humanity ReStore encountered a challenge with keeping track of donated items and purchased items they sell in their store. This is required in order to keep track of sales for tax purposes. After some struggle, one manager came up with a simple solution. By changing the last number on the price, they could […]
Tim Gebauer shares some examples where small improvements at a thrift store led to major results when looked at over the long term. These savings seem small, but they can compound over time. Examples include: Moved a trash can closer by 10 feet – Saved 85 hours a year Adding rollers between stations – Saved […]
Tim Gebauer writes articles on LinkedIn under the Thrift Retailer, and discusses Lean methods applied at a thrift store. In this article, he discusses clutter at the checkout area and how it impacts efficiency and customer satisfaction. He suggests that 5S can be used to improve the checkout area, which actually improves employee turnover in […]
While it is well known that facilitating homogeneous teams is probably more straightforward and might provide solutions quicker, diverse teams are more likely the ones to propose breakthrough solutions. Author Alessandro Lasi explains an example where adding a new HR Director to the team led to a proposal idea that greatly challenged the status quo, […]
As part of the county’s strategic plan, Miami-Dade County in Southeast Florida launched a Six Sigma Green Belt DMAIC project to reduce the # of days to provide direct relief assistance payments to domestic violence victims. This project supports the County’s 2020 strategic plan under the following objectives: HS1: Basic needs of vulnerable Miami Dade […]
After taking the Peak Green Belt Training, Rachel Lindgren identified an area of improvement with her team & partners, improving the overall quality of the “Intern Trails Onboarding Process” by 25-30%. Interns were frustrated that they weren’t getting their computers and gaining access to TRAILS until well into their internship (2-3 months). This delay in […]
Lauren Wisniewski is a Lean Process Facilitator for the State of Michigan and the founder of Rise Consulting Company. She wrote an article in 2021 about explaining the key attributes inherent to the nonprofit sector culture that make it easy to adopt and practice Lean methods and thinking. Read the entire article at https://nonprofithub.org/lean-was-made-for-nonprofits/