Andrew Parris and Don Pope note some striking parallels between Lean and Christian/biblical principles, even though Lean has roots in Buddhist and Japanese teachings and culture. Through “tireless experimentation” the founders of Lean discovered timeless and universal principles that produced tangible results. Toyota systematized these principles and practices a management system that we now call […]
Christopher Chapman follows up his first article on systemic racism by tying the five lean principles to achieving antiracism. Value vs. Waste From an anti-racist perspective, policies, systems, and practices that produce and normalize racial equity are value-added. Those that create and sustain racial inequity between racial groups are nonvalue-added or waste. Value Stream For […]
Written by Brion
The Finance Department for Outagamie County in Appleton, Wisconsin, chose to examine how they dispose of surplus property for their LEAN project. Value stream mapping was used to visualize the length of each process and how much staff time was involved. After that, some of these implements were made: The Surplus Items listing on the intranet was […]
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Outagamie County in Wisconsin has various processes maintained by various departments to collect information on the vehicle fleet, like titles, insurance coverage and annual vehicle reports. The county wanted to review these processes to determine if the county is accounting for and reporting out this information in accurately and efficiently. The group Value Stream mapped […]
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This is an interview with Chris Pletcher, Deputy Director at Finger Lakes Reuse, about how he uses metrics and data to improve sales and manage expenses. He walks through his decision making process to address sales issues based on leading indicators such as staffing levels, price discounts and shelf availability. He also talks about how […]
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Jacksonville and Duval County (Florida) is working to make veteran homelessness rare and brief. At the heart of this movement is the insight that communities can’t fix what they can’t see. Community Solutions teamed up with the Tableau Foundation and Built for Zero communities to gather and analyze real-time homelessness data. This takes the anonymity […]
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Every year, Denver Parks and Recreation (DPR) hires approximately 1,500 staff to support. The DPR Talent Acquisition Team (DPR TA Team) is tasked with supporting DPR in the recruiting and hiring. To better address the high-volume hiring needs and ensure a successful overhaul to the DPR recruiting and hiring process, the team broke their effort […]
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Bella Englebach is a consultant with Lean for Humans, Inc, and in this article, she asks about the moral and ethical implications of the work we do as we confront systemic racism? Examples include: What do you say if there is diversity in those allowed to attend training classes? What if the client wants you to […]
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Joy Mason is a Six Sigma Black Belt who spent many years at Eli Lilly in continuous improvement before taking on a consulting career. She introduces the idea of CARE, and more clearly defines the following words: inclusion, diversity, racism, equity and discrimination. She explains how Six Sigma and the DMAIC model can be used […]
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Sabrina Malter is a Kata coach at a major pharmaceutical company in Germany. Kata is a pattern you practice to learn a skill and mindset until it becomes second nature. She facilitated a conversation with people from Germany and Switzerland. They structured the conversation around the following questions: What’s our target condition for an inclusive and […]
Written by Brion