by Brion Hurley Kieran Mohammed started his Lean Six Sigma journey as an operations manager in manufacturing. His early years taught him how performance success relies on the development of and collaboration with people. Along with his experience as a performance improvement consultant and program analyst in government, he has tailored his own unique approach […]
Liz McCartney, a middle school teacher, and Zack Rosenburg, a public defense attorney, were living in Washington when Katrina struck the U.S. Gulf Coast. Six months later, they headed to New Orleans to volunteer. The city was still in shambles, with destroyed houses overcome by mold and residents desperate for help. Do they jumped in […]
Written by Brion
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
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
Algonquin College chose their Recruitment through Registration process as their first Lean project. It was a cross-departmental process that created value for their clients from the moment they showed interest in the College until they registered as students. The college started the project by using the Enterprise Value Stream Mapping™ Tool. The key elements of […]
Written by Brion
The paramedic crew at Western Cape Government Emergency Medical Services (EMS) serve some of the toughest areas in Cape Town. They wanted to rethink the way they work by streamlining how they serve patients and free up resources using a process map. They are learning to think through the issues in a structured way, following […]
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