Rise Against Hunger Awarded Inaugural IISE Excellence in Sustainable Development

by Brion Hurley Rise Against Hunger is an international hunger relief nonprofit organization founded in 1998 that distributes food and life-changing aid to the world’s most vulnerable, mobilizing the necessary resources to end hunger by 2030. To date, they have packaged 450 million meals in 74 countries. Related to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, RAH’s effort […]

Spreading Lean Six Sigma Nonprofit Volunteering Around the World – IISE Annual Conference 2019

by Brion Hurley For the past 3 years, Lean and Six Sigma practitioners in Portland (Oregon) have been volunteering with local nonprofits to teach and mentor them on process improvement. The focus has been on environmental reuse nonprofits primarily. The effort gained traction due to beach cleanup volunteer project started by the IISE Sustainable Development […]

Lean Six Sigma Successes at Goodwill

by Brion Hurley This is an interview with Jess Schamberger, who is the Vice President of Operations at Goodwill of the Heartland in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She discusses some of the lean and Six Sigma improvements implemented in the donation receiving area, as well as the light manufacturing services they provide to local businesses. They […]

Leaning Out Disaster Relief

by Brion Hurley In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Mark Novak quickly joined a disaster relief trip to help rebuild communities in Mississippi. He soon found out there were many frustrating aspects of the process that needed to be addressed; supplies were scarce or late to arrive, communication of problems were accomplished too late in the […]