The James P Womack Scholarship and Philanthropy Fund provides scholarships to students to fund hands-on problem-solving experience at charity organizations under the guidance of an Lean Enterprise Initiative (LEI) coach. The fund’s first partnership is with Oakland University in Michigan. Two student interns (Monisha Vasudeva and Sagar Bajaj) are learning and implementing lean principles at […]
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
Getting Home by Lynn McCartney and Zack Rosenburg is a wonderful book that tells the story of a very special lean journey. After Hurricane Katrina had left thousands homeless, the authors put their careers on hold to spend a year in New Orleans helping as many as they could. Five years later, they were still […]
Written by Brion
by Zack Rosenburg When we (Liz McCartney and I) first realized that sustaining continuous improvement in our work required us to become an organization of problem solvers, we also discovered that we were not thrilled with the phrase continuous improvement, which felt a bit like a hamster on a wheel. And so, with the input of […]
Written by Brion
The 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, was getting underway when Liz McCartney, a teacher, and Zack Rosenburg, a lawyer, walked into the “hippie tent,” a meal center in Chalmette, LA, run by the unconventionally dressed members of the Rainbow Family. The couple from Washington D.C. had driven down to help victims of Hurricane Katrina […]
Written by Brion
An interview with Ann Mei Chang on her recent book Lean Impact: How to Innovate for Radically Greater Social Good shows how the scientific method and Lean Startup practices help mission-driven organizations scale up the social impact of their work, time, and money. She talked with LEI’s Chet Marchwinski after her keynote at the 2019 […]
Written by Brion
During a Lean Talks presentation, Jeff Foster, the San Diego Zoo Global‘s Chief Director of Continuous Improvement, noted that although work for most people will not involve improving how pachyderm pods are swabbed, the same improvement principles apply such as supporting “process owners,” the people closest to the work. So when veterinarians had difficulty reaching […]
Written by Brion
D-Lab at MIT is using LPPD thinking to help solve problems in the developing world, and are truly making the world a better place for all those involved. Today Kendra Leith, Associate Director for Research, at D-Lab joined LEI’s Communication’s director to share more about how D-Lab works and some of the great projects they […]
Written by Brion
Some of the most powerful lean lessons come from people I like to call “accidental lean thinkers” – leaders who successfully followed lean principles long before they had heard of the Toyota Production System. One such leader, who is unknown to the lean community, is Mauricio L. Miller, president and founder of Family Independence Initiative […]
Written by Brion
In 2011, legislation was passed to spearhead lean thinking across the State of Connecticut. The program was originally rolled out by April Capone in 2012 with the assistance of the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI), and a full-time role position was created and filled in Nov 2013 by Alison Fisher. Ron Pereira from Gemba Academy attended […]
Written by Brion