by Brion Hurley Brent Weichers is the Director of Continuous Improvement at The Lighthouse for the Blind. Based out of Seattle, Washington, they are a not-for-profit Aerospace and Military Supply manufacturing company. The Lighthouse employs over 260 individuals who are blind, DeafBlind or blind with other disabilities. When he started the job and started to […]
Quality professionals possess a unique skill set that can be used to prevent problems outside of their organizations. The author shows how applying quality tools, such as Pareto analysis, failure mode and effects analysis, and quality function deployment, can help solve issues such as homelessness in Seattle, and deaths from diarrheal disease for children under […]
Written by Brion
South Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) decided to redesign the enrollment and eligibility determination process for all Medicaid programs administered in the state. Unnecessary interactions (from redundant customer visits, calls, and mail) were negatively impacting the agency’s ability to keep up with their work. DHHS selected Change & Innovation Agency (C!A) to help design, […]
Written by Brion
This talk by Michael Arnold was given at a TEDx Greenville event. He is an engineer that discovered his passion in high school, solving problems by changing the status quo. He has worked as a quality engineer or manager for the last 15+ years solving problems. He is a certified Shainin Red X Journeyman and […]
Written by Brion
The hiring starts with the HR Contacts in the Colleges and Departments – when they initiate an FTE (Full Time Equivalent) hire by submitting a hiring packet. It can be a complicated process with many steps. Leadership chartered a team to streamline the hiring process and implemented some of the following improvement processes: Simplifying by […]
Written by Brion
Leadership at the University of South Carolina chartered a team to streamline the access-granting process, strengthen controls, and improve service and support. Team members used the methods and tools of Lean to map and analyze the current process, uncover inefficiencies, and develop a future-state process that embeds high-impact improvements. The team also built a set of implementation […]
Written by Brion
Employee benefits (everything from insurance to retirement) are one of the most valuable assets offered to new hires, so this is a high-priority process. It’s also an important first impression, because the benefits enrollment process is one of the first big interactions that new employees have with their new employer. The leadership team at the […]
Written by Brion
In 2007, the United States Military needed the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle (MRAP) produced in larger numbers to meet the goals set by Department of Defense (DoD) Secretary Robert Gates. The MRAP represented the opportunity to save the lives of soldiers and Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan facing the threat of Improvised Explosive Devices […]
Written by Brion