E. D. Bullard is a 100-year-old safety equipment manufacturer based in Kentucky. They faced significant challenges when the pandemic hit in early 2020. Demand for respirators and face shields increased 30x per week than before COVID-19, and they had to figure out a way to meet this critical demand very quickly. With the help of […]
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
Toyota’s North American headquarters in Plano has a small group of dedicated improvement professionals with a specific set of skills. Their role is to share Toyota’s “secret sauce” with society, which is their Toyota Production System. The Toyota Production System Support Center (TSSC) is a 16-person team that shares Toyota’s culture of empowering employees to […]
Written by Brion
by Brion Hurley After Hurricane Katrina struck the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005, Washington, D.C., teacher Liz McCartney and lawyer Zack Rosenberg wanted to help. Their efforts took them to New Orleans where they founded the nonprofit St. Bernard’s Project to rebuild homes and help victims recover from natural disasters. As the nonprofit and the […]
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 […]
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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
by Brion Hurley I wrote a book review about the work that Toyota’s TSSC group provided to a nonprofit home rebuilding organization. Their success stories were chronicled in the new book titled, “Getting Home” from the founders of St. Bernard Project Liz McCartney and Zack Rosenburg. Some of the improvements highlighted in the book include: […]
Written by Brion
Toyota North America’s nonprofit group called Toyota Production System Support Center (TSSC) felt compelled to help Houston in the same way it helped New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. TSSC has helped nonprofits become more efficient by applying Toyota principles called TPS, Toyota Production System. SBP (St. Bernard Project), a nonprofit that received help from Toyota […]
Written by Brion
With help from TSSC, the North Texas Food Bank was able to increase the number of families served from 55 to 80 through two major improvements: Create zones for shopping experience Simplified process for volunteers More importantly, they were able to provide better customer experience and reduce waiting time. They also improved the volunteer experience. […]
Written by Brion