A reprographics shop at Cuyahoga Community College conducted a 5S event to sort out excess supplies, organize the needed materials, and optimize the flow of product through their shop. This resulted in improved customer service and satisfaction.
Toyota has partnered with St. Vincent De Paul in Cincinnati to help more efficiently pack and distribute Thanksgiving Day boxes. A Toyota employee volunteered during last year’s handout and noticed the process could be more efficient. This year, he brought in experts from Toyota’s assembly line to meet with key volunteers. They’ve got the packing […]
Written by Brion
Newton, Iowa, a community of over 15,000 people in Central Iowa, has received national attention for its community’s low unemployment rate, job opportunities, and affordability. The City of Newton struggled with an outdated payroll process for years, their inconsistent process resulted in errors and costly rework. Lean consultants and the staff collaborated to standardize forms and […]
Written by Brion
As government funding shrinks and many corporate donors also cut back on charitable giving, it’s a challenging time for the nonprofit world – and more organizations are turning to direct-mail solicitations. That makes things particularly tough for the rescue mission, which has traditionally brought in a strong share of direct-mail donations in the Charlotte area. […]
Written by Brion
The Veterans Affairs Cooperative Studies Program (VACSP) Clinical Research Pharmacy Coordinating Center (the Center) is a federal government organization that supports multicenter clinical trials targeting current health issues for America’s veterans. While the Center focuses its efforts on improving the health of U.S. veterans, it also strives to be a leader and innovator in the […]
Written by Brion
This video shows the Lean Six Sigma journey of the Water Utilities department with the City of Irving (Texas). After training the support team, they were able to successfully implement 5S on the service trucks. The improvements resulted in lighter trucks (saving fuel), more consistent setups on trucks (reducing training time), less time to fix […]
Written by Brion
Government agencies throughout Iowa are applying the kaizen event methodology and lean principles to streamline the workflow and find permanent solutions to chronic problems. A case study of a kaizen event held at Iowa Veterans Home is discussed, which achieved the following results over the last few years. The article also discusses the implementation of […]
Written by Brion
I recently overheard this statement made by a member of a medium sized church: “I’m trying to get an event placed on the church calendar. I’ve asked three people on the church staff how to do this, and each has given me a different answer. How hard can it be?” I suspect most of us […]
Written by Brion
Sixty thousand acres of shoreline biodiversity was being threatened by an invasive plant. The impact of the invasive plant needed to be measured and restoration success needed to be monitored. JMP® was used for visualization and analysis of the data gathered in monitoring and measuring the efficacy of the control work. As a result, the invasive […]
Written by Brion
The Seattle zoo is one of a handful of nonprofits that Boeing has trained in lean process techniques, an efficiency program closely associated with manufacturing that eliminates costs by reducing wasted time and materials. The process helped save the project 1.5 percent, or more than $90,000, and also eliminated the need for additional fundraising. Read […]
Written by Brion