Lean Six Sigma for Good Podcast

In this podcast, I read an article I wrote for the Building Materials Reuse Association (BMRA), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to advance the recovery, reuse and recycling of building materials.

I share my thoughts on how I hope the reuse industry can follow the path of other industries to embrace the concepts of Lean and Six Sigma, without putting up the typical barriers of “not invented here.”

I also talk about the difference of process efficiency at an individual versus a system level.

I am presenting further on this topic via webinar on March 25, 2019 at 1pm EST. Contact me if you would like an invitation.

Links

* Building Materials Reuse Association (BMRA)* Article: “Will Process Improvement Methods from Manufacturing Work With Reuse?”

In this podcast, I read an article I wrote for the Northwest Environmental Training Center (NWETC). The article describes past efforts and successes of Lean and Six Sigma applied to government agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), municipalities, and state departments.

I also talk about four common principles that Lean and Six Sigma use to ensure improvements in an organization are successful, that are often left out of typical improvement efforts.

* Disciplined problem solving approach

Understand the process

Focused events

Respect the worker

Links

* Free Online Course: Lean Six Sigma and the Environment

* Northwest Environmental Training Center (NWETC)

* Lean and Six Sigma for Environmental Professionals

* Lean at EPA

In this podcast, I read an article I wrote for the Northwest Environmental Training Center (NWETC). The article describes past efforts and successes of Lean and Six Sigma applied to government agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), municipalities, and state departments.

I also talk about four common principles that Lean and Six Sigma use to ensure improvements in an organization are successful, that are often left out of typical improvement efforts.

* Disciplined problem solving approach

Understand the process

Focused events

Respect the worker

Links

* Free Online Course: Lean Six Sigma and the Environment

* Northwest Environmental Training Center (NWETC)

* Lean and Six Sigma for Environmental Professionals

* Lean at EPA

In this podcast, I share my observations at a recycling collection event for plastics, batteries and styrofoam held recently near Portland, Oregon called Planetcon. The line to drop off plastic bags and film started to get really long, and extend all the way back to my table.

I was at the event for another reason, to setup a table and promote Recycling Advocates’ BYOC campaign.

Links

* Planetcon 2019

* Planetcon videos

* Video: New York Food Bank with Toyota

 

Transcript

I’d like to talk about an event I attended the other day, this weekend actually. This was a recycling education repair fair and I think they did some Styrofoam and battery collection as well. I just wanted to talk through when I go to events like these, I was actually tabling at the event for my nonprofit, and just made some observations. I was by the area where they were dropping off plastic film and plastic bags for recycling and things kind of backed up really far, and the line got really long and so, of course, it’s hard not to watch and see what’s going on and try to figure out what’s happening.

First off, with any kind of volunteer activity like this, we have to have respect for people. The people who were organizing this, I have nothing against them. They’re wonderful, they’re great. All this stuff is just my observations about how we could maybe improve for next time. It’s not meant to point fingers at anyone or say someone did it wrong or not. There’s a lot of things that could be improved even on people who’ve been doing processes and running events for years and years. These are just observations I made and things I’ll try to bring up to the organizers for next year, so it runs maybe a little bit better. Same with the volunteers, everyone was working really hard. Just like when I look at a process or a business, most of the time, 99% of the time, people are trying to do a good job and they’re working really hard, and so a lot of the ideas we want to do and put in place is things that make the job easier or smarter or less chaotic, safer, and more fun; not to make people work harder or go faster.

First of all, the line started to form and build up over time. There was about 10 people who actually left because they didn’t want to wait around. They thought it was going to be a quick drop-off of their bags and film and they were surprised when there was a line and they were like, “Where do I just drop this off so I can leave?”

I think setting expectations for people, in the future, on how long this actually takes, that it’s not something you just drop-off, but that there is going to be a wait because we’re going to go through and make sure there’s a clean drop-off of what they’re bringing in, there’s no contamination going to the plastic recycling center, so that requires someone to go through and do that. I think that would be one thing to do is you really have to set your customer’s expectations clearly.

Based on that issue that I observed, there was a lot of frustration with people in line. They stuck around through the whole thing, but it probably was not a great experience for them, at least the people who were there during the really busy times, and I’ll talk about the times a little bit. There was a couple of different things they could bring over. The two primary things was the film, which would be like outer plastic wrap around packaging,

In this podcast, I share my observations at a recycling collection event for plastics, batteries and styrofoam held recently near Portland, Oregon called Planetcon. The line to drop off plastic bags and film started to get really long, and extend all the way back to my table.

I was at the event for another reason, to setup a table and promote Recycling Advocates’ BYOC campaign.

Links

* Planetcon 2019

* Planetcon videos

* Video: New York Food Bank with Toyota

 

Transcript

I’d like to talk about an event I attended the other day, this weekend actually. This was a recycling education repair fair and I think they did some Styrofoam and battery collection as well. I just wanted to talk through when I go to events like these, I was actually tabling at the event for my nonprofit, and just made some observations. I was by the area where they were dropping off plastic film and plastic bags for recycling and things kind of backed up really far, and the line got really long and so, of course, it’s hard not to watch and see what’s going on and try to figure out what’s happening.

First off, with any kind of volunteer activity like this, we have to have respect for people. The people who were organizing this, I have nothing against them. They’re wonderful, they’re great. All this stuff is just my observations about how we could maybe improve for next time. It’s not meant to point fingers at anyone or say someone did it wrong or not. There’s a lot of things that could be improved even on people who’ve been doing processes and running events for years and years. These are just observations I made and things I’ll try to bring up to the organizers for next year, so it runs maybe a little bit better. Same with the volunteers, everyone was working really hard. Just like when I look at a process or a business, most of the time, 99% of the time, people are trying to do a good job and they’re working really hard, and so a lot of the ideas we want to do and put in place is things that make the job easier or smarter or less chaotic, safer, and more fun; not to make people work harder or go faster.

First of all, the line started to form and build up over time. There was about 10 people who actually left because they didn’t want to wait around. They thought it was going to be a quick drop-off of their bags and film and they were surprised when there was a line and they were like, “Where do I just drop this off so I can leave?”

I think setting expectations for people, in the future, on how long this actually takes, that it’s not something you just drop-off, but that there is going to be a wait because we’re going to go through and make sure there’s a clean drop-off of what they’re bringing in, there’s no contamination going to the plastic recycling center, so that requires someone to go through and do that. I think that would be one thing to do is you really have to set your customer’s expectations clearly.

Based on that issue that I observed, there was a lot of frustration with people in line. They stuck around through the whole thing, but it probably was not a great experience for them, at least the people who were there during the really busy times, and I’ll talk about the times a little bit. There was a couple of different things they could bring over. The two primary things was the film, which would be like outer plastic wrap around packaging,

In this podcast, I read my chapter contribution to my latest book called “Lean Six Sigma for Good: Lessons from the Gemba (Volume 1)”

My chapter is called “Applying Lean Six Sigma to a Nonprofit Fundraiser Conference.”

You can also download this chapter as a PDF file

There are 4 other chapters in the book, which can be purchased electronically. All proceeds are donated to the nonprofit of the author’s choice.

Links

* Lean Six Sigma for Good – Free Book

* Lean Six Sigma for Good: Lessons from the Gemba (Volume 1)

* Free chapter [PDF]

* Recycling Advocates

* Zero Waste Conference

* Video presentations from Zero Waste Conference

* TRUE Zero Waste Advisor Program

In this podcast, I read my chapter contribution to my latest book called “Lean Six Sigma for Good: Lessons from the Gemba (Volume 1)”

My chapter is called “Applying Lean Six Sigma to a Nonprofit Fundraiser Conference.”

You can also download this chapter as a PDF file

There are 4 other chapters in the book, which can be purchased electronically. All proceeds are donated to the nonprofit of the author’s choice.

Links

* Lean Six Sigma for Good – Free Book

* Lean Six Sigma for Good: Lessons from the Gemba (Volume 1)

* Free chapter [PDF]

* Recycling Advocates

* Zero Waste Conference

* Video presentations from Zero Waste Conference

* TRUE Zero Waste Advisor Program

In this podcast, I recap the year and highlight some of the things I accomplished in my first full year of consulting on my own. We discuss the Wasted Food workshops, additions to the online course, travel to Kosrae and Trinidad and Tobago, a nonprofit award for process improvement, and the Lean Six Sigma for Good books.

Links

* Wasted Food workshop series – Free videos

* Free Lean Six Sigma and the Environment online course

* Green Banana Paper project in Kosrae

* IISE Nonprofit Award

* Lean Six Sigma for Good – Free Book

* Lean Six Sigma for Good: Lessons from the Gemba (Volume 1)

* 2018 Podcasts

In this podcast, I recap the year and highlight some of the things I accomplished in my first full year of consulting on my own. We discuss the Wasted Food workshops, additions to the online course, travel to Kosrae and Trinidad and Tobago, a nonprofit award for process improvement, and the Lean Six Sigma for Good books.

Links

* Wasted Food workshop series – Free videos

* Free Lean Six Sigma and the Environment online course

* Green Banana Paper project in Kosrae

* IISE Nonprofit Award

* Lean Six Sigma for Good – Free Book

* Lean Six Sigma for Good: Lessons from the Gemba (Volume 1)

* 2018 Podcasts

In this podcast, I share an interview I had with Steven Wilson, who runs Zoned Strategies consulting, and hosts the podcast show, ILC Radio. ILC stands for Iowa Lean Consortium, which is a nonprofit organization that promotes Lean, Six Sigma and process improvement within the state of Iowa and surrounding regions. I have been involved with them for a long time, including a workshop I co-led with Iowa State University CIRAS called “Lean and the Environment.” I welcome any feedback you have on my podcast. or you can rate my podcast on iTunes.

Links

ILC Radio #17 with Brion Hurley

Iowa Lean Consortium

Holly Duckworth and Andrea Hoffmeier from Sherpa Sustainability Institute

Lean and the Environment workshop videos (from 2012)

* Introduction – Part 1 of 3

* Green Wind Turbine Manufacturing Simulation – Part 2 of 3

* Dumpster Dive – Part 3 of 3

TRANSCRIPT

Brion (B): In this episode, I share an interview I did with Iowa Lean Consortium Radio, which is hosted by Steven Wilson who runs Zoned Strategies, a consulting firm and he hosts this podcast and interview for the Iowa Lean Consortium, a nonprofit organization that helps coordinate and promote Lean Six Sigma process improvement throughout the state of Iowa. I’ve been involved with the ILC for a couple of years. As early as 2012, I did a Lean Six Sigma in the Environment workshop (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) for them and that went really well. It was partnered with Iowa State CIRAS organization, Iowa State University. I have a video of those available; I’ll post those on the notes for this episode as well.

In this interview, we talk about the Lean Six Sigma for Good book, we talk about some of the nonprofit work I’m doing, and then also how we could incorporate environment and plan it into activities we’re doing and tie it to the real stakeholders that are affected by those issues. So, again, another interview I have, but hopefully, there’ll be something new you’ll take out of each of these interviews that isn’t just a repeat of the same thing. And then, hopefully, some of the things I’m saying, you’re hearing over and over again and it’ll start to sink in or maybe I say it in a different way that makes more sense to you or you might resonate with people you know more than the previous interviews I’ve done. So hopefully, you’re not getting bored of hearing me being interviewed, but I thought I would just share those anyways. Thanks for listening and talk to you later.

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