Lean Six Sigma for Good Podcast

In this podcast, I share a presentation I gave at the IISE Annual Virtual conference on Nov 2, 2020. I explain how I helped apply Lean and Six Sigma methods to this small sustainable business making eco-friendly wallets, business cards and other paper products on the island of Kosrae in the Federated States of Micronesia. Supporting their business helps impact the UN SDG Goal 12: Sustainable Production and Consumption

You can watch the full video with slides here…

To learn more about Green Banana Paper, and watch my presentation from last year’s conference prior to my trip, along with my travel video of the trip, visit https://www.biz-pi.com/green-banana-paper/

Links

* Green Banana Paper* My updates on Green Banana Paper* IISE Annual Conference* Read full show notes | Subscribe or rate this podcast

Promotions

* FREE online course called “Lean Six Sigma and the Environment”* OpEx Six Sigma Online Training and Certification* Creative Safety Supply – Free 5S Guide

Have you ordered the new book, “Lean Six Sigma for Good: Lessons from the Gemba (Volume 1)?” The book is made up of 8 chapters written about experiences from Lean and Six Sigma practitioners, to give you tips and tricks to help you work with nonprofits in your area. All proceeds donated to charity. We are also close to releasing Volume 2, so check back for the latest news.

Transcript

Brion (B): The first question that comes up is “Where is Micronesia?”For those of you who are not familiar, it’s out in the middle of the South Pacific, sort of closer to Papua New Guinea. A series of island chains and very beautiful. It’s part of the US Territories. There’s a complicated relationship there, but I go through that last year at the annual conference, so you can check out a video on this link if you want to just see my explanation and details about the island chain and why I decided to go there. I’ve also got a trip video of how I got there.

In this podcast, I interview Pete Iengo and Jamie Gaskill from the City of Fort Collins (Colorado, USA). The City of Fort Collins in Colorado (USA) has been on a continuous improvement journey since 2010. They made great progress on their Income-Qualified Assistance Program (IQAP) to help residents pay their utility bills, and were recognized as the 2020 winners of the IISE Excellence in Sustainable Development Award.

Starting with a baseline of 10% participation in the utility payment assistance program, they wanted to increase participation to 75%. Rework related to the application process was 40%, which created at least one hour of effort to correct.

You can also watch the video of the slides below

Links

* City of Fort Collins* IISE Excellence in Sustainable Development Award* Read full show notes | Subscribe or rate this podcast

Promotions

* FREE online course called “Lean Six Sigma and the Environment”* OpEx Six Sigma Online Training and Certification* Creative Safety Supply – Free 5S Guide

Have you ordered the new book, “Lean Six Sigma for Good: Lessons from the Gemba (Volume 1)?” The book is made up of 8 chapters written about experiences from Lean and Six Sigma practitioners, to give you tips and tricks to help you work with nonprofits in your area. All proceeds donated to charity. We are also close to releasing Volume 2, so check back for the latest news.

Transcript

Jamie Gaskill is a people-focused program manager, supervisor and educator who creates innovative ways to tackle challenging issues that affect people’s everyday lives. In her current role as a Senior Supervisor and Program Manager with the City of Fort Collins Utilities Department, Gaskill leads the team that develops, implements, and evaluates the Utilities Affordability Programs (UAP). Additionally, she supervises a group of Program Specialists that implement programs that help residential and business customers reduce their utility costs and impacts by conserving energy and water. In addition to benefitting customers, these programs help the City meet organizational objectives and climate action goals. Gaskill also has worked in other industries such as transportation, public health and outdoor retail, implementing behavior change and education programs. Gaskill holds a bachelor’s degree and a master...

In this episode, I share chapter 11 of the 1926 book, “Today and Tomorrow” by Henry Ford.

In this chapter, he discusses how they reduced their use of wood while still increasing production. He also talks about minimizing fuel usage and reducing metal scrap. He applied his improvement methods to all aspects of his business, including ways to reduce his environmental impact. His techniques formed the basis of the modern Lean improvement system.

In addition, he talks about salvaging people who might not have jobs otherwise. He also invested in the future by equipping people who had “no foreseeable future.” That included educating and training orphans and at-risk youth at The Henry Ford School for Boys. His philosophy seems to align with the Lean and Sustainability efforts we’ve discussed in this podcast.

Here is the full video of the book recording…

Links

* “Today and Tomorrow” from Generosity Press and Paul Akers* Read full show notes | Subscribe or rate this podcast

Promotions

* FREE online course called “Lean Six Sigma and the Environment”* OpEx Six Sigma Online Training and Certification* Creative Safety Supply – Free 5S Guide

Have you ordered the new book, “Lean Six Sigma for Good: Lessons from the Gemba (Volume 1)?” The book is made up of 8 chapters written about experiences from Lean and Six Sigma practitioners, to give you tips and tricks to help you work with nonprofits in your area. All proceeds donated to charity. We are also close to releasing Volume 2, so check back for the latest news.

Transcript

Download a PDF version of the book

In this episode, I provide more details for anyone interested in setting up a local volunteer group to provide process improvement consulting to nonprofits in your area.

You can find a list of existing volunteer groups on LeanSixSigmaforGood.com

I cover the following recommended steps:

* Find an organizer* Find a small organizing group* Hold kickoff meeting* Setup LinkedIn Group* Promote Group* Setup first group event* Partnering with college students

You can check out the video below with the slides, or go to https://youtu.be/jbi353GjT40

Links

* List of volunteer groups by city* Read full show notes | Subscribe or rate this podcast

Promotions

* FREE online course called “Lean Six Sigma and the Environment”* OpEx Six Sigma Online Training and Certification* Creative Safety Supply – Free 5S Guide

Have you ordered the new book, “Lean Six Sigma for Good: Lessons from the Gemba (Volume 1)?” The book is made up of 8 chapters written about experiences from Lean and Six Sigma practitioners, to give you tips and tricks to help you work with nonprofits in your area. All proceeds donated to charity. We are also close to releasing Volume 2, so check back for the latest news.

Transcript

I wanted to get a little bit more effort around setting up these volunteer groups around the country, and actually around the globe, so I thought I’d put a little video together to explain my thought process. A little bit of explanation on the LeanSixSigmaForGood.com website, but I wanted to go into a little bit more depth here.

My name is Brion Hurley. I run a consulting firm called Business Performance Improvement. I’m based in Portland, Oregon as of right now, but I’m soon locating to St. Louis, Missouri. This is also part of the reason I’m putting this together is try to...

Chris Pletcher is the Business Developer (and “Jack of all trades”) at Finger Lakes ReUse. I met him at the 2019 Build Reuse conference in Pittsburgh, PA and saw a presentation he gave about the metrics and data he uses at the reuse store to improve sales and manage expenses.

We had a lengthy discussion about the following topics:

* Chris’ background in solar, deconstruction and reuse* About Finger Lakes Reuse and what they accept and resell* How they track sales and inventory throughout their stores and locations* What key metrics (KPIs) he uses to decide how each store is doing* Decision tree on how he uses the data to make decisions about how to improve* Customer behavior with a reuse store based on inventory turns* How they use a 6 color pricing system for discounting items* Criteria for “culling” or removing items off the shelf to make room for new stuff, and where those items go* How he measures productivity* How they’re dealing with COVID and volunteers* New “dollar tree” reuse store they are opening soon and how they’re making new items more visible* Working with local college students* How they have learned to collaborate more closely in the community so all businesses thrive as a system

This podcast is almost 2 hours in length, but there is so much good content I didn’t want to take anything out. I also don’t like when podcasts are split into two episodes, so you’re getting it all at once.

Links

* Chris Pletcher* Email: [email protected]* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-pletcher-b706915b/* Finger Lakes Reuse @ IthacaReUse.org* Cascadia Alliance* Build Reuse* Read full show notes | Subscribe or rate this podcast

Promotions

* FREE online course called “Lean Six Sigma and the Environment”* OpEx Six Sigma Online Training and Certification* Creative Safety Supply – Free 5S Guide

Have you ordered the new book, “

For the 2020-2021 year, I am the President of the IISE Sustainable Development Division. The mission of the group is to help align Industrial and Systems Engineers with organizations working on the UN Sustainable Development goals. This is the 2nd interview we’ve done this year, the first one was with Bradley Miller from the University of Houston.

In this podcast, we discuss some past projects to connect students with nonprofits to improve food systems in Iowa and across the country.

* Jason Grimm, Deputy Director with Iowa Valley Resource and Conservation Development (IVRC&D)* Anuj Mittal, Senior Instructor at Dunwoody College of Technology* Dave Adolfson, Senior Instructor at Dunwoody College of Technology* Moderator: Brion Hurley, IISE Sustainable Development Division President, consultant for BPI

You can also watch a video of our interview below, or visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXGArdJOWzQ

Links

* Dunwoody College of Technology* Iowa Valley Resource and Conservation Development (IVRC&D)* Article in ISE Magazine in Dec 2020* ICT solutions to support local food supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic – Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development* Read full show notes | Subscribe or rate this podcast

Promotions

* FREE online course called “Lean Six Sigma and the Environment”* OpEx Six Sigma Online Training and Certification* Creative Safety Supply – Free 5S Guide

Have you ordered the new book,

In this podcast, I interview Brad Miller, who is Senior Professor of Practice in the Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston, and teaches courses in Supply Chain Management. He shares his success with teaching students how to apply lean and Six Sigma methods in their homes and at their part-time jobs, including two projects that were done with local nonprofits.

This interview was conducted for the IISE Sustainable Development Division, of which I’m the current president for 2020-2021. I invited another board member Anuj Mittal to join me, who is also passionate about helping nonprofits.

Links

* Brad Miller Profile at UH* Bradley Miller YouTube Channel* Videos mentioned:* Transmission time reduction* Heeling Soles* Project C.U.R.E.* Read full show notes | Subscribe or rate this podcast

Promotions

* FREE online course called “Lean Six Sigma and the Environment”* OpEx Six Sigma Online Training and Certification* Creative Safety Supply – Free 5S Guide

Have you ordered the new book, “Lean Six Sigma for Good: Lessons from the Gemba (Volume 1)?” The book is made up of 8 chapters written about experiences from Lean and Six Sigma practitioners, to give you tips and tricks to help you work with nonprofits in your area. All proceeds donated to charity. We are also close to releasing Volume 2, so check back for the latest news.

Transcript

Brion (B):  We’ve got Brad Miller here. He’s a professor with the Bauer School at the University of Houston. What I had first learned about you was through your supply chain management course. I saw these videos that have been posted on YouTube from your students taking your class that were applying in their home life and projects on campus, these methods that you were teaching them, and then you were uploading a lot of your own personal videos. I was just really impressed with the program as a way to really g...

In this podcast, I interview Tim Turner, who used to work at Toyota in Kentucky (TMMK) for 22 years, and has done a lot of work with nonprofits and not-for-profit organizations. He was also a co-author on Volume 2 of the Lean Six Sigma for Good book series (still in process, but available for download), and created the book, One Team on All Levels: Stories from Toyota Team Members

We talked about his vast experiences and positions at Toyota, his perspective on servant leadership, how he helped setup and manage the not-for-profit organization working within Toyota, and his consulting firm Triangle Consulting Group, which has an IMPACT program that integrates nonprofit impact into his training courses.

Links

* Center for Quality People and Organizations, Inc. – Nonprofit teaching lean to high schools near Georgetown, Kentucky Toyota facility* Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky (TMMK)* Backpacks for Kids Partnership with Toyota Dealers and Manufacturing Helps Foster Families* Bicycle Building Process for Foster Children Enhanced by Toyota Partnership* Toyota leader asks more to provide work for disabled through Lex-Pro* Lucid Motors – Electric vehicle manufacturer* Books* One Team on All Levels: Stories from Toyota Team Members* Lean Six Sigma for Good: Lessons from the Gemba (Volume 2) – Tim wrote the 2nd chapter “Helping Others By Following The Toyota Way”* Toyota Culture by Mike Hoseus* Read full show notes | Subscribe or rate this podcast

Promotions

* FREE online course called “Lean Six Sigma and the Environment”* 6sigma.US Training and Certification Programs* Creative Safety Supply – Free 5S Guide

Have you ordered the new book, “

In this podcast, I interviewed Amanda Zimmerman, a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt here in Portland, who has a wide and extensive background. We worked together briefly at a local not-for-profit, and have stayed connected for the past few years.

She talks about her journey from history major to learning about Six Sigma, her work in Oil and Gas and the impact it had on the environment, and her journey to Angola and the international travel that opened up for her. She recently self-published a book called “Travel Addict” that we discuss, including her recent trip to Antarctica. We also talk about how she manages her own workflow, the “Day in the Life” technique that she really likes, and the approach she takes with clients in her new consulting firm.

p.s. I apologize for my audio quality, luckily Amanda’s audio sounds good.

Links

* Upcoming Webinars through Lean Portland* Travel Addict: 50 Tips with Pics from Across the Globe* Contact info for Amanda* Email: [email protected]* LinkedIn* Instagram* Future Website: Beautiful Opportunities

Read full show notes | Subscribe or rate this podcast

Promotions

* FREE online course called “Lean Six Sigma and the Environment”* 6sigma.US Training and Certification Programs* Creative Safety Supply – Free 5S Guide

Have you ordered the new book, “Lean Six Sigma for Good: Lessons from the Gemba (Volume 1)?” The book is made up of 8 chapters written about experiences from Lean and Six Sigma practitioners, to give you tips and tricks to help you work with nonprofits in your area. All proceeds donated to charity. We are also close to releasing Volume 2, so check back for the latest news.

Transcript

You’re listening to the Lean Six Sigma for Good podcast. We help you learn how Lean and Six Sigma concepts can be applied to nonprofits, NGOs, and not-for-profit organizations. Visit us at

In this podcast, I share a webinar I gave for the International Society of Six Sigma Professionals (ISSSP) in March 2020.

Lean Six Sigma methods have been proven to be effective in corporations and businesses, but how does this discipline apply in the nonprofit world? This webinar will discuss how nonprofits use Lean Six Sigma as a way to maximize the positive impact on society with the resources and funding available. The presentation will also outline several best practices in process improvement, and how volunteering can be helpful for career development.

You can also watch the video version of this webinar below, where I have added video highlights from projects I’ve worked on overlaid on the slides, so I really encourage you to check it out.

Links

* International Society of Six Sigma Professionals (ISSSP)* James P Womack Scholarship and Philanthropy Fund* Center for Quality People and Organizations

Read full show notes | Subscribe or rate this podcast

Promotions

* FREE online course called “Lean Six Sigma and the Environment”* 6sigma.US Training and Certification Programs* Creative Safety Supply – Free 5S Guide

Have you ordered the new book, “Lean Six Sigma for Good: Lessons from the Gemba (Volume 1)?” The book is made up of 8 chapters written about experiences from Lean and Six Sigma practitioners, to give you tips and tricks to help you work with nonprofits in your area. All proceeds donated to charity. We are also close to releasing Volume 2, so check back for the latest news.

Transcript

Host (H):  I would just like to welcome you all and thank you for joining us for today’s webinar, Applying Lean Six Sigma to Nonprofit Organizations. We are very excited about your participation today.

I introduce you to today’s speaker, Mr. Brion Hurley. Brion has a Master’s degree in Quality Management from the University of Iowa and is a certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt with over 26 years of experience. Mr. Hurley spent 18 years at Rockwell Collins teaching Green Belt classes and mentoring projects. In 2015, Brion became the president of Recycling Advocates, where he continues to play a vital role. In addition to Recycling Advocates, Mr.