Articles – Lean Six Sigma and the Environment

E121: Using Lean Principles for Non-Profits and NGOs – ASQ Lean Division

By -admin
Posted on December 23, 2024December 19, 2024
Posted in Book Review, Employee Engagement, Government, Lean Six Sigma Tools, Management, Nonprofit, Podcast, Volunteering

In this episode, I share a webinar I gave to the ASQ Lean Enterprise Division I share examples of how Lean tools like process mapping, 5S, and Kanban boards helped improve efficiency and effectiveness for nonprofit organizations focused on societal or environmental challenges. I also share my favorite real-world examples from the City of Denver,

E120: Tackling Green with Lean – Lean Global Connection 2024

By -admin
Posted on December 16, 2024December 5, 2024
Posted in Carbon Footprint, Employee Engagement, Energy, Lean Six Sigma Tools, Management, Podcast, Raw Materials, Solid Waste, Wasted Food, Water

In this episode, I share a presentation that the Lean Sustainability Global Network (an unofficial team that I’m involved with) gave at the Lean Global Connection virtual conference in Nov 2024. We share how Lean principles can be applied to tackle pressing environmental challenges and improve processes. For example, Lean and Green expands the traditional

E119: Applying Lean within Municipal Electric and Water Utilities – Interview with Jennifer Peterson

By -admin
Posted on November 27, 2024November 27, 2024
Posted in Carbon Footprint, Consortium, Employee Engagement, Energy, Government, Lean Six Sigma Tools, Management, Nonprofit, Podcast, Water

In this episode, we interview Jennifer Peterson, the manager of Continuous Improvement at Muscatine Power and Water (MPW) in Muscatine, Iowa. She discusses how she got into continuous improvement (CI) and the impact it has had on MPW employees and customers. She highlights the importance of: Jennifer also shares several examples of successful CI projects

DuPont Building Innovations: A Case Study in Achieving Zero Landfill

By -admin
Posted on November 14, 2024November 14, 2024
Posted in Employee Engagement, External Article, Lean Six Sigma Tools, Pollutants, Solid Waste

DuPont Building Innovations, a leader in sustainable building solutions, demonstrates that environmental responsibility aligns with business growth and innovation. Their commitment to zero landfill reflects a core value and contributes to their market differentiation. In 2008, Building Innovations produced 81 million pounds of landfill at 15 locations, a volume equivalent to nearly 16,000 cars or

E118: Supply Chains for Good – Interview with C.J. Nord

By -admin
Posted on October 30, 2024November 26, 2024
Posted in Employee Engagement, Podcast, Raw Materials, Solid Waste

In this episode, we interview C.J. Nord, a passionate supply chain manager and consultant, who shares her journey towards driving societal change through supply chain. As the founder of Supply Chains for Good, C.J. discusses her extensive career in supply chain management, her recovery from cancer, and how that inspired her skills to launch impactful

E117: Transforming Healthcare with Lean Six Sigma – Interview with Sarah Cook

By -admin
Posted on October 24, 2024October 24, 2024
Posted in Employee Engagement, Healthcare, Lean Six Sigma Tools, Management, Podcast

In this episode, I interviewed Sarah Cook, a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt consultant from Pepper Foster Consulting in Portland, Oregon. She shares her journey from the VA medical center to becoming a performance engineer in healthcare. She discusses the application of Lean and Six Sigma methodologies to healthcare, the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare

The pursuit of eggscellence – Planet Lean

By -admin
Posted on September 18, 2024September 18, 2024
Posted in Employee Engagement, External Article, Lean Six Sigma Tools, Management, Raw Materials, Wasted Food

Two egg omelette restaurants run by Nima and Faraz Ghorbani in The Netherlands utilize Lean to successfully grow their business, thanks to the training and coaching they received from René Aernoudts of the Lean Management Instituut. One of their challenges was to improve cleaning and operational efficiency. Different equipment and brands made it challenging, so

E116: Using Energy Treasure Hunts and Energy SWAPs to Engage Employees and Reduce Costs

By -admin
Posted on September 9, 2024November 2, 2024
Posted in Carbon Footprint, Employee Engagement, Energy, Government, Lean Six Sigma Tools, Management, Podcast

In March of 2024, the Iowa Sustainable Business Forum (ISBF) and Center for Industrial Research and Service (CIRAS) were still separate organizations, and they agreed to host a joint webinar to promote Energy Efficiency and Lean. I was fortunate to connect up with Paul Lemar, Jr. from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), who has

E115: Using Lean to Minimize Waste Within ESG Initiatives

By -admin
Posted on July 16, 2024July 15, 2024
Posted in Carbon Footprint, Energy, Lean Six Sigma Tools, Management, Nonprofit, Podcast, Solid Waste

Continuing our discussion on Lean Six Sigma and ESG, I brought back last episode’s guest, Erin Bauer (Product Development Manager at ASQE) and added a new guest, Beth Cudney. She is a Professor of Data Analytics and the Program Coordinator for Data Analytics at Maryville University. She received her B.S. in Industrial Engineering from North

E114: Sustainability Benchmarking Studies with Erin Bauer

By -admin
Posted on July 2, 2024July 1, 2024
Posted in Employee Engagement, Lean Six Sigma Tools, Management, Nonprofit, Podcast

I had a great interview with Erin Bauer, who is the Product Development Manager at ASQE, which is a trade association created by ASQ to provide benchmarking assistance to corporations within ASQ. One of their key products is the Insights on Excellence® (IoE) Benchmarking Tool. The benchmarking survey results are available to members and nonmembers