Category: Solid Waste

EC 044: Lean Principles in the Building Reuse Industry (BMRA)

In this podcast, I share a webinar that I gave with Matt Horvat of Lean Portland, and Kelly Stevens from The Rebuilding Center. We were asked to talk about our experiences applying Lean to the building reuse industry, which includes work over the past few years with The Rebuilding Center and Habitat for Humanity Restore
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EC 043: Lean Six Sigma Successes at Goodwill of the Heartland

In this podcast, I interviewed Jess Schamberger, who is the Vice President of Operations at Goodwill of the Heartland in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Goodwill has a contract manufacturing division that most people don’t know about. She discusses some of the lean and Six Sigma improvements implemented in the donation receiving area, as well as the
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EC 042: Process Improvement in the Building Reuse Industry

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
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Will process improvement methods from manufacturing work with reuse?

Most major corporations, especially those in manufacturing, have some type of improvement program they follow to save money, reduce inventory and increase customer satisfaction. These programs fall under the popular terms such as Lean, Six Sigma, Continuous Improvement, or Operational Excellence. These approaches have been around for decades with a strong track record of success.  When these
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EC 039: Applying Lean Six Sigma to a Nonprofit Fundraiser Conference

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 or watch the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xHI_uxbc3g There are 8
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EC 037: Lean Six Sigma for Good – Interview with Iowa Lean Consortium Radio

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
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EC 036: Going Paperless with Lean Six Sigma Training Materials

In this podcast, I share an example of how I led an effort at my former company to transition our Lean Six Sigma training material from printed booklets to paperless. I go through the calculations to print each booklet, and calculate the environmental footprint. I also discuss situations when students value the booklets, and how
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EC 035: How to Incorporate and Leverage Lean Six Sigma and Sustainability – Gemba Academy Interview

In this podcast, I share an interview I had with Ron Pereira of Gemba Academy. We discussed Lean Six Sigma and Sustainability (of course!). We define sustainability for the audience to get them on the same page. They we talked about going paperless at work, the volunteer work with Lean Portland, and how people are
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EC 034: Lean Six Sigma Applied to the Portland Zero Waste Conference

Summary In this podcast, I share my experience setting up and running an environmental event in Portland in mid-October, called the Zero Waste Conference I discuss ways in which I applied Lean and Six Sigma concepts to the event, such as Lean Startup, Pareto charts, FMEA, forecasting and predictions on attendance, net promoter score (NPS), check-in
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