E112: Applying Lean Six Sigma to Healthcare and Career Development with Sarah Tilkens

Making a real difference in your organization can be a struggle, but there is a way to leverage powerful tools and strategies to drive positive change, while also boosting your own career development. In this episode, I introduce you to Sarah Tilkens, a former biologist turned operational excellence leader, who cracked the code on impactful

E110: Lean for Community Projects with Lean Portland – Lean Global Connection 2023

In this podcast, I share the presentation given by my peers who helped us create the Lean Portland group back in 2015. They gave this presentation at the Lean Global Connection on November 30, 2023. It is a free annual online event put on by the Lean Global Network (LGN). The event took place over

E106: Lean and Green Case Study – Prefab Home Manufacturer Saves $300K

In this podcast, I share a “Lean and Green” case study I supported for a prefab home manufacturer in California in 2020-2021. I was asked to speak to the Industrial and Systems Engineers class by Professor Corey Kiassat at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT. He contacted me after my presentation at the Lean Global Connection

E098: Lean and Green Interview with The Lean Effect Podcast

In this podcast, I was interviewed by Mark Dejong on his The Lean Effect Podcast back in June 2021 (episode 34). We talked about my journey from statistician to Principal Lean consultant, and how Lean Six Sigma is beneficial for the environment, and applicable to our personal lives. We also discuss wastes we normally don’t

E097: Using Six Sigma to Address Racial Equity with Joy Mason

In this podcast, I talk to my friend, Joy Mason, CEO and founder of Optimist Business Solutions, and the founder of The Six Sigma Racial Equity Institute™ (SSREI), which is an innovative leadership program designed to upskill Black Women to be complex problem solvers. We discuss her background in continuous improvement, why she started Optimist

E096: Interviews from IISE Annual Volunteer Service Project at Southcenter Store near Seattle

In this podcast, I extract the audio from a published video by IISE that recapped our last volunteer service project in Seattle in May 2022. We have been conducting these volunteer events prior to each annual conference since 2012, and this was the first one we’ve had since the pandemic. You can read about prior

E095: Applying Lean Six Sigma to College and K-12 Education with Jenelle Zito

In this podcast, I interviewed Jenelle Zito, who is the Director Of Continuous Improvement at Racine Unified School District (RUSD). Prior to joining RUSD about 5 years ago, she implemented process improvement at Gateway Technical College as a Quality Champion, after earning her Lean Six Sigma Green and Black Belt certification. She shares examples of

E087: Applying Lean to Nonprofits and Healthcare with Matt Horvat

My good friend Matt Horvat is the founder of Lean Portland, and has extensive experience in process improvement in various industries like Construction, Healthcare, Insurance and Consulting. He discusses why he set up Lean Portland, and shares his first pro bono volunteer projects with a nonprofit in Portland. We discuss: his background in Industrial Engineering

E083: Kata for Good and #RootCauseRacism with Deondra Wardelle

In this podcast, I interview Deondra Wardelle, whom I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know over the past year. She is a strategic thinker and consultant based in Indianapolis (Indiana) who focuses on coaching, empowering and developing individuals towards achieving their personal and professional goals. Her passion and life’s calling is using Continuous Improvement