Growing up in the 1980s and 90s, somebody I always looked up to—and still do today—is Michael Jordan. It wasn’t the fact that he helped his team win 6 NBA titles or that he averaged 30 points a game or even that he followed up his playing career with a…
True North is a term that originated recently with Toyota and refers to the ideal or "goal state"—where a company is headed. The idea is for the company to follow the path to its "True North"—achieving its vision and mission—like a hiker would follow a compass needle. By embracing Continuous…
I have been in the Continuous Improvement field for about 12 years now. It has been an amazing journey filled with awesome teams, amazing mentors, a lot of challenges but, most of all, a lot of meaningful work. It drives my passion for helping others to continuously improve how they…
Cardiva Medical, a medical device company, recently announced that they have been recognized for Operational Excellence from The Shingo Institute. The Shingo Institute is home of the Shingo Prize, an award that recognizes organizations that demonstrate an exceptional culture that cultivates continuous improvement. Cardiva medical has supported a three-year…
The Colorado Department of Transportation recently won a Harvard Award, which is a testament to their fervent approach to inspiring employees to "fix what bugs them". Since the inception of the Lean Everyday Ideas program (LEI), CDOT has captured 569 ideas from employees within the organization, in which 340…
It's no secret that process improvement has played a crucial role in serving the military for decades, but this recent process improvement success might be one of the most surprising of them all. Out of fourty-four project nominees, the Process Support Division Black Belt Team at Letterkenny Army Depot recently…
Samantha Kaplan, Director of Quality and Continuous Improvement at Corporate College (a division of Coyahoga Community College), builds her case on why 'every organization should promote a culture of continuous improvement'. "Continuous improvement is simply about the people and processes that make up a business. It's becoming part of the…
In this guide, we’ll walk you through the components of a successful Lean Six Sigma training deployment. You'll get the strategy, timeline and tools you need to train your teams and build a culture of Continuous Improvement. For over 25 years, we’ve helped organizations from every industry achieve their goals…
Inside of a morning workshop at a Bosch Rexroth hydraulic plant in Charlotte, N.C., leaders prepare their pitch to senior plant leaders and the local Lean project coordinator. In an effort to foster collaboration, the engineering firm takes a Shark Tank approach, where panelists ask questions and consider their options…
UECompression (UEC) of Colorado braces itself and strategizes with Lean Six Sigma through cyclical highs and lows in the oil and gas industry. COO Mark Vitale looks to improve quality and reduce cycle time at it's facility that was built in 2013. Using tools like 5S, UEC deploys Lean Six…