About the Consortium
Lean and Six Sigma are proven approaches to improve your organization.
Sustainable organizations are focused on the triple bottom line, People, Planet and Profits (not just profits).
When Lean and Sustainability are combined together, organizations are not only able to take out waste and inefficiency in their processes (which save money and increase customer value), but are also able to speed up employee engagement, become a leader in their community, increase employee retention and attraction, reduce legal risks, and separate themselves from their competitors.
Is your company or organization passionate about making improvements the “right way”?
- People
- Employees come first. Their ideas are valued and acted upon. They are empowered at work, given time to volunteer within the community, and taught how to improve their work area through training, coaching and participation in improvement events. Management is concerned about the employee on a personal level, and is looking to help them meet their personal and career goals, even if it means they will move out of their current job. When efficiencies are gained through Lean, they redeploy employees to other parts of the organization, instead of letting them go or not rehiring. This follows the core lean principle of “respect for people.” This approach increases employee engagement, identifies new solutions to problems, and increases employee retention, and increases attraction of new employees to your organization.
- Planet
- Environmental stewardship is embedded in company culture and actions. Carbon footprint reports and environmental impacts are shared with the community, stakeholders, and employees. Plans are in place to move towards renewable energy and reduce carbon emissions every year. Environmental projects and efforts are allowed to compete with other capital investments through special budgets or longer payback periods. Recycling, waste prevention, public transportation encouragement, energy efficiency, green building criteria, employee education, and community support of environmental programs and initiatives are viewed as critical to long term organizational success.
- Profit
- Decision making is focused on total life cycle and externality costs, not short term benefits. For example, when choosing a supplier, a sustainable company will look beyond the cost of the product or service, but include criteria around packaging, quality, handling and storage, reliability, maintenance and repair, worker conditions, health and safety risks, carbon impact, recycled content, pollution, and end of life disposal fees. This approach allows better financial decisions to be made, and helps drive long-term planning into the organization.
If these principles sound like your organization, or where you want your organization to be in the future, then the Lean and Sustainable Consortium might be the right networking group for you!
In order to reduce travel costs and make meeting attendance easier, we have broken up the U.S. into regions, based on the location of major cities. Meetings will typically take place within a 4 hour drive of each major city listed, depending on the organizations involved. For example, if most organizations in the Buffalo New York region are located near Albany, then most meetings will take place in Albany.
If you are located in Europe, please reach out to Keivan Zokaei to express interest in the consortium based in the United Kingdom.
Why should my organization join?
- Learn from other organizations that have already resolved some of your challenges
- Get inspired to improve and accelerate your lean and sustainability efforts
- Learn about best practices and latest trends
- Network with other like-minded individuals
- Get valuable feedback and suggestions for improvement from other organizations during gemba exchange (host organization)
What are the logistics and commitment for my organization?
- Gemba Exchange and Tours (minimum 4 times per year)
- One organization will host a day long meeting, where they will share the progress they are making (successes and struggles). Short training sessions, workshops, or detailed discussions on key regional topics can also take place. Topics and outcomes for each session will be defined by the organizations.
- Virtual Collaboration and Forums (ongoing)
- Online discussion forums (LinkedIn/Facebook) to get questions answered by the group, training webinars, guest speakers, conference calls to cover more specific topics, or plan future meetings and events
- Annual Conference (Once per year)
- Regional or national conferences (1-2 days) to share knowledge and best practices between regions
- Support and Assistance (optional)
- Organizations that want to accelerate their progress can get dedicated training, coaching and mentoring. Additional costs and fees may apply depending on needs.
Why are we setting up the consortium?
Businesses and organizations have a large influence on sustainability, and many are making great progress. However, we need to move much faster to slow down climate change, and to address a constantly changing economy and social structure. In order to accelerate this progress, we feel a consortium will help forward-thinking companies move even faster, and encourage other organizations to follow in their footprints.
Is there a cost to join?
Not at this time. We are first trying to determine interest from organizations. Any costs for rental space, speakers, training or administrative fees will be determined by the local region, and may be requested on a case-by-case basis.
Yes, I am interested in learning more about the Lean and Sustainable Consortium!
If you are outside of the US, and would like a Lean and Sustainable Consortium near you, contact us!