Lean Implementation at Mission Linen in Sacramento ...

This week I spent time with Mission Linen in Sacramento, California in the first week of a Lean (and partly Six Sigma) Implementation. They have a vendor presently implementing what they are calling "Lean Six Sigma" in a few of their other facilities. I had a few of their employees in my Lean and Six Sigma course and they saw a different side of Lean and Six Sigma. They asked me to lead the implementation at their Sacramento facility. Through the concepts of Pull, Kanban, and Flow, they see production of their core items in a whole new way. This will have a significant effect on their throughput. It's great to see a plan come together ;)

Training is sometimes “a job” (but most of the time it’s just fun :) ...

I was in the home of the Astro's Baseball team teaching a Six Sigma Week #2 course. For those of you who watch my Facebook page, you will think to yourself "but Kevin has not taught a week #1 in Houston in more than six months". You are correct … I was subbing for another instructor. We had a small class (of three) but they were very engaged in class (even though we had a series of sunny Spring days and a clear view to the outside through a large window;). This was a tough class, because i ended up catching Strep Throat on Tuesday morning and taught all day with an ever increasing fever (102 by days end). I went to the Clinic in Walgreens (a great business model, by the way to have a clinic right next to the pharmacy!), received some antibiotics. I felt fair the next morning but taught the whole day and was worn out by 5pm. Wednesday was the kicker, because not only did i teach all day with strep throat, but i ended up with Laryngitis. By the end of the day I had to use all but use sign language to be understood. Not to fear though... I made it through the day, and the class was still engaged. I gained some of my voice back for Thursday's session but had to actually use pictures to be understood sometimes. We made it a game of Pictionary at one point in the class. All in all, it was a great class. A picture is on my Facebook page.


I have a lot of fun teaching and consulting, but the man upstairs likes to humble me every now and again. He sure did a good job this week :)

Next week, i will be headed to Toronto Canada to help a company that's implementing Six Sigma at Kraft Foods worldwide.