About the Author

Brion Hurley is the owner of Business Performance Improvement (BPI), a Lean Six Sigma consulting firm in Portland (Oregon) focused on sustainability. He currently teaches Six Sigma and Lean classes, facilitates lean events and kaizen workshops, performs statistical analysis, and mentors practitioners through improvement projects in manufacturing, service and office processes.

Prior to BPI, he spent 18 years at Rockwell Collins⁴⁹ as Principal Lean Six Sigma Consultant. He was hired in 1999, and has worked out of 3 different facilities: Cedar Rapids (Iowa), Melbourne (Florida) and Wilsonville (Oregon). He drove sustainability efforts at both the corporate and regional level by applying process improvement techniques to reduce electricity and solid waste. He also established and managed multiple green teams and Earth Day Fairs.

He is certified as a Master Black Belt and Lean Master, and has numerous sustainability certifications, including CISR Certified Practitioner⁵⁰. He has a bachelor’s degree in Statistics, a master’s degree in Quality Management and Productivity, and lettered four years in football as a placekicker and punter at the University of Iowa.

He volunteers his time with local nonprofits through Lean Portland⁵¹, and is a member of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) Sustainable Development division, which is working to bring sustainability to the engineering field. He is currently President of Recycling Advocates⁵², a nonprofit organization in Portland that is “dedicated to creating a sustainable future through local efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle.”

Key Sustainability Projects

• Enhancement to the recycling program at Kinnick Stadium, which increased the diversion rate from 25% to 50%
• Led Six Sigma project on electricity reduction that saved $300,000 per year
• Led Rockwell Collins (Wilsonville facility) to the Clackamas County Leaders in Sustainability Gold Certification

In his personal life, he has installed solar panels on his home in Florida, went a summer without air conditioning in Florida, cut out all meat and animal products from his diet (vegan), downsized to a single-wide mobile home, takes his coffee cup and to-go container with him everywhere he goes, collects detailed data on his personal carbon footprint, and is currently leasing an Chevy Spark electric vehicle (EV).

His wife Vera was integral in helping him understand how his actions were impacting the environment. They have been married since 2008, and have lived in Portland since 2013.

You can learn more at http://BrionHurley.com, or connect with him on LinkedIn⁵³. He is available to speak to your Lean and Six Sigma department or networking group on this topic, either in-person or via webinar.