Just in time for Elul the New York Times featured a story about how Toyota has been assisting the Food Bank in New York City and about 20 other charities not with monetary donations but by applying a Japanese concept called “kaizen ” meaning “continuous improvement.” It involves “thinking outside the box and making small changes to generate big results ” and has been a “main ingredient inToyota’s business model and a key to its success ” which it is now sharing with these nonprofits.
Toyota’s engineers made aHarlemsoup kitchen more efficient for example by cutting down the wait time of those standing in line to eat from an average of 90 minutes down to 18 thus enabling more of them to be fed. All it took was a few small changes like giving an employee the sole duty of spotting empty seats so they could be filled quickly.
Perhaps Toyotacan next lend its expertise in efficiency to help solve the shidduch crisis.
One line in the story was striking:
“[Businesses] give money and time and we’re grateful” [Food Bank president] Ms. Purvis said. “But it’s very rare for people to come and say ‘You know what this is the model that made our company great and we will share it with a charity….”
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