Does change really stick? Checking in on Lean Leaders a year later
- Tiffany Archuleta
- Sep 10
- 3 min read
The San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) Warehouse Team supports more than 100 sites across the City and County of San Francisco, and each site includes numerous rooms and multiple school staff members who can submit warehouse requests. Warehouse Supervisor Lloyd Nabong and Warehouse Lead Dan Melendez joined PPI’s Lean Leaders cohort with a clear goal: fix a warehouse system that wasn’t working for their team or their customers.
Their biggest pain point came from a flood of last minute requests the team would inevitably receive every August, causing sudden spikes in their request queue. In 2023, the team saw a request increase from 35 to 135 in the few weeks before the start of the new school year! Their team was constantly pressured to address last minute work-orders from teachers and staff, during time was supposed to be reserved for moving equipment and furniture into the warehouse and delivering supplies to special needs programs right before the beginning of school.
Revisiting the Journey
In our original feature on Lloyd and Dan's Lean Leaders project, we spotlighted the solutions they came up with and began piloting: standardized processes, workflow visualizations, and more efficient communication to staff in order to diffuse bottlenecks.
The result? More strategic and consistent communication that led to safer hallways and classrooms, quicker work-order fulfillment, and a newly empowered team. But the story didn’t end there. The team kept the momentum going, and continued to rev their improvement engine through each school year.
The Momentum Continues
Since the completion of Lean Leaders, Lloyd and Dan led a sustained transformation effort. Here's where things stand now:
Refined Procedures: They revisited every step of the equipment request and delivery process, clarifying roles, expectations, and timelines. The goal was simple: stop crisis-mode fires before they start.
Data-Driven Decision-Making: They continuously review data to understand the trends so they can make proactive adjustments and ensure equipment is moved in a timely manner and facilities are safe for students.
Results That Matter: A 38% Drop in Last-Minute Requests
Now that they are two years out from their initial training and project, they can really see what sustained improvement looks like -- because they have the data and metrics to prove it!
Perhaps the most powerful metric is this: last-minute requests have dropped by 38%. That means many urgent requests have been avoided altogether--giving staff more predictability, reducing stress, and preventing costly disruptions. With advance notice up, the warehouse team can plan and serve staff and students more reliably.
What That Change Looks and Feels Like
Safety has improved too: Hallways and other spaces are cleared on schedule, and critical supplies and equipment get delivered to the District's Special Education program classrooms on-time. Plus, the flow of materials feels smoother. Teachers and staff get what they need without surprises or backlogs.
Level Loading (heijunka)
Level loading, known as heijunka in Japanese, is a core Lean concept that reduces variation and smooths the flow of work to eliminate waste.
For Lloyd and Dan, this meant rethinking how requests came into the warehouse. Rather than allowing a surge of last-minute work orders, like the typical flood two weeks before school starts, they worked on fine tuning how they communicated to staff in order to distribute requests more evenly over the summer break.
By stabilizing the pace of work, they avoided backlogs, reduced safety risks caused by backlog, and improved overall service quality. Level loading gave their team greater flexibility, enabling them to respond more quickly to urgent needs and special projects without derailing daily operations.
Why It Matters: Beyond the Numbers
Staff Well-Being: Less firefighting equals less fatigue. They’re able to focus on consistent, quality work.
Operational Resilience:Â With fewer emergencies, the warehouse team can absorb fluctuations without chaos.
Scalable Improvement:Â The systems and mindsets in place make future gains not just possible but sustainable.
Lean Leaders + Ongoing Accountability = Transformation
This isn’t just a one-off improvement. It’s the result of leaders who:
Learned Lean tools and mindsets
Applied them in real work
Reinforced gains through repeatable systems
Used data and daily rhythm to stay on track
Their success proves what we often see: Lean isn't a one-time event, it’s a discipline. And the discipline turns successes into systems that stick.
Empower Your Team Today
Ready to empower your team with the mindset and tools to unlock lasting change? Whether your staff are in a warehouse, HR, public works, or finance, Lean Leadersâ„¢ gives them the skills to root out waste, boost safety and quality, and sustain improvement.