Toyota gives efficiency instead of money to New York food banks

A reminder that the strengths companies have are ones that can be shared with other organizations - and are sometimes worth a lot more than cash. In this way, it also gives employees an opportunity to hone their craft creatively. From the NYT (via HN): "In Lieu of Money, Toyota Donates Efficiency to New York Charity":

At a soup kitchen in Harlem, Toyota’s engineers cut down the wait time for dinner to 18 minutes from as long as 90. At a food pantry on Staten Island, they reduced the time people spent filling their bags to 6 minutes from 11. And at a warehouse in Bushwick, Brooklyn, where volunteers were packing boxes of supplies for victims of Hurricane Sandy, a dose of kaizen cut the time it took to pack one box to 11 seconds from 3 minutes.

Toyota has “revolutionized the way we serve our community,” said Margarette Purvis, the chief executive and president of the Food Bank.