Our Team, Jeff Kahne, PhD | Firefly Consulting

Jeff Kahne is a results-oriented advisor with extensive experience in all areas of organizational transformation and process innovation. He has demonstrated expertise in Six Sigma, Design, Lean, statistical modeling, change management and reengineering, in addition to strategic planning.

He has successfully deployed process improvement and design initiatives in healthcare, financial services, private equity, global logistics/distribution, chemical, semiconductor, industrial automation, medical, manufacturing, and service companies ranging from $40 million to $400 billion in annual revenue.

Prior to joining Firefly Consulting, Jeff served as a Business Architect leading process improvement within USAA, a Fortune 500 insurance company. He led process management and improvement initiatives for the company’s claims and sales processes, identifying over $50M in savings.

Jeff is a 20-year veteran of the United States Air Force. He redesigned Air Force strategic planning models for Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine use and led Joint, Department of Defense, Nuclear Weapons Inspections agency, Combat Operations units, Intelligence Agencies, through data centric and team based strategic planning efforts.

Jeff's Publications and Insights

Accelerating Private Equity Results with Operational Excellence

Learn how operational excellence can accelerate private equity results.

OPERATIONS | HEALTHCARE | MANUFACTURING & SUPPLY CHAIN

The Significance of Urgency and Complacency in Successful Change Initiatives

Jeff Kahne, Published by The Quality Management Forum, 2025.

CULTURE | LEADERSHIP | MANUFACTURING & SUPPLY CHAIN

Understanding Workforce Modeling: A Data-Driven Approach

Published by The Staffing Stream, 2023.

OPERATIONS

Top Four Tips For Creating Insightful Customer Journey Maps

Professional Association for Customer Engagement (PACE), 2021.

OPERATIONS | CUSTOMER | HEALTHCARE

Customer Journey Maps - Client Centricity and Getting the Most from Your Business Analytics

PACE, 2020.

OPERATIONS | CUSTOMER

Measuring Sense of Urgency - A Leadership Dilemma

Dr. Kahne's original research in change management. Presented to the 2019 ASQ World Conference.

OPERATIONS | INNOVATION

Evolution of Leadership Theories

Speaker, ASQ webinar series, July 2017.

OPERATIONS | INNOVATION

Innovating Lean Six Sigma

Many business books talk about Lean Six Sigma. This one shows you how to make it work.

Contributing author, McGraw-Hill.

LEAN SIX SIGMA

From Jets to Janitors: Using LSS in Defense

Presented to the 2015 International Lean Six Sigma Conference.

LEAN SIX SIGMA

Innovation and the Wisdom of Crowds

Presented to the 2015 ASQ World Conference.

INNOVATION

Education

Our Lady of the Lake University
PhD Leadership Studies
MBA Electronic Commerce
Park University
BS Management of Information Systems
Certified Master Black Belt

Notable Achievements

Led teams at Regional Medical Facility to use process excellence tools and methodologies to completely redesign a $100M hospital expansion.
Redesigned manufacturing layouts to allow for the repatriation of work from overseas. Doubled production capacity while reducing floor space required. Work led to 100% of production being moved back to the US with better quality and shorter resupply times to customers.
Reengineered Member and Provider Contact centers within a Managed Care Organization. Developed improved process for training, call distribution, staffing and scheduling. Reduced CSR time to proficiency while improving state mandated service levels.
Led a deployment of Customer Centric Business Design in a Fortune 50 insurance & financial services company. Led New Product Development teams in design of Enterprise Sales and Service processes impacting over 80 million customers.
Deployed Reliability Center Maintenance teams in Consumer Plastics and Paperboard industries. Used best practices from military and industry to integrate Total Productive Maintenance, Reliability Centered Maintenance, and Lean practices into a team-based process focused asset reliability. Teams raised overall equipment effectiveness by an average of 10-20 points in less than 9 months.
Developed statistical models, computer simulations, workforce forecast models, and support products to assist with process enhancements, new product designs, call center operations, and organizational structure of a $60B financial services corporation.

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Corporate SG&A Assessment Positions Leading Company for Future Growth

CASE STUDY, ASSESSMENTS

Improving Your Pricing Strategy – Simple Steps to Increased Profits

PUBLICATION, OPERATIONS

Operations Consulting

We have consulting experience with engagements as diverse as mergers and acquisitions, operations strategy, supply chain acceleration, shop-floor process improvements, and call center efficiency improvement.

Word Puzzle Challenge

How much do you know about Operational Excellence?

Play our continuous improvement version of a popular word game, with a new word every day. Can you guess today’s word?

OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE WORD PUZZLE

Assessments

Assessments are customized to meet your goals, leveraging our frameworks and knowledge of best practices from years of industry experience. Recent work has been in financial services, insurance, healthcare, manufacturing, and supply chain.