For Hometown News
MARTIN COUNTY -- In his career as a manufacturing executive, Joseph C. Day earned a reputation for developing and implementing lean management culture and processes that helped his organizations become more successful.
Recently, Mr. Day made a $1 million gift to the Martin Health Foundation with the primary objective to help Martin Health System continue to develop performance excellence, leadership development and physician initiatives.
Martin Health's four-year-old performance excellence program implements lean management techniques into the health-care setting, reducing waste and inefficiency to enhance the quality of patient care.
"Martin Health has developed a culture of performance excellence that is advancing patient care in numerous ways," said Mr. Day. "However, lean management is a constant journey and my ultimate goal is to assist Martin Health in its efforts to continue finding ways to more effectively and safely care for patients. I have seen it work in manufacturing and it is helping health care providers deliver the highest quality care possible."
The former chairman and chief executive officer of Freudenberg-NOK, a global manufacturing company that makes sealing products and other industrial rubber products, Mr. Day has received international recognition for his work in lean management.
He was inducted into the Shingo Academy, which consists of individuals who have distinguished themselves through their lifetime commitments and achievements in lean and operational excellence.
And in 2000 he earned the S.M. Wu Foundation's Manufacturing Leadership award, which recognizes individuals who have successfully demonstrated leadership skills and have made a profound impact on the manufacturing industry.
In 2002, he earned an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Massachusetts.
Mr. Day, who joined the Martin Health Foundation board of directors in 2012, has a long history of community leadership with nonprofit organizations.
He is currently on the board of directors for Volunteers in Medicine Clinic and the Council on Aging of Martin County, has been a member of the University of Massachusetts Foundation for seven years, and served 14 years as a board member of the 2,200-bed Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich.
For more information, visit martinhealth.org.