Three New Lean Production Workshops Benefit Manufacturers in the Southeast

BROOKLINE, Mass., Oct. 5 -- A new workshop on product development and two on lean logistics are among nine being presented Dec. 6, 2005-8 in Jacksonville, FL by the nonprofit Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) as part of regional training for Southeast manufacturers.

The other workshops will tackle value-stream mapping, train-the-trainer in value-stream mapping, value-stream mapping for business processes, continuous flow, material handling, and pull systems. Workshops run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Hilton Jacksonville Riverfront hotel. For complete content descriptions and to register, go to the Training page of the LEI web site at: http://www.lean.org/Events/ or call (617) 713-2900. Space is limited.

Two LEI experts will teach workshops based on their workbooks that received 2005 Shingo Prizes. Art Smalley received a Shingo Research Prize for the Creating Level Pull workbook and Rick Harris received a prize for co- authoring Making Materials Flow. They're teaching workshops by the same names. Rick, co-author of the Creating Continuous Flow workbook, will teach a separate workshop based on that book, which received a Shingo Prize in 2003. Here is the schedule:

  Dec 6
  -- Value-Stream Mapping (1 day): Learn a fundamental initial step that
     creates the blueprint for applying other lean tools and running kaizen
     events most effectively.
  -- Lean Logistics: Inbound for Manufacturers (1 day): Tackle the
     operational realities of how to implement an inbound logistics system
     to support a lean manufacturing facility.
  -- Lean Product Development (2 days): Learn how a product development
     process minimizes lead-time while maximizing knowledge growth about
     the product, customer, and manufacturing through tools such as rapid
     learning cycles, set-based concurrent development, and a value-stream
     mapping method for the complexities inherent in product development.

  Dec 7
  -- Creating Continuous Flow (1 day): Get the complete benefits of cellular
     production by focusing on the critical pacemaker process, the people
     factors of the operation, and how to balance the work to takt time.
  -- Business Process Value-Stream Mapping (1 day): Learn how to apply
     value-stream mapping to administrative, professional, and
     transactional activities. You'll learn how to identify existing waste
     in nonproduction value streams by drawing a current-state map and how
     to design a leaner, more efficient process by mapping the future
     state.
  -- Lean Logistics: Developing an Overall Strategy (1 day): Gain a high-
     level understanding of the overall logistics system from corporate,
     operations, and logistics perspectives in order to develop a lean
     logistics strategy.

  Dec 8
  -- Making Materials Flow (1 day): How to implement, sustain, and improve
     a dependable material-handling system for purchased parts using pull,
     timed delivery routes, a central supermarket, and a Plan for Every
     Part.
  -- Creating Level Pull (1 day): This introduction to the basics of
     leveling and pull gives you the essential information you need to
     design and implement a basic end-to-end pull system with kanban and a
     leveled schedule at the pacemaker process.
  -- Train the Trainer in Value-Stream Mapping (1 day): Get the knowledge
     and training materials for running your own value-stream mapping
     workshops.

Lean manufacturing cuts costs and inventories rapidly to free cash and resources, which is critical in a competitive world economy. Lean supports profitable growth by improving productivity and quality, reducing lead times, and freeing resources. For example, it frees office and plant space and increases capacity so companies can add product lines, in-source component production, and increase output of existing products. Companies implementing lean can take advantage of economic growth by increasing sales while controlling costs.

The Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit training, publishing, and research center founded by James P. Womack PhD, in August 1997 to give people simple but powerful tools that enable them to apply a set of ideas known as lean production and lean thinking, based initially on the Toyota Production System. For more information visit the LEI News page at http://www.lean.org/WhoWeAre/LEINews.cfm.