RWD Technologies' President Reveals How to Hit Home Run When Moving to Lean Production System

    DEARBORN, Mich., June 7 Speaking Wednesday at the 13th
annual Shingo Prize Conference at the Hyatt Regency here, Dan Slater,
president, Manufacturing Performance Group, at RWD Technologies, explained to
attendees that, more than anything, it is the overall culture of an
organization that must change for lean manufacturing to work.
    The Shingo Prize, established by the College of Business, Utah State
University, is described as "the Nobel prize of manufacturing."  Its annual
conference runs June 4-8.
    Slater introduced a four-phase model that businesses must use to change
from mass production to a lean system.  He said, according to RWD studies,
that most companies miss the mark because they only focus on physical and
operation change as their methodology to get "lean."
    "Unless 90% of the attention is devoted to culture change upfront, an
organization will miss its financial improvement target from lean initiatives
by more than 50 percent," Slater said.
    Citing four key factors in a lean system, Slater said, "Leadership must
create and support a proactive, process-oriented culture that strategically
plans for the future.  Leadership must understand and use performance metrics
to continuously improve performance.  It must have, and effectively
communicate, a common purpose and sense of unity or team.  Lastly, leadership
must insist on and support a strategic training program that relates to both
the business plan and plant operations ... not forgetting that management
needs as much training -- and maybe more -- than subordinates."
    Slater concluded, "Lean will not be sustained by 'kaizen' or continuous
improvement events.  It takes a radical change in management philosophy to
move from mass to lean.  If you miss just one step, you risk falling back to
old, mass production practices."
    Established in 1988, RWD Technologies has approximately 1,100 employees
located in 18 offices in the United States, 3 offices in Europe, an office in
Mexico, and an office in Singapore.  With Michigan offices located in Troy,
RWD provides services that increase productivity and reduce operating costs
for companies in more than 20 industries.  Information about RWD can be found
at the corporation's World Wide Web site: http://www.rwd.com .

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