Lean Manufacturing Workshops Help Southern Industry Compete

BROOKLINE, Mass., Oct. 12, 2004 -- Regional lean manufacturing training from the nonprofit Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI), will help industry and suppliers cut costs, improve profits, and defend jobs by eliminating waste.

The training, consisting of eight workshops on how to implement key lean manufacturing tools -- including a new course on Lean Warehousing -- will run Nov. 30 to Dec. 2 at the Hilton Jacksonville Riverfront, Jacksonville, FL. LEI runs monthly workshops on how to implement lean manufacturing in different regions of North America. The Jacksonville workshops are:

-- Value-Stream Mapping (Nov. 30): Learn a fundamental initial step that creates the blueprint for applying other lean tools and running kaizen events.

- NEW! Lean Warehousing (Nov. 30): Learn how to apply lean principles to warehouse management and operations, a logical next-step for experienced lean thinkers.

-- Policy Management (Nov.30-Dec.1): Learn how to "de-select" initiatives down to the ones the organization can really achieve while aligning them with company strategic objectives.

-- Administrative Value-Stream Mapping (Dec. 1): Apply the practical value-stream mapping tool to nonproduction value streams.

-- Creating Continuous Flow (Dec. 1): Get the complete benefits of cellular production by focusing on the critical pacemaker process, the human factors of the operation, and how to balance the work to takt time.

-- Change Agent Skills for Lean Implementation Leaders (Dec. 1): Discover an analysis tool and communications format that use the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle to build support for lean initiatives by clearly demonstrating the benefits in human and organizational terms.

-- Making Materials Flow (Dec. 2): Sustain continuous flow cells and lines with a dependable just-in-time material-handling system for purchased parts that uses timed delivery routes, pull signals, and a Plan for Every Part.

-- Leadership for Value-Stream Management (Dec. 2): Learn the new operational structures, managerial methods, and leadership practices essential to managing and improving the flow of value. Presented by John Shook, an LEI senior advisor and former deputy general manager of the Toyota Supplier Support Center who helped transfer the Toyota Production System to North America.

Workshops run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Space is limited. For complete content descriptions and to register, go to http://www.lean.org/Events/ or call (617) 713-2900.

Lean manufacturing cuts costs and inventories rapidly to free cash and resources, which is critical in a competitive world economy. Lean supports 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 renewed economic growth by increasing sales without increasing costs.

The Lean Enterprise Institute is a nonprofit training, publishing, and research organization founded by James Womack, PhD, in August 1997. It has developed simple but powerful tools for implementing a set of ideas known as lean production and lean thinking, based initially on the Toyota Production System and now extended to an entire Lean Business System. For more information, visit the LEI News page at http://www.lean.org/WhoWeAre/LEINews.cfm.