Service and Industry Executives Describe 'Lean' Business Systems

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan 31, 2007 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Executives and managers from some of America's best known service and manufacturing companies will describe how they are taking lean thinking beyond applying isolated tools to implementing lean business systems during the first annual Lean Transformation Summit, sponsored by the nonprofit Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI).

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The conference will take place Feb.28 - March 1, at the Grand Hyatt, Atlanta, Georgia. One- and two-day pre-Summit workshops on Feb. 26 - 27 will teach critical skills needed to manage the transformation to lean systems. Complete descriptions of the workshops and conference sessions are available on the LEI web site at www.lean.org , click "Summits."

http://www.lean.org/summit_summary.html

While implementing individual lean tools, such as one-piece flow, value- stream mapping, standardized work, or kaizen have produced results -- often dramatic results -- sustaining the gains have been difficult. The most recent survey of the Lean Community by LEI revealed that "backsliding" to the old ways of working was the main obstacle to lean transformations.

The Lean Transformation Summit was designed to help companies learn from leaders and implementers who are pioneering new applications in lean thinking and moving beyond isolated tools to create lean enterprises. In plenary sessions, attendees will hear executives from companies describe the essential business cases for launching a lean transformation. In subsequent breakout sessions, implementers from each company will describe how particular methodologies were used, what obstacles were overcome, and what results were achieved. Summit highlights include:

  -- Keynoter John Shook, who helped Toyota transfer its lean system to
     North America, will explain the management methods essential for
     leading a lean transformation.
  -- How General Electric adopted a focus on process excellence to grow
     organically 2 to 3 times faster than world GDP.
  -- How Starbucks applied lean to major strategic processes including
     distribution, hiring, product development, and how lean principles fit
     in with the company's famous people-oriented culture.
  -- How General Motors systemically integrated lean thinking into
     functional areas to  reinvent itself.
  -- How New Balance launched a lean transformation that kept a large
     portion of manufacturing in the U.S. and how it is spreading lean from
     manufacturing to functional areas and suppliers.
  -- Special two-hour learning sessions let attendees quickly explore new
     methods.
  -- The summit is designed to be the best networking venue in the Lean
     Community.

The Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit education, 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.

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