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Publisher’s Note: Leading a Lean Transformation
A lean journey is not quick, nor is it easy. Committing to the journey
and following through, remaining patient, and forging ahead despite any
failures will enable your company to profit and grow—and achieve true
excellence—in an increasingly competitive and global marketplace.
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Case Study: Lean Value Chain: Demand Segmentation
When it comes to matching production with customer demand, the
biggest headaches are often self-inflicted. One multibillion dollar
packaging manufacturer and distributor needed to align 39 manufacturing
and eight distribution centers in three countries in order to reduce
inventory and improve forecasting.
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Futures: Steering Committees – They’re Vital to a Lean Culture
Most organizations have trouble setting organizational direction.
When setting policy for an organization, if you are not careful you can
fall into the trap of legislating based on what—or who—hurts the most.
A good way to address this issue is to establish a steering committee.
Steering committees can insure cross-functionality and representation
for all workers when setting policy for an organization.
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Accelerated Learning: eLearning – An Essential Piece of the Learning Puzzle
The great advantage of eLearning is that once an effective eLearning
course is developed, the computer and Internet can make it widely
available without the need for travel, time out of the office, or
committing to a specific date and time for training.
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Lean Champions: Paul Adelberg – Hayward Pool Products
Upper management at Hayward Pools would rightfully attribute the
company’s business success in recent years to its lean transformation,
and would attribute much of the success of the company’s lean cultural
transformation to Paul Adelberg’s efforts as a lean champion. Also, the
leaders of TBM’s new Executive Coaching and High-Performance Culture
Practice are introduced.
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Tech Talk: Best Practices in the Workplace – Managing Sustainment of Kaizen Results
How do you ensure that the gains made during a kaizen event stand up
to the behavior-extinguishing winds of time? LSI Corporation’s Engenio
Storage Group has developed a combined audit approach and balanced
scorecard methodology to track sustainment in a methodological way.
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Tech Talk: The Management Walk – Key to Sustained Performance
Management visibility and engagement, though often overlooked, is
probably the most critical element of a site’s lean journey. Management
must not just tell employees what they should be doing on the journey
toward becoming lean, they need to be actively engaged in the process
as well. A great starting point for active engagement is the weekly
“management walk.”
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Books to Read and Recommend: Don’t Miss – Creating a Lean Culture Tools to Sustain Lean Conversions
Creating a Lean Culture: Tools to Sustain Lean Conversions does a
great job of not only detailing the principal elements of lean
management, but also how standard work and accountability processes can
be established and monitored for all levels of the organization.
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Field Note: Spring Mill Energy Kaizen – Big Savings through Use Reduction
Spring Mill successfully used kaizen events to reduce energy costs
arising from the use of steam and natural gas, saving the mill tens of
thousands of dollars annually.
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Consider This!: Lean Leaders Exchange and Kaizen Promotion Office Exchange
Plan to attend either the Lean Leaders Exchange in Atlanta, GA, April
15–17 or the LeanSigma® KPO Exchange in Des Moines, IA, September
23–25.
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