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Publisher’s Note: LeanSigma®: Back to the Basics in Times of Turmoil
We are living in a new world order—one in which crisis and turmoil are
the “new norm.” If we want to continue to survive in this kind of
turmoil, what must we do? Following Toyota’s example, we must learn to
apply—or reapply—lean principles to those things we can control in our
own organizations. The first step is to go back to the basics—revisit
and rejuvenate your own lean efforts and look for ways to apply lean
principles in the short term to exert control over the variables you
can control.
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Case Study: Steinway & Sons: Applying LeanSigma to Art
Being great—even being the best—wasn’t good enough for Henry E.
Steinway in the 19th century and it isn’t good enough for the people at
Steinway & Sons today. Innovation and an unyielding resistance to
the status quo are what have kept Steinway & Sons in the forefront
of piano design, and, as always, the Steinway philosophy remains, “We
can do better.” So it wasn’t surprising that Steinway & Sons would
decide to implement LeanSigma concepts to explore ways to refine
manufacturing processes. With its 155-year track record of continuous
improvement, Steinway continues looking for ways to create its
world-class pianos in a more efficient and productive environment.
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more…
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Lean Champions: Vermeer Corporation Wins 2008 Perfect Engine Award
Vermeer Corporation CEO Mary Andringa was presented with the sixth
annual Perfect Engine Award at TBM’s annual Executive Exchange
Conference in Naples, Florida. The award was in recognition of
Vermeer’s commitment to a continuous improvement philosophy and its
success as a lean enterprise.
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Leadership & Culture: Talent Multiplication: Developing and Leveraging Your Human Assets
CIRCOR launched its lean transformation in 2005 and like many
companies began working on achieving operational excellence on the shop
floor and in the front offices by running kaizen events. To move the
lean cultural transformation forward, CIRCOR developed an “A-Player”
definition and recruited lean talent in top positions. Moving forward
the company has begun to see an important cultural change: the
development of the next generation of leaders, which is the result of a
subtle shift from recruiting talent from outside to developing a
world-class workforce inside.
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Books to Read and Recommend: Making Quality the Key Ingredient in Everything You Do
Subir Chowdhury’s book The Ice Cream Maker (Doubleday Business, 2005)
is a superb introduction to the importance of establishing quality and
customer service in the minds of the workforce as an uncompromising
foundation to realizing operational excellence and competitiveness in
the global marketplace.
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Case Study: Lean Product Development Helps You Play a Different Tune
At some point along a lean journey you realize that there’s more to
LeanSigma than just improving processes on the shop floor or in the
back offices. Design for LeanSigma enables companies to get new
products to market more quickly and reliably. At Conn-Selmer, the
nation’s largest domestic manufacturer of musical instruments, the
innovation that comes out of the DLS process and the involvement from
the marketplace creates a new feel for customers about who Conn-Selmer
is as a company. For companies that want to deliver new products to
their respective markets on time, with the right quality level and at
the right price, there is no better tool than DLS.
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Radical Strategic Visioning: Stop the Yo Yo Diet by Developing a Lean Management System
Why do some companies get great LeanSigma results, but then fail to
sustain them while others do so with notable success? How to sustain
results is one of the most important questions that companies face
today. The companies that successfully sustain change have the right
formula of leadership, structure, and tools that allows them to create
a force for change by developing a “Lean Management System.”
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Futures: Managing without Standard Cost Accounting: Lean Management Accounting
Accounting has long been a world unto itself with
difficult-to-understand information and a language all its own. In a
lean company, standard cost accounting methods (GAAP) are likely to
inadvertently sabotage lean efforts. In reality, costing can be made
much simpler and useful. Implementing lean accounting encompasses two
steps. The first involves creating “plain English financials,” and the
second is to apply the lean principles of waste elimination and
one-piece flow to the financial operations themselves.
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Tech Talk: Cultural Transformation: The KPO’s Role as a “Marketer” of Lean
Essential success factors in any lean transformation include clarity
of vision and direction, compelling context, communications with
conviction, a culture of continuous improvement, and countermeasures
discipline. However, there is another aspect that is sometimes
forgotten—the consistent marketing of lean at all levels in the
organization.
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Think Sync: Going Offshore? Look before You Leap
All over the world, heading offshore to outsource production has
become so commonplace that it is now accepted as the norm. Off shoring
does indeed make sense for many companies, especially those that want
to establish a global footprint. Too many, however, outsource
production for the wrong reasons.
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Field Note: Appleton Papers: Taking Waste Out of the Annual Budgeting Process
Appleton’s Annual Operating Plan (AOP) kaizen team proved that it is
possible to implement lean concepts for the financial reporting and
budgeting processes in an organization, to the benefit of all. The
benefits realized from the AOP process were also implemented for the
company’s quarterly business review process. If you haven’t considered
applying LeanSigma to your financial operations, now is the time to do
so.
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News of Note: TBM Partners with Catalyst Business Systems
As part of our ongoing strategic commitment to improve our consulting
services, TBM continually seeks new ways to help guide our clients
through the evolving challenges of a more demanding business landscape.
To that end, we are pleased to announce our partnership with Catalyst
Business Systems, a lean consulting firm perhaps best known for its
technology solutions for lean transformations.
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Consider This!: TBM LeanSigma Vision Tour
Plan to attend TBM’s LeanSigma Vision Tour: four world-class
companies in four days. The LeanSigma Vision Tour provides an
opportunity to explore some of the best examples of lean manufacturing
in America from Greensboro, NC, to Atlanta, GA. Visit Hayward Pool
Products, Hubbell Power Systems, Sealy Corporation, and WIKA Instrument
Corporation.
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