Lean Certification

We are once again offering our Lean Manufacturing Certification training program in Orange County, California beginning next week on August 15th.  We've been running this program since 2003, and it continues to draw a diverse group of participants.  This program, which runs 2 days per month for 4 months, covers all of the major concepts and methodologies within lean thinking: continuous improvement and kaizen, flow and pull, leveling work, standardized work, mistake proofing, problem solving, team facilitation skills, value stream mapping, and breakthrough kaizen events.  If you are unable to attend this program but are still interested in lean manufacturing certification and training, you might consider our online lean manufacturing certification program or our blended-learning (part instructor-led, part online) lean manufacturing certification program.  Our next blended-learning program will take place in San Diego, CA on October 23-25, 2012.  Below is a brief video that talks about our lean training programs.  To learn more about our training programs, visit our Lean Manufacturing Training page.

Lean Manufacturing at Chrysler - Fiat

The Detroit Free Press has a new article out about Chrysler's successful adoption of Fiat's particular brand of lean manufacturing.  This methodology is described as "Fiat's World Class Manufacturing system that is designed to improve quality, safety, and productivity largely by eliminating waste and bottlenecks while boosting employee involvement."   The article explains that this is Fiat's interpretation of the Toyota Production System.  On the surface, this appears to be exactly the right approach to adopting lean / continuous improvement into an organization.  Executives must ask themselves what operational excellence should look like in their organization, and then develop their own "system" for operational excellence.  I believe the system should always include the two principles most closely associated with Toyota's system, "Continuous Improvement" and "Respect for People."  To read the article, visit:

http://www.freep.com/article/20120409/BUSINESS0103/120409042/2-Chrysler-plants-recognized-manufacturing-processes

Toyota Update and Online Lean Six Sigma Programs

Our March 2011 newsletter is out, and we've done an update to last March's topic: Toyota and the Future of Lean. Last year at this time, Toyota was in the news almost daily, and the news was not good. Where are they today? To find out, visit:

http://www.emsstrategies.com/newsletter030111.htm

Also, we've recently released Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and Black Belt programs online. To view all of our online offerings, please visit:

http://www.emsstrategies.com/Lean-Training/lean-training-online.html

Supplier Relationships in a Lean Enterprise

EMS Consulting Group's November newsletter is out. This month we're talking about Supplier Relationships and the Lean Supply Chain. The foundation of successful supplier relationships in a lean enterprise is trust. The transformation from a typical (adversarial) relationship with a supplier to a lean relationship (treating the supplier as an extension of your organization) takes time. In our latest newsletter, we talk about such relationships. To check it out, visit: http://www.emsstrategies.com/newsletter110109.htm