Factory Strategies Group has created the Lean Enterprise Strategy Kit designed to help individual organizations and smaller companies create, execute, and continuously improve a robust lean-oriented strategic plan. This Kit is available for immediate download at Superfactory and:

• Combines the best aspects of lean-centric strategy deployment and hoshin planning methods with traditional strategic planning to create strategies.
• Core principles are developed first to create a solid foundation for long-term strategy.
• A proprietary 40-topic lean assessment is used to look at world class behaviors and systems, not just the implementation of tools like most lean assessments.
• Each section includes a detailed PowerPoint presentation, worksheets, tools, documents, and recommended deployment methods in MS-Office format for easy customization.
• The lean assessment tool will let you identify problem areas and opportunities, from which you can identify appropriate tools such as Gemba Academy training or Superfactory PowerPoint presentations.

 

	Principles, Vision, and Mission Develop the bedrock core principles of the organization, then create vision and mission statements to help guide strategy.
	Assessment Use a detailed 40-topic Lean Enterprise Assessment combined with a Strategic Environment Assessment using traditional SWOT, PEST, Porter, and other analysis methods.
	Develop Strategy Use various analysis and brainstorming methods to identify long-term strategies, three-year objectives, and annual improvement programs then reinforce with hoshin strategy deployment methods.
	Execution Learn about tools to ensure organizational alignment, then drive accountability via daily meetings, gemba walks, visual management, and leader standard work.
	Review Use hansei reflection to review and analyze daily, project, and long-term strategy performance and results to prepare for continuing the improvement cycle.

To learn more about the Lean Enterprise Strategy Kit visit Superfactory.

Each month new articles, book reviews, and other content are added to the Superfactory website. The new content is featured in the monthly e-newsletter which goes out to 50,000 subscribers worldwide, and we will also post a monthly heads-up on this blog.

The featured article is by Bob Emiliani and is titled Where are the Lean Economists?. The following is a brief excerpt, and you can read the entire article here.

Believe it or not, the Lean community could actually use some help from economists, the very same people who largely failed to notice asset bubbles that led to the Great Recession (2007-2009) and who now seem incapable of determining their root causes. As a result, we watched Nobel Prize winning economists guess at cause-and-effect. Wouldn't it be wonderful to instead see economists apply Toyota’s scientific problem-solving process to economic crises and identify practical countermeasures to reduce the frequency and severity of economic problems in the future?

Despite their spotty record as social scientists, economists remain very influential. Executives in companies large and small have long formulated many important views based on the work of economists, and these views play a prominent role in management decision-making.

Lean management has always been at a disadvantage compared to conventional management in part because economists have never truly understood flow; not for almost 100 years, since the time of Henry Ford's Model T. That is a long time to have your head in the sand. It seems that few economists have actually had front-line operations experience, and fewer still, if any, have had experiences designing flow production (processing) systems or operating one as a cell leader, for example. That is how they would really learn the technical and economic benefits of flow.

How might Lean management prosper if more economists knew about flow in detail? Economists could inform executives that Lean is safe for them to fully embrace (both "Continuous Improvement" and "Respect for People"), not some crazy thing to avoid or adopt half-heartedly. They likely would be more convincing to more executives than even the most accomplished Lean CEOs.

The featured book this month is Lean Human Resources by Cheryl Jekiel.  The following is a brief summary, click here for more information.

Encouraging a long overdue shift in thinking, this book gives managers and executives the means to maximize employee potential by first showing them how to increase the improvement power of their HR departments. Cheryl M. Jekiel, who has been implementing Lean initiatives out of HR offices for 20 years, defines the people-related approaches and practices needed to alter any cultural dynamic that keeps employees from leveraging their peak abilities. She looks at why so many companies allow this sort of waste to exist, how traditional HR departments have not been especially effective in combating waste, and why today’s HR department should be seen differently, as a partner delivering exceptional customer service to employees.

In other news we have recently launched two new companion websites:

• Superfactory TV: A categorized listing of hundreds of lean-oriented videos.
• Lean Pics: a photo blog showing examples of lean manufacturing concepts and ideas

Our partner Gemba Academy released the first modules of a new course titled The Kaizen Way.  Gemba Academy now offers over 112 HD-quality video modules on lean manufacturing topics.

We continually update the other major sections of the website, including:

• PowerPoint Presentations: Over 115 downloadable PowerPoint presentations on lean manufacturing, lean leadership, lean industries, quality, lean enterprise, and safety concepts.  
• Factory Toolbox: Almost 300 downloadable forms, procedure templates, assessments, and tools to help you not reinvent the wheel.
• Events Calendar: a listing of lean excellence seminars, workshops, training, and conferences worldwide
• Topic Information: Summaries and resources on over 40 enterprise excellence topics.
• Virtual Factory Tours: Web and streaming video tours of over 100 factories.

For all you LinkedIn junkies, we have created a LinkedIn group for Superfactory, which now has over 5,000 members.  Join the group to  network with other Superfactory enthusiasts and to show our logo on your profile.  If you haven't explored LinkedIn, check it out to see why over 17 million professionals use it for networking.

We are always looking for new articles and other content.  Contact us via the Superfactory website if you would like to contribute to our knowledge base.

Our partner Gemba Academy has released a new online training course called "The Seven Quality Control Tools."  This 22-module course goes through the various types of quality control graphs, pareto charts, check sheets, cause-and-effect diagrams, scatter diagrams, histograms, and control charts with supporting examples and applications.

Gemba Academy courses are unique in that they are a series of high definition quality video modules, coupled with quizzes and supporting downloads developed by lean leaders with real shop floor experience.  HD quality lets you watch the video at your computer, or project the video to a large training room with no perceived loss of resolution or quality.  The 10 minute videos are designed to be the optimal length for an effective learning experience.  The subscription model (although DVDs are also available) is unique in that there is no per-person charge – it is by site, which lets you train as many as you want for one low cost.

Take a look at all of the Gemba Academy lean learning courses, which now include the following:

• Lean Starter Package – a FREE group of 8 video modules to demonstrate the technology and quality
• 5S Workplace Productivity (9 modules)
• Dealing with the Seven Deadly Wastes (9 modules)
• Practical Problem Solving (20 modules)
• Transforming Your Value Streams (16 modules)
• The Seven Quality Control Tools (22 modules)
• Quick Changeover: The SMED System (12 modules)
• Lean Lingo Explained (12 modules)

New courses are being added every couple months and are included in the subscription packages.

As a special promotion until the end of July, new subscribers to the Complete Lean Package Premium (all courses plus the DVDs) will receive all 100+ Superfactory PowerPoint training presentations for free!

Give Gemba Academy a try – we think you'll be impressed with the technology, quality, and depth of the content!

Each month new articles, book reviews, and other content are added to the Superfactory website. The new content is featured in the monthly e-newsletter which goes out to 50,000 subscribers worldwide, and we will also post a monthly heads-up on this blog.

The featured article is by Bob Emiliani and is titled Woollard's Eighteen Principles of Flow Production.  The following is a brief excerpt, and you can read the entire article here.

Frank G. Woollard, the long-forgotten 1920s British pioneer of flow production, made many unique contributions including the establishment of 18 principles of flow production. Woollard recognized that flow necessarily drives everyone to the same principles and eventually to the same practices as well. Knowing this can help us avoid the perennial problem in Lean management of periodically re-discovering that which was previously done so well but has been forgotten.

In his book Principles of Mass and Flow Production, published in 1954, Frank G. Woollard said: “When setting up a flow production plant there are certain basic principles that must be obeyed. They are all simple and virtually axiomatic…” Mr. Woollard identified 18 principles, listed below, all of which relate directly to our current day understanding of Lean production.

The featured book this month is Building a Lean Fulfillment Stream by Robert Martichenko.  The following is a brief summary, click here for more information.

Building a Lean Fulfillment Stream will change the way you think about your supply chain and logistics networks giving you a way to act using lean principles to transform and continuously improve. In this pioneering workbook, lean logistics veterans Robert Martichenko and Kevin von Grabe explain step-by-step a comprehensive, real-life implementation process for optimizing your entire fulfillment stream from raw materials to customers, including two critical concepts: calculating the total cost of fulfillment and collaborating with across all functions and firms along the stream.

In other news we have recently launched two new companion websites:

• Superfactory TV: A categorized listing of hundreds of lean-oriented videos.
• Lean Pics: a photo blog showing examples of lean manufacturing concepts and ideas

Our partner Gemba Academy released the first module of a new course titled The Seven Quality Control Tools.  Modules have also been added to the Transforming Your Value Streams and Practical Problem Solving courses.  Gemba Academy now offers over 85 HD-quality video modules on lean manufacturing topics.

We continually update the other major sections of the website, including:

• PowerPoint Presentations: Over 115 downloadable PowerPoint presentations on lean manufacturing, lean leadership, lean industries, quality, lean enterprise, and safety concepts.  Special promotion: purchase a Package or Bundle of presentations and receive the Gemba Academy Lean Starter Package DVD ($97 value) at no cost.
• Factory Toolbox: Almost 300 downloadable forms, procedure templates, assessments, and tools to help you not reinvent the wheel.
• Events Calendar: a listing of lean excellence seminars, workshops, training, and conferences worldwide
• Topic Information: Summaries and resources on over 40 enterprise excellence topics.
• Virtual Factory Tours: Web and streaming video tours of over 100 factories.

For all you LinkedIn junkies, we have created a LinkedIn group for Superfactory, which now has over 5,000 members.  Join the group to  network with other Superfactory enthusiasts and to show our logo on your profile.  If you haven't explored LinkedIn, check it out to see why over 17 million professionals use it for networking.

We are always looking for new articles and other content.  Contact us via the Superfactory website if you would like to contribute to our knowledge base.

Each month new articles, book reviews, and other content are added to the Superfactory website. The new content is featured in the monthly e-newsletter which goes out to 50,000 subscribers worldwide, and we will also post a monthly heads-up on this blog.

This month we did more than just add a new article and featured book – we updated the design of the entire site.  It was time – it had been a couple years.  The new design has an easier to read font, improved organization, and more pleasing graphics – but don't worry, all of your bookmarks will still work.  Visit Superfactory to see the new design.

We also added a couple new content areas:

• Over 300 virtual factory tour videos
• Over 300 videos on lean manufacturing topics

The featured article is by Bob Emiliani and is titled Better to Improve than be Offended.  The following is a brief excerpt, and you can read the entire article here.

Since 1998 I have authored or co-authored eight books and over two
dozen journal papers on Lean management. My focus from the outset was
critical aspects of Lean management that others had neglected or made
only limited progress. Specifically, I expanded our understanding of
Lean leadership and the many specific ways in which the beliefs,
behaviors, and competencies of Lean leaders differ from the leaders of
conventionally managed businesses.

Along the way, I provided historical context that showed how progressive
Lean management was the product of a 100+ year evolution in thinking
and practice among innovate management practitioners. I also clarified
the social, political, and economic impact of progressive management on
organizations far beyond what had been done previously, and how these
relate to sustainability. And I further contextualized the importance of
daily practice among executives, showed how to avoid repeating
history's unfavorable outcomes, and articulated effective strategies for
Lean management success.

The featured book this month is How to do Kaizen by Bunji Tozawa and Norman Bodek.  The following is a brief summary, click here for more information.

Kaizen is a system of continuous improvement: an industrial philosophy
that embraces absolutely everyone within the company culture. The goal
is in maintaining constant improvement towards productivity, quality,
safety, waste reduction, and leadership. A vast continuous flow of tiny
constructive ideas will invariably make a huge differences in aggregate.
And the process never stops…

Our partner Gemba Academy released a new course titled Lean Lingo Explained which takes apart the original Japanese words.  Modules have also been added to the Transforming Your Value Streams and Practical Problem Solving courses.  Gemba Academy now offers over 85 HD-quality video modules on lean manufacturing topics.

We continually update the other major sections of the website, including:

• PowerPoint Presentations: Over 115 downloadable PowerPoint presentations on lean manufacturing, lean leadership, lean industries, quality, lean enterprise, and safety concepts.  Special promotion: purchase a Package or Bundle of presentations and receive the Gemba Academy Lean Starter Package DVD ($97 value) at no cost.
• Factory Toolbox: Almost 300 downloadable forms, procedure templates, assessments, and tools to help you not reinvent the wheel.
• Events Calendar: a listing of lean excellence seminars, workshops, training, and conferences worldwide
• Topic Information: Summaries and resources on over 40 enterprise excellence topics.
• Virtual Factory Tours: Web and streaming video tours of over 100 factories.

For all you LinkedIn junkies, we have created a LinkedIn group for Superfactory, which now has over 5,000 members.  Join the group to  network with other Superfactory enthusiasts and to show our logo on your profile.  If you haven't explored LinkedIn, check it out to see why over 17 million professionals use it for networking.

We are always looking for new articles and other content.  Contact us via the Superfactory website if you would like to contribute to our knowledge base.

Just a quick note that the Superfactory website has been updated with over 300 virtual factory tours, including my favorite: Beach Beat Surfboards!