One of the most common problems in lean is deciding how to translate the philosophies, principles and tools to other departments outside of operations or manufacturing. Often, companies start lean on the shop floor and then move on to the office! Unfortunately, these types of initiatives only lead to marginal improvements in isolated departments using the tools of lean such as 5S, visual management and value stream mapping. For most companies, departments still cannot make the connection or understand what lean means to them. In these cases, lean is constrained and limited because company-wide goals and company wide targets for lean do not exist! What is often lacking in lean implementation efforts is company-wide TEAMWORK! Intestinally, after compiling and analyzing ten years of speeches, memos and organizational documents, Toyota’s first president, Fujio Cho at TMMK (Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky) was not concerned about the tools of lean. Instead, he spoke about teamwork, delegation and cooperation throughout the organization.
The University of Kentucky, partnered with Toyota is offering a series of lean specialty courses to openly share how lean can be applied to areas outside the walls of operations. Specialty courses are an essential element of an organization’s lean implementation efforts because they help translate the meaning of TEAMWORK for the company! Companies can sample Toyota’s approaches in Human Resources, accounting, maintenance, logistics, and product development to understand how departments outside of operations support the achievement of company wide goals and targets. Learn from qualified and experienced UK faculty and Toyota trainers how to apply lean meaningfully within the department that links to work groups outside the department that is critical for the success of the company.
Lean Specialty Courses Include:
Annual Planning (Hoshin Kanri)
People Side of True Lean
Jishuken
Kaizen for the Shop Floor
Kanban Theory and Application
Lean Accounting and Financial Systems
Lean Logistics
Lean Maintenance Operations
Lean Supplier Development
Office Kaizen
Product Design and Development
Production Leveling (Heijunka)
Standardized Work Fundamentals and Application
Toyota’s 8-Step Problem Solving Process
Visual Control and 5S