Lean manufacturing business improvement: executive training day

Lean thinking in manufacturing businesses is to be the broad subject of what promises to be a very useful interactive training day on 13 November near Coventry for business leaders wanting to cut costs and improve profitability the smart way. It’s being staged by AME (the Association of Manufacturing Excellence) and will kick off with Chris McKellen, who runs a lean and agile manufacturing and productivity improvement training company, providing the ‘lean as common sense’ introduction. Following will be John Bicheno, who is a director of the MSc programme in Lean Operations at the Lean Enterprise Research Centre, Cardiff Business School and author of The Lean Toolbox and Quality 75. Ralph Woodhead, a reformed MRP/ERP consultant now running lean training and implementation projects, will also be there. Delegates will “experience a useful fun training activity for lean manufacturing” (dubbed ‘KanDo Kanbans’), followed by a round-table discussion of wide-ranging lean issues while also hearing about recent implementation successes and networking with others running business improvement projects. And all that for an almost incredible £85 – for AME members and non-members. Shows what ‘not for profit’ groups can serve up. AME, which is very big in the US, is starting to grow membership in the UK and has now taken on CEM (Centre of Expertise in Manufacturing) status under the DTI’s Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) scheme. It’s focus is manufacturing and business improvement through extended lean business and manufacturing principles and IT. This is an impressive organisation – not least because it’s well connected at senior business level and it’s industry- and business-driven. Although currently somewhat resource-bound, there’s a level of energy and determination that would serve many others well. Call Dr Colin Mynott, AME-UK, on 01788 822313.