This one-day workshop will provide an overview of lean concepts, and their application to office and service processes.  The participants will be introduced to the various lean concepts, and be given the opportunity to apply them in a simulated office.  The participants will be able to measure the impact of their improvement effort.

With use of the simulation, the participants will also gain the experience of an actual office kaizen event.  Together, the group will identify ideas for improvement.  Decisions must be quickly agreed upon.  Then, the group will be broken into smaller groups to implement their ideas.  Strict time expectations will be given for the implementation. 

The lean tools are broken into two groups.  The first group to be covered prior to Round 2 constitutes the “basics” – standard work, quality at the source, workshop organization, visual controls, people involvement, and batch reduction.  Typically, these are concepts that can be quickly implemented (less than 30 days) in an actual office environment.  No extensive Information Technology (IT) efforts are required. At the end of Round 2, the participants will witness the benefits of implementing the “basics”.

The concepts covered prior to Round 3 include pull, flow, leveling, and management timeframe or “pitch”.  These constitute the more advanced concepts.  These tend to be more difficult for people to understand and apply in an office environment. At the end of Round 3, the participants will witness the benefits of implementing the more advanced concepts.

NOTE:  This workshop is offered in conjunction with the MWCC's 2013 Mid-Atlantic Lean Conference.  If you do not plan to attend the conference, register for the workshop here.  If you will be at the conference, you can add this workshop to your registration for an additional fee.  More information and registration for the Mid-Atlantic Lean Conference is available at www.regonline.com/2013midatlanticleanconference.

Workshop Facilitator:  Drew Locher is President of Change Management Associates (CMA).  Since 1990, CMA has been providing Enterprise Excellence and Organizational Development services to organizations from a wide variety of industries including manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, distribution, government, and transportation. He has authored four books and is a two-time Shingo Prize recipient. He has been a faculty member of the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) since 2001.  Drew is a frequent presenter at conferences in the U.S. and abroad.