Superfactory has just launched a series of online self-paced e-learning modules on the core concepts of lean manufacturing. Professionally developed, the audio/visual modules are ideal for introducing new employees to lean, allowing motivated employees to learn more, and to train offsite or remote employees. An interactive knowledge check ensures the concept was learned, with a report emailed to the training coordinator. Learn more about the new Superfactory Online Learning Center.

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• Getting Lean
  Idaho Business Review, ID - 23 hours ago
• Ford CEO: Automaker's sweeping turnaround on track
  Chicago Sun-Times, IL - Apr 5, 2007
  
• When inventory is not waste
  Manufacturer.com, UK - Apr 3, 2007
  
• Tata in Tacoma?
  Forbes, NY - Apr 3, 2007
  
• Lean methods propel products
  British Industry, UK - Apr 2, 2007
  
• Turning the tide
  Electronics Supply & Manufacturing - Apr 1, 2007
  
• Boeing workers facing change
  HeraldNet, WA - Apr 1, 2007
  
• "Mixed prospects" for UK's car manufacturers
  InTheNews.co.uk, UK - Mar 29, 2007
• Entrepreneurial spirit keeps Portland manufacturer fired up
  Seattle Times, WA - Mar 29, 2007
  
• Lean Manufacturing, the Environment and the Bottom Line
  GreenBiz, DC - Mar 27, 2007
  
• TWI Promotes Quick Training, Standard Work
  IndustryWeek - Mar 25, 2007
  
• Deep Partnering
  Modern Plastics On The Web, NY - Mar 21, 2007

Visit the Superfactory Events Calendar for the full list of events.

Value Stream and Process Mapping
by Quarterman Lee

This book acquaints the reader with Value Stream Mapping as well as Process Mapping, and thereby provides a dual set of tools. This dual set is far more effective than either technique alone. The Strategos Guide to Value Stream and Process Mapping has helpful tips on facilitating group VSM exercises and helps put VSM in the greater Lean context. With photos and examples of related Lean practices the book focuses on implementing VSM, not just drawing diagrams and graphs. This is the most comprehensive and practical book on the subject to date.

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Between 80 and 90 years ago, the leaders of the then-popular Scientific Management movement, a precursor to Lean management, began revealing their views about why most managers resisted improvement efforts. What they learned then can provide insights into how we can more effectively advance Lean management.

The development of Toyota’s production and overall management system bears a small gratitude to the ideas of early management thinkers and pioneers of Scientific Management, an offshoot of mechanical engineering, which would later become known as industrial engineering. While it is likely that Kiichiro Toyoda and Eiji Toyoda (both degreed mechanical engineers), and Taiichi Ohno (who studied mechanical engineering) had basic familiarity with Frederick Taylor’s 1911 work, The Principles of Scientific Management, and Frank Gilbreth’s motion studies, these ideas were reduced to practice through vigorous internal development by Mr. Ohno starting in the late 1930s as well as from outside sources. These external sources included the U.S. government sponsored post-World War II “Training Within Industry” program in 1951 followed by consultant Shigeo Shingo four years later.

Mr. Shigeo, in his book The Shingo Production Management System, acknowledges the influence Taylor and Gilbreth in his work. In relation to Toyota Motor Corporation, this influence is reflected in the “P-course” (production course) that Mr. Shingo taught to about 3000 Toyota engineers between 1955 and 1980. Mr. Ohno said that Henry Ford’s production system was his biggest influence. However, Charles Sorenson, Mr. Ford’s operations vice president says he and Henry Ford knew nothing of Frederick Taylor’s work and that it had no influence in the creation of Ford’s production system. Nevertheless, Taylor and Gilbreth’s work contributed in recognizable ways to the evolution of Toyota’s management system. But let’s not forget that Mr. Ohno was clearly its originator, as shown by the timeline contained in his book Toyota Production System.

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Sustaining Lean: The Steering Committee
by Don Kivell

You always hear vendors say that in order for customers to successfully implement new products users must first secure management buy-in. In other words, management must wholeheartedly support the change that is being made.

When it comes to putting lean manufacturing in place, management cannot simply provide buy-in. Instead they must commit to doing everything they can to help employees to set up new procedures and keep them running smoothly. Management must be intimately involved in the continuous improvement process, as part of a steering committee.

At Tinnerman Palnut Engineered Products Inc. in Hamilton, ON, a manufacturer with about 250 employees, its steering committee is in the first year of a three-year plan expected to yield a few million dollars worth of savings.

The facility is one of five integrated plants the company owns – the other four located in the US – that are involved in plastic injection moulding, metalforming, finish (meaning heat treating, plating and coating), and automated assembly for automotive and several other industries.

The steering committee we put in place at Tinnerman is made up of the vice-president of operations and its senior managers, who offer, among other expertise and skills, knowledge of the company’s business goals and control over the resources that will be used to make lean efforts fly.

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