• From the Editor
• Manufacturing Excellence News
• In the Blog
• Upcoming Events
• Featured Book - Integrated Enterprise Excellence
• Article - Lean Quality Documentation Systems
• Featured Blog Post - It's All About Respect for People

Over the past month we have added several new products to Superfactory, including the following:

• The Manufacturing Series group of PowerPoint training presentations has been translated into Spanish. More info
• Several complete kits of lean manufacturing training games and simulations to demonstrate the power of lean. More info
• Several complete training packages that include instructor guides, participant workbooks, reference materials, and forms. More info
• About 20 new DVD videos have been added. More info

We are also running a small contest: Win a brand new iPod Touch! Just subscribe to the Evolving Excellence blog using the email or RSS links by the end of the month and you'll be entered into the drawing. Visit the Evolving Excellence blog.

As always we appreciate your support for our mission to spread manufacturing excellence knowledge. Take a look at our sponsorship and advertising opportunities here.

- Kevin Meyer

• Manufacturing: Opportunities are there for the lean and mean
  Times Online, UK - 23 hours ago
  
• Turnaround Artists
  San Fernando Valley Business Journal Online, CA - 25 minutes ago
  
• To build a better hospital, Virginia Mason takes lessons from ...
  Seattle Post Intelligencer - Mar 15, 2008
  
• How plant reliability affects a lean implementation
  Reliable Plant Magazine, OK - Mar 14, 2008
  
• Time for a low-carb Lean Six Sigma?
  Management-Issues, UK - Mar 13, 2008
  
• China Inc looks beyond low costs
  Business Spectator, Australia - Mar 12, 2008
  
• PAUSE and effect
  Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, IN - Mar 12, 2008
  
• Genzink Steel Keeps Growing and Growing
  WZZM, MI - Mar 10, 2008
  
• Getting lean and green
  MMH.com, MA - Mar 10, 2008
  
• Holland printer goes 'lean' and 'green'
  Rapid Growth, MI - Mar 12, 2008
  
• A GLOBAL COMPETITOR
  The Patriot-News - PennLive.com, PA - Mar 12, 2008
  
• State’s manufacturers face global competition
  Worcester Telegram, MA - 3 hours ago
  

Join the other 3,000 readers who get their daily dose of blunt manufacturing reality by subscribing to the Evolving Excellence blog!

Recent posts in the Evolving Excellence blog include:

• Mass Customization in Pharma - How one drug company is focusing on high mix and low volume, and applying lean to development.
• Joseph Weizenbaum: Fighting the False Gods - One man's crusade against using computers to solve unnecessary complexity.
• So Who's More Patriotic? - Hypocritical politicians are crying foul about the reward of the tanker contract to Boeing.
• The Root Cause of Email Overload - Don't focus on tools to deal with email overload, figure out why it's happening in the first place!
• Globalization and Tuscany's Hill Towns - Globalization even affects cottage industries in Italy... but they are doing something about it.
• The Worker as National Asset - Jobs are not assets... the brains of the workers are.
• Rockwood Gets What Whirlpool Forgets - Why do smaller companies understand the value of employees, while larger ones don't?
• Continuous Improvement in the Classroom - Lean methods are being used in elementary school.
• People Chain Management - Demand-flow talent.

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

  Integrated Enterprise Excellence
  by Forrest Breyfogle III

This book introduces a new organizational governance system that integrates analytics with innovation. The IEE system shows business leaders what to measure and report; when and how to report it; how to interpret and use the results to establish goals; how to orchestrate work activities; and how to develop strategies that are consistent with established goals. These strategies ultimately lead to specific projects that enhance organizational focus and success. This book discusses how the application of IEE methods, tools, and techniques can overcome the enterprise management challenges of the twenty-first century and the limitations of traditional business measurement systems.

More Information

Lean Quality Documentation Systems
Reduce ISO documentation by half without eliminating content

by Mike Micklewright

How did your quality system get so complex and redundant?

Many companies established their quality systems after having purchased a software program with a “canned” quality manual and procedures. Software companies try to subliminally sell you the concept “more is better.” Purchasing companies often don’t realize they also purchase a lot of junk that adds unnecessary complexity and length to their documentation system.

Other companies employ a management representative who over-interprets the standard so much that he or she develops a quality system that is too complex. Perhaps this is the result of management representatives being so fearful of missing something that they document everything, including how to fill the kitchen sink.

Many more efforts aren’t well-coordinated, with documents written in each department separately, while ignoring the big picture of the system approach. The result is several documents addressing the same issues (i.e. nonconforming product, identification of product, etc.) and tons of redundancy.

Other people who put your quality system together (including consultants):

• Simply don’t write well and/or
• Don’t see the big picture
• Don’t think systematically
• Would rather write about philosophy than practical actions
• Think they know it all
• Use ISO as a scapegoat for getting others to do what they want to have done rather than what adds value and is required by the standard.

What’s wrong with an overly complex and redundant system?

The disadvantages of an overly complex and redundant quality system are:

• Those who approve a document for implementation don’t read the document in its entirety because it’s too long and confusing.
• If the document isn’t properly reviewed and approved, it will contain inaccuracies.
• Few people will follow lengthy, complex and redundant procedures because doing so is too tedious and confusing.
• Few people will refer back to a procedure to find out how to complete a task because it’s also too tedious or confusing.

How to eliminate the “junk” from a quality system?

Read entire article

It's All About Respect for People
By Dan Markovitz

I was at the Lean Enterprise Institute's Transformation Summit in Orlando last week and had my world rocked by Bob Chapman, Chairman and CEO of Barry-Wehmiller. 

Barry-Wehmiller is a $1 billion, 120 year-old capital goods company based in St. Louis, making a huge variety of packaging, corrugating, sheeting, and finishing equipment. They're doing quite well, too, having seen a 21% compound growth in revenues over the past 20 years, and a 23% growth in share value (as they calculate it) over the same period.

These are impressive accomplishments to be sure, but what was truly impressive was Bob's belief that

everyone at these conference focuses on tools like value stream mapping and 5S.  But the tools are only 25% of the story.  Lean is about peple, not about waste. Focus on the employees -- all other benefits are just by-products.

In fact, he goes so far as to say that

the potential of lean has been sub-optimized by the focus on waste elimination.

Now, this is a nice sentiment, but it's abstract.  What does it mean?  And how does focusing on people lead to reduction in waste?

Read entire post (you can also view and post comments)

Don't forget: we are also running a small contest: Win a brand new iPod Touch! Just subscribe to the Evolving Excellence blog using the email or RSS links by the end of the month and you'll be entered into the drawing. Visit the Evolving Excellence blog.