Lean Manufacturing

Mass production methods are no longer competitive in manufacturing.  The principle of  using minimum manpower, minimum equipment and minimum material to make what is needed in the quantity needed has proven to be a superior method of delivering value to customers profitably.  It's called the Toyota Production System or Lean Manufacturing

Even so, most companies who have attempted to adopt Lean Manufacturing have failed.  Why is this? 

Leadership is the key.  Success at transformational change requires a clear and compelling vison coupled with a constancy of purpose sufficient to sustain a long and difficult effort. 

But since leadership gets results through people, a lasting transformation cannot be fully realized without the involvement of everyone to leverage the creativity of people.

Lean Promotion is a network of independent Lean professionals experienced in Toyota Production System implementation.  Our experience in Lean implementation is particularly suited to converting existing operations that are organized around traditional mass production practices in cultures resistant to change. Rooted in the fundamentals of kaizen, our approach utilizes the concepts, principles and techniques of TPS in a way that creates company-wide participation and achieves lasting results.

Under the initial guidance of former members of Taiichi Ohno's "Autonomous Study Group" 'we have implemented TPS at companies in various manufacturing industries throughout the US as well as Europe and Asia.

	high-variety, low-volume manufacturing
	high-volume continuous manufacturing
	administrative / office environment

Lean Promotion is a unique advisory choice in four important ways:

	we are experienced – we have have successfully demonstrated bottom-line Lean conversion results.
	we learned from the source – we learned our basic Lean skills from the original key members of Toyota's Autonomous Study Group (the original developers of Toyota Production System).
	we understand how to involve people – we know the importance of ownership and how to achieve it.  We work ourselves out of a job through transfer of knowledge and experience.
	we're not a hammer looking for a nail– we know how to apply the principles without being dogmatic.