Northwest Industrial Resource Center (NWIRC) is forming an operational excellence working group with the goal of helping companies who are looking to create and/or sustain a Lean culture. No matter where your company falls in the process of Lean manufacturing, this program will provide a collaborative learning environment where companies can share and learn from each other.
Manufacturers who implement Lean can see terrific results after their initial training and running some key events. But, then comes a plateau and it becomes harder to maintain that momentum to see additional progress. Lean Together™ is a working group designed to be an ongoing enrichment program to help companies learn how to engage everyone at the organization. The 2-hour, semi-structured, sessions will be based on concepts found in the popular book, 2 Second Lean, by Paul A. Akers. In the book, Akers provides inspiration for making lean manufacturing easy, fun, and results producing. Each participant of the group will receive the book and engage in ‘book club’ style discussions regarding its’ content. The group will help tailor topics for the stand-up education segments of the program. Sessions will also include plant tours, live team meetings, and sharing of best practices, all facilitated by an accomplished Lean and Six Sigma Black Belt expert.
The Lean Together™ working group will consist of non-competing companies and meet monthly on the third Tuesday of the month (excluding July and August). The first session, on January 17, 2017, will serve as a kick-off meeting to lay the groundwork for the program structure and begin reviewing some of the 2 Second Lean concepts.
Facilitator for Lean Together™ is Jerry Sobrowski, a Six Sigma Master Black Belt. He has held positions in training and education, operations management, and quality engineering Sobrowski spent most of his career at LORD Corporation and holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from Gannon University.
For more information on the program logistics and tuition, contact Molly Reichard at (814) 898-6888 or mreichard@nwirc.org.