As the summer winds down, BWA members get engaged in round table discussions on applying Lean concepts to the front of your value stream. Read on!
BWA Round Table events are for BWA manufacturing members only, and they take place in between the BWA Quarterly Networking Events and Plant Tour Focus groups. August 26, 2014 was one of the warmest days this summer! With everyone’s busy summer schedules, this final week of the summer was targeted for scheduling a BWA round table discussion. Seventeen BWA members traveled from the far reaches of the cluster region to participate in the event held at the Knights of Columbus Hall south of Walkerton.
Topics and themes for these discussions come from the members. For this event, many members had voiced an interest in learning more about how Lean Manufacturing concepts can be applied to the front of your value stream, that is: your administration before production.
Lean concepts have been adopted by Canada Post, the health care system, and in other non-manufacturing industries where you still have a process with a series of steps that add value to whatever your customer wants to pay for.
To assist with the discussion, Shawn Casemore of Casemore and Associates helped BWA Manager Mike Baker to deliver specific content and facilitate the discussion. Lean concepts were reviewed, followed by how they apply to administration. Some examples of the Eight Administrative Wastes included:
2.Over Production (Duplicate information)
3.Over Processing (Too many steps)
4.Transportation (Moving documents needlessly)
5.Motion: (Chasing paperwork)
6.Inventory (Piles of documents not needed)
7.Waiting (Paperwork waiting for review)
8.Under utilized talent (Employees ideas disregarded)
Members broke into groups and brainstormed together what is happening currently in their respective businesses when it comes to the above administrative wastes, and also shared efficiencies they have adopted to mitigate these wastes.
Finally, before adjournment, the group was asked to share what they plan to change as a result of the session and the learning from the morning.
You know that you have hit the mark with the right event content when discussions ensue through the break and into the parking lot!
The next BWA event is our Quarterly Networking Event scheduled for September 18, 2014. See the BWA event calendar for details, we hope to see you there!
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