Event

In the early 1990s Lantech was a poster child for the power of high-speed kaizen and continuous improvement. But once the dramatic conversion from process villages to single-piece-flow was completed, Lantech found it hard to sustain its gains and to improve further. In this presentation CEO Jim Lancaster will describe his experience overcoming this huge lean hurdle with a management process that sustains gains in each value stream, allowing the improvement process to accumulate competitive advantage and facilitates bold leaps in strategy. Jim pursued the simple idea that if the daily performance of every value creating process is visible in real time by the right people, and if any deterioration in performance is counter-measured immediately, a stable foundation can be created for further improvement. (This in contrast to the familiar phenomenon of kaizen on top of chaos.) In addition, if daily and weekly walk around reviews involving every level of management put a steady cadence into improvement activities and strategic initiatives they are much more likely to succeed. Jim will share the success and traps he experienced implementing and maintaining this management system along with the results to date.