On Tuesday, February 9th I will be doing a Proplanner demo for Prof. William Thompson’s facility layout design lab. I will be showing his IE students how the Workplace Planner calculates non value added tasks on a layout. I will also show how FLow Planner diagrams material handling flows on an AutoCAD layout. Both types of spaghetti diagrams help determine how to create a layout that facilitates better material flow and reduces waste. I unfortunately do not get to be at the University of Central Florida in Orlando on Monday, so I will be doing the demo over the web.
Posted by Aaron on February 4th, 2009
I spoke with Doug Karlin at Cessna Aircraft recently. He visited the lean gurus site, and sent me an e-mail. Doug is working on a large project where they will be building a new aircraft. I had the opportunity to work with Doug when he used Proplanner at Case New Holland in Wichita. I told Doug to stay in contact, and perhaps he can share more specifics on his how he designed the new layout and production process.
Posted by Aaron on January 15th, 2009
I received an e-mail from Sharon de Courla-Souza, who is the head of Process Excellence, the Americas, for Tomson Reuters. She is on a quest to standardize master black belt (MBB) certification for her organization. She is proposing the following criteria, and would like members of the Financial Services Business Transformation roundtable to provide her with feedback on her criteria:
Projects Completed: 5
Projects Coached to Completion: 50
Classroom Training Received: 20 days BB + 20 days MBB
Classroom Training Delivered: 5 days
Written Exam: yes
Panel Interview: yes
Black Belt Experience: Minimum 2 years
If you would like to respond, please send an e-mail to me or to sharon.decorla-souza @ thomson reuters.com.
Posted by Aaron on November 28th, 2008
Teresa McMahon who is the director of the State of Iowa Deparment of Management’s lean initiative sent me this link to her article that is located on LEI’s website: Lean Thinking In Government: State of Iowa . Theresa has spearheaded the Lean Government Collaborative which was formed with Six private companies that include members from Wells Fargo, Rockwell Collins, EDS, Pella Corp., John Deere, and the State of Iowa. If you are interested in joining her collaboration and have business operations in Iowa, please contact me or Teresa for more information on how to join her group.
Posted by Aaron on November 28th, 2008
I will be hosting another demo of Proplanner’s Flow Planner, Workplace Planner, and ProBalance software programs on Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 1pm CT. Once again, Many engineering colleges use these programs in their lean, process improvement courses. Professors, teaching assistants and students are invited to attend. Please visit our “See a Demo” page for more information:
“See a Demo” of Proplanner’s IE Software.
Posted by Aaron on November 1st, 2008
I will be hosting a demo of Proplanner’s Flow Planner, Workplace Planner, and ProBalance software programs on Thursday, October 23rd. Many engineering colleges use these programs in their lean, process improvement courses. Professors, teaching assistants and students are invited to attend. Please visit our “See a Demo” page for more information:
Leangurus “See a Demo”
Posted by Aaron on August 26th, 2008
At the WCBF Six Sigma conference in Chicago I met Karim Houry who is the VP, Business Reengineering and Quality at the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation in New York, NY. Karim sponsors a quarterly lean meeting called the “Financial Services Business Transformation Roundtable.” Attendees meet in person, but remote members can attend via a conference call and webinar. I have been invited to attend his upcoming meeting on July 10th at 9am EST in New York City and through the rest of the year. There are lean mgmt professionals representing the largest financial services companies in the United States including Wells Fargo, Citi, HSBC, Bank of NY Mellon, Edward Jones, Vanguard, Textron Financial, UBS, Bank of America, and many others. The meeting facilitator for the July 10th, 2008 meeting is Habs Moy, lean master blackbelt with the DTCC. If you are interested in attending please contact me and I will forward your information to Habs. Habs will then provide to you the web conference link and the phone number to dial in on. The Agenda for the meeting is:
- IBM on BPO trends and procurement outsourcing
- Tools and Methodologies (Morgan Stanley, DTCC, Merrill Lynch)
- Preview BMGI Lean survey results
- Plans for Q4 Meeting and 2009
I have spoken with Habs Moy, and I may be presenting at their Q4 meeting. I will post the meeting time and agenda for the Q4 when the details have been confirmed.
Posted by Aaron on July 6th, 2008
I have put together an outline of topics that are included in my continous process improvement course.
To view or download the outline click on the link below:
Course Syllabus (25k Word Document)
This course is designed to be completed in four 1 1/2 hour segments in a classroom or over the web. I also have a deep dive 3 day course that covers an introduction of continuous process improvement. Please contact me for more specifics.
Posted by Aaron on May 4th, 2008
I had a great time presenting at WCBF’s Lean and Six Sigma Summit last week in Chicago. The presentation highlights a project we completed to improve a document sourcing and fulfillment process. If you want to view or download my presentation, please click the link below:
Lean Fulfillment at Financial Company (4.5 MB PPT File)
Posted by Aaron on May 4th, 2008
4th Annual Lean Six Sigma Summit in Chicago,April 29 thru May 2 2008. The WCBF sponsored event: “4th Annual Six Sigma Summit” for leading experts and senior executives across industry passionate about quality and process excellence. I will be presenting at 1pm on Thursday May 1st, 2008. My presentation is in Track F, and is titled “Lean Fulfillment in Financial Services”. In my presentation you will learn how a financial services company implemented lean for their forms printing and fulfillment process. With over 30,000 retail dealer locations, Wells Fargo Financial has a big job in keeping the stores supplied with the right amount of credit applications and other consumer documents. Gain insight into how Six Sigma was used to improve quality and how lean was used to improve the entire forms management process throughout the supply chain:
View the Conference Brochure Here:
“Six Sigma Summit (500 KB)“
Posted by Aaron on December 1st, 2007