Each month new articles, book reviews, and other content are added to the Superfactory website. The new content is featured in the monthly e-newsletter which goes out to 50,000 subscribers worldwide, and we will also post a monthly heads-up on this blog.
The featured article is by Mike Micklewright and is titled Dyslexics Wanted - How those with the condition can thrive in a lean environment. The following is a brief excerpt, and you can read the entire article here.
There’s a good chance that 20 percent of the people reading this article have dyslexia. Are you one of them? Are you proud that you have dyslexia? You should be. People with dyslexia typically are smart and creative. I wish I had it. Perhaps then, I would be leading my own huge consulting and training company rather than working as an independent consultant and trainer for the past 16 years.
I’ve asked my wife, Donna, if she thought I was dyslexic (kind of hoping she would say yes, as if that would suddenly make me more creative). She didn’t think so, but did feel I had at least one symptom of someone with dyslexia. She thought I did have… um… what was it again? Oh yeah, “word-finding issues,” which is oftentimes, but not always, a symptom.
I thought I might be a little dyslexic because I believe I have one of the positive characteristics of dyslexia—an ability to look at the big picture, think conceptually, and see relationships between two unrelated topics to form a third relationship or product. Maybe this is why I’ve been able to do stand-up comedy every so often, and how I linked “dyslexia” with “lean.”
The featured book this month is The A3 Workbook by Daniel Matthews. The following is a brief summary, click here for more information.
The A3 Workbook: Unlock Your Problem-Solving Mind is designed to teach A3 Problem Solving to workers at every level of an organization. This workbook provides a practical tool for solving specific problems or for making a specific proposal, while also encouraging the development of a corporate culture that empowers all employees to support continuous improvement. The workbook follows the progression of a basic A3 Problem Solving format, offering instructions every step of the way.
In other news we have recently launched a new product, The Lean Enterprise Strategy Kit, designed to help individual organizations and smaller companies create, execute, and continuously improve a robust lean-oriented strategic plan.
- Combines the best aspects of lean-centric strategy deployment and hoshin planning methods with traditional strategic planning to create strategies.
- Core principles are developed first to create a solid foundation for long-term strategy.
- A proprietary 40-topic lean assessment is used to look at world class behaviors and systems, not just the implementation of tools like most lean assessments.
- Each section includes a detailed PowerPoint presentation, worksheets, tools, documents, and recommended deployment methods in MS-Office format for easy customization.
Our partner Gemba Academy released the first modules of a new course titled The Kaizen Way. Gemba Academy now offers over 127 HD-quality video modules on lean manufacturing topics.
We continually update the other major sections of the website, including:
- PowerPoint Presentations: Over 115 downloadable PowerPoint presentations on lean manufacturing, lean leadership, lean industries, quality, lean enterprise, and safety concepts.
- Factory Toolbox: Almost 300 downloadable forms, procedure templates, assessments, and tools to help you not reinvent the wheel.
- Events Calendar: a listing of lean excellence seminars, workshops, training, and conferences worldwide
- Topic Information: Summaries and resources on over 40 enterprise excellence topics.
- Virtual Factory Tours: Web and streaming video tours of over 100 factories.
For all you LinkedIn junkies, we have created a LinkedIn group for Superfactory, which now has over 5,000 members. Join the group to
network with other Superfactory enthusiasts and to show our logo on your profile. If you haven't explored LinkedIn, check it out to see why over 17 million professionals use it for networking.
We are always looking for new articles and other content. Contact us via the Superfactory website if you would like to contribute to our knowledge base.