Each month new articles, book reviews, and other content are added to the
Superfactory website. The new content is featured in the free
monthly e-newsletterwhich goes out to 50,000 subscribers worldwide, and we will also post a monthly heads-up on this blog.
New content in October includes:
The featured article is from Bill Gaw and is titled In Pursuit of Profitable Growth. The following is a brief excerpt, and you can read the
entire article here.
In their efforts to draw closer to customers, many manufacturers have lost focus on what should be a company’s primary success factor – profitable growth. In today’s competitive manufacturing environment, it takes more than quick fixes, outsourcing and downsizing for companies to consistently achieve their growth and profit objectives. While these options may yield temporary financial relief, they will not lead the way to long-term growth and profitability. For companies to grow and consistently exceed bottom line expectations, they need to get lean. And, to get lean they must master the basics of lean manufacturing.The Other Perspectives section has an article by Bob Emiliani titled Mythbusing Using Value Stream Maps. The following is a brief excerpt, and you can read the
entire article here.
The value stream map is one of many ways that Lean-minded people organize data to yield accurate information about what’s going on in order to initiate actions to improve a process. While we should not over-emphasize value stream maps – they are not the beginning and end of Lean – they do provide a lot of useful information. But they can also provide important information beyond our current understanding of material and information flows.
The featured book for this month is Life's Little Lean Accounting Instruction Book by Brian Maskell and Susan Lilly. A short synopsis is below, and you can learn more about the book or order it
here.
365 Days of Self-Help for Lean-Thinking Accountants and Managers. You will be surprised, we dare say challenged, but you will think. Think about assumptions you make every day. Think about your role in the company's lean transformation. Think about the essential value you can bring to the effort. This little book will give you inspiration. It will give you continuous food for thought. It will challenge you to be a change agent. It might also make you laugh!We continually update the other major sections of the website, including:
- Events Calendar: a listing of lean excellence seminars, workshops, training, and conferences worldwide
- Topic Information: Summaries and resources on over 40 enterprise excellence topics.
- History of Excellence: A growing timeline of notable events that helped shape current-day enterprise excellence
- PowerPoint Presentations: Over 50 downloadable PowerPoint presentations on lean manufacturing, quality, enterprise, and safety concepts.
- Factory Toolbox: Almost 300 downloadable forms, procedure templates, assessments, and tools to help you not reinvent the wheel.
- Tools and Assessments: Downloadable assessment tools.
- Virtual Factory Tours: Web and streaming video tours of over 100 factories.
We are always looking for new articles and other content. Contact us via the
Superfactory websiteif you would like to contribute to our knowledge base.