Lean Manufacturing Program helps companies be exceptional--not extinct

BOWLING GREEN, O.—The Bowling Green State University Lean Manufacturing Program not only reshapes the workplace but also a company’s most valuable resource, its people. And that’s the key for success, according to faculty in the program. Unlike other training programs, the BGSU Lean Manufacturing Program offers seminars in social systems as well as technical systems.

While it teaches which technical tools to use, it also focuses on applying those tools to implement systems and change organizational culture.

"We look at the manufacturing system as a process in which everything is linked,” explains Dennis Doren, director of Lean Manufacturing at BGSU and one of four instructors in the program. “The key is the social side. People in the organization must look not just at their individual roles but how these roles work together.” Practice has proven that developing employees who will take leadership throughout the organization enables manufacturers to increase profits, gain market share, improve product quality, reduce operating costs, boost productivity, motivate employees and sustain continuous improvement.

The system we learned offered us a chance to be exceptional, not extinct,” says Whitaker Systems President and CEO Dave Duncan of Northwood, who has gone through the BGSU Lean Manufacturing Program. “The overall system is a process that creates accountability, empowerment and responsibility, not a flavor of the month. It benefits everyone in the company and the company itself.”

The Lean Transformation, Systems and Leadership Champion Certification Program, sponsored by the BGSU Center for Applied Technology, is an overall business and cultural analysis of standardization, employee empowerment and continuous improvement. The program consists of five, three-day seminars teaching the core values of Lean Manufacturing and enhancing employees’ understanding of Lean.

New sections will be offered beginning in August. All seminars are held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Stone Ridge Golf Club in Bowling Green. The first program begins with Foundations of Lean Manufacturing on Aug. 25-27. Other sessions in the Champion Certification Program include Shop Floor Control on Sept. 22-24; Time-Based Management/Continuous Flow on Oct. 20-22; Value-Stream Mapping on Nov. 3-5, and Leadership on Dec. 8-10.

In addition to Doren, the team of experienced faculty includes Dr. Thomas Andrews, chair of technology systems and director of Lean Systems at BGSU’s College of Technology; Tony Zalucki, director of LEAN Enterprise at Kennametal Inc. and consultant with the Lean Manufacturing Program at BGSU, and Dr. Arlie Hall, a retired professor of manufacturing systems engineering at the University of Kentucky and instructor in the BGSU Lean Manufacturing Program.

For more information about certification programs and seminars call Janet Womack in Continuing & Extended Education at 419-372-8181 or toll-free at 1-877-650-8165.

(Posted August 18, 2003 )