pate in the program. This term, manufacturing firms Ace Con- trols, Faurecia, Fitzpatrick Manufacturing and Experi-Metal are working with us, as well as several other organizations in the health care and service industries.
The first assignment for the students is to “go to the gemba,” where the team members get their first impressions of the sponsor company’s business and factory environment. The students are asked to prepare a 10-minute presentation to describe what they experienced—saw, heard and felt— during the visit, explain the basic value stream map of the business (such as what the business does, how it makes its products and/or performs its services for its customers and who the suppliers and customers are). They are also asked to identify the types of wastes—muda—they saw during the visit. It’s a good icebreaker for both the students and the sponsor company employees. The next assignment launches the team right into the formal Lean Assessment, which involves a detailed two-part process.
Among other factors, the team assesses the history of
the company’s lean efforts, such as who are the key lean leaders, what are the long and short-term philosophies and any recent major changes that have occurred. They then move into assessing the workplace organization and visual management such as the 5S environment, results display areas, standardized work, visual controls & charts, pro- cess maps and value stream maps and the identification of waste/muda. They examine the flow and error proofing to look for customer-driven (“pull”) flow, kanbans and poka-yokes.
Just as importantly, the team assesses the vital human element of lean in the organization. The students assess employee development and kaizen improvements looking for evidence of kaizen training and team activity, A3 reports and suggestion programs. They dig into the lean culture and quality people value stream to understand what the role of HR is in the firm and how they go about recruiting, selecting and