Lessons from a Lean Consultant: Avoiding Lean Implementation Failures on the Shop Floor

Making Lean Work: “In-the-Trenches” Help from a World-Class Expert

Lean manufacturing can improve productivity and quality, shorten lead times, reduce costs, and improve competitiveness. However, succeeding with lean is not easy. Chris A. Ortiz, one of the country’s most respected lean implementers, shows you exactly how to overcome obstacles, drive value from lean, and sustain success for the long term.

Ortiz draws on his experience leading many successful lean transitions and more than 150 kaizen events. He shows you how to prepare for a lean shop floor environment, implement best practice procedures and standards, build executive support, lead kaizen within the factory, and deal with the ups and downs you will inevitably encounter.

Forget theory: This is a step-by-step, what-to-do guide for professionals in the trenches―plant and engineering managers, lean managers and directors, Six Sigma practitioners, and working engineers.

Topics covered include

• Seven reasons lean can fail―and how to overcome them
• Establishing successful kaizen programs: champions, events, teams, goals, tracking, and scheduling
• Avoiding early stumbling blocks in data collection, waste removal, and process design
• Getting your operators and supervisors to “buy into” lean
• Training managers, engineers, and new employees
• Promoting flexibility and cross-training
• Using lean to drive growth, not just save money
• Lean leadership made simple: twelve practical techniques, five simple rules―and ten things not to do
• Sample audit, tracking, and time study forms

Chris Ortiz is a senior lean consultant and the owner of Kaizen Assembly. He has spent the majority of his professional career working for Fortune 500 companies, teaching and guiding them to become more efficient businesses. Chris has also led more than 150 kaizen events around the United States.

Ortiz is also an instructor at five Washington state community and technical colleges. He has developed a reputation for delivering fast-paced, highly detailed, and interactive classroom-style courses.

He is the author of the book Kaizen Assembly: Designing, Constructing, and Managing a Lean Assembly Line (Boca Raton, FL: Taylor and Francis Group, 2006). His lean implementation techniques have been featured in a variety of trade magazines, newspapers, corporate newsletters, Industrial Engineer magazine, Industrial Management magazine, and other lean manufacturing newsletters and periodicals.

To contact Chris Ortiz, e-mail chrisortiz@kaizenassembly.com or go to his Web site, www.kaizenassembly.com.