Lean conference will be ‘inspiring growth and change’
OUR chamber is passionate about making a real difference in the lives of our people, about economic and enterprise development and about serving our business community, and we see the hosting of our annual KZN Lean Conference as a way of inspiring growth and change.
Many see Lean as applying only to industry, but this is certainly not the case, because Lean is essentially about the removal of waste from process, and every business is process-oriented. Lean is not just about applying tools either. There is the critical element of Lean philosophy that cannot be ignored. Both tools and thinking are necessary if you are to succeed. At the core, Lean thinking is about reconciling companies and their customers, management and their employees, and performance and creativity. At the heart of this is respect.
We’re absolutely thrilled to have again secured an exceptional line-up of speakers for this year’s event, which is set to take place from September 28 to 30 at Hilton College.
Keynote speakers include internationally renowned author of the book Toyota by Toyota, Sammy Obara, as well as internationally recognised speaker and author, and winner of the Shingo Research and Publication Award, Jim Benson.
Obara holds a Master’s Degree in Technology Management and has lectured in universities such as Stanford and Harvard. He learned the Toyota Production System (TPS), on which Lean methodology is based, while working in Toyota Motors in Japan. For three years he underwent intense practical training at the Honsha Overseas Engineering Division in Toyota City, and for 13 consecutive years, he implemented Lean in several of the Toyota facilities in Japan, Brazil, the United States and Venezuela, so there are very few better qualified practical Lean teachers. Obara will present on “Creating and Sustaining a Lean Culture” and he will share the learnings from his famous “Mosquito Reduction Case Study”.
Benson is the CEO of the collaborative management consultancy Modus Cooperandi and the founding partner of the Modus Institute. He is a fellow in the Lean Systems Society and recipient of the Brickell Key Award for Excellence in Lean Thinking. He is the creator of Personal Kanban and the co-author of several books.
He has worked with government agencies, Fortune 10 corporations, and start-ups, and he is passionate about applying new technologies to work groups. He looks at how they can be leveraged for more effective collaboration and cooperation. His goal with all technologies is to increase beneficial contact between people and reduce the bureaucratic noise which so often tends to increase costs and destroy creativity. He loves ideas, creation and building opportunities and he enjoys working with teams who are passionate about the future. He likes to push boundaries, but he also loves inclusion.
Benson is a pioneer in applying Lean and Kanban to knowledge work. Kanban is an inventorycontrol system to control the supply chain and to improve manufacturing efficiency that was developed by Taiichi Ohno, an industrial engineer at Toyota. It is one of the ways to attain just-intime (JIT) production. It is a time proven process management tool and it is simple to learn the basics and to get started. “After that”, says Benson, “Kanban teaches you”. Benson differentiates between industrial Kanban and Personal Kanban, and his presentations at the conference include “The role of a Lean leader – Personal Kanban” and “Why plans fail”.
In addition to these exceptional speakers, the conference includes presentations on a number of South African success stories. The case studies are from corporate, manufacturing and government organisations. I would encourage business people and government leaders to take advantage of this congress, and all the learning and inspiration that it has to offer. If you would benefit from an introduction to Lean prior to attending the conference, the Chamber will be running a free workshop just before the conference. For more information please contact the PCB on 033 3452747.