ASCM (APICS) is the world's leading association for supply chain management, providing education and certification programs.
As more organizations go lean, the demand for skilled workers and a system-wide approach for developing and implementing lean project plans is escalating. This course is designed to equip you with the knowledge and tools to map the path to lean culture at your organization.
This workshop will give you the tools to
- complete a self-assessment to determine your organization's readiness to implement lean
- gain practical experience analyzing how to incorporate lean into organizations
- develop a project plan for implementing lean into your organization
The APICS Lean Enterprise Workshop Series is organized so you can approach and understand the lean transformation process systematically. Using scenarios from a fictitious company, Murphy's Toys, you will be tasked with finding lean solutions to numerous challenges. This method will provide you with the flexibility to immediately customize what you've learned and implement it at your own organization.
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There are seven workshops in the series:
Workshop 1. The Lean Enterprise: Introduction
This workshop offers an introduction to lean from the perspective of a manager at Murphy’s Toys, which is a fictitious company studied throughout the series. Participants will learn about the basic philosophy of lean, the steps to a lean transformation, and the House of Toyota framework, as well as how to determine product families, correct waste, and quantitatively assess an organization’s lean status.
Workshop 2. The Lean Enterprise: Lean Culture
Lean is a people- and culture-driven process. In this workshop, participants will explore the effects of a lean implementation on employees, brainstorm ideas for implementing change management at Murphy’s Toys, and learn the importance and stages of teams in lean environments. An important lean tool, the kaizen, or team oriented continuous-improvement event, will be introduced, and participants will study a problem at Murphy’s Toys, completing a kaizen report. Murphy’s Toys will choose the product family to use in the pilot for their lean implementation.
Workshop 3. The Lean Enterprise: Value Stream Mapping
Value stream mapping is a valuable tool for viewing processes and determining potential areas of improvement. Using standard value-stream mapping icons, participants will draw a current-state value stream map of the injection-molded plastic-toy product line at Murphy’s Toys. Participants will then learn what makes a value stream lean, after which they will apply this new knowledge as they develop a future-state map.
Workshop 4. The Lean Enterprise: Stability and Process Improvement
In this workshop, participants will learn how to achieve demand stability and improve processes. Concepts covered include load leveling, mixed-model production, buffering, causes of variation, standard work, total productive maintenance, and an introduction to six sigma. Participants will explore methods to reduce setup time through activities.
Workshop 5. The Lean Enterprise: Just-in-Time
Now that Murphy’s Toys has stabilized its processes, it needs to focus on scheduling production to meet customer demand. This workshop covers determining customer demand, line balancing, continuous flow, implementing pull, scheduling with heijunka, and the use of kanbans. Through a hands-on activity, participant will explore the use of a heijunka system to meet customer demand.
Workshop 6. The Lean Enterprise: Measuring
Traditional measurements are not working well for Murphy’s Toys as they transform to a lean enterprise. In this workshop, participants will compare and contrast traditional to lean measurements and their resulting behaviors. A review of lean accounting includes such topics as standard cost vs. value stream profit and loss statements, the financial impact of lean improvements, target costing, and lean decision-making. Participants will examine lean metrics that Murphy’s Toys can use.
Workshop 7. The Lean Enterprise: Sustaining
Now that Murphy’s Toys has undergone a lean transformation, it must implement long-term changes to sustain the gains made. These include implementing lean design, analyzing failures, and ensuring ongoing quality control and continuous improvement. In this workshop, participants will perform a failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA), analyze a problem using the six sigma DMAIC tool, and create a lean implementation action plan to take back to their organizations.
Murphy’s Toys
Murphy’s Toys is a fictitious company created especially for the APICS Lean Enterprise Workshop Series as an ongoing case study for the series. At Murphy’s Toys, complaints are high, quality is low, and demand is building for toys. Each workshop in the series illustrates one step in the story of Murphy’s lean transformation. Participants will learn lean principles through activities that include studying Murphy’s corporate data, mapping their value streams, leveling their production, and measuring their success.