The 9th Lean Manufacturing Conference organized by the Lean Enterprise Institute Polska took place on 16-18 June 2009 at the Mercure Panorama hotel. Next to manufacturing related subjects, this year, lean logistics related topics and lean culture issues, like coaching skills and A3 process, were contained in the program.

Gallery of 9th Lean Manufacturing Conference 

The event has been opened by prof. Tomasz Koch, the president of Lean Enterprise Institute Polska. The floor has then been taken by John O’Donnel, Director of LGN  – Lean Global Network (www.leanglobal.org), an organization associating 16 independent Lean Institutes (including Lean Enterprise Institute Polska) who described the LGN mission and its role in spreading lean philosophy throughout the world.

Remarks of John O’Donnell, Executive Director of the Lean Global Network 
 

Conference Opening by prof. Tomasz Koch

The first Conference day started with speeches of special guests during the plenary session. This year’s special guests included:

• David Verble – trainer and consultant with over 14 years of experience at Toyota, USA, where he was people development manager. For the last couple of years, a lecturer of Lean Enterprise Institute.
• Ian Glenday – distinguished expert in continuous processes improvement, author of  „Breaking through to flow”,
• Robert Martichenko – one of world’s best experts in logistics, practicing businessman in the logistics sector and an author of several lean books.
• Marek Piątkowski – ex-manager of Canadian Toyota. Currently, a consultant specialized in implementation of Lean Manufacturing in manufacturing companies.

The plenary session concluded with the speech of prof. Tomasza Koch, , who discussed the role of Lean Management in times of recession.

The seminars were held by special guests invited and by the experts from Lean Enterprise Institute Polska in the afternoon session of the first day and also during the morning session of the next day. The seminars focused on the following themes: coaching skills for developing lean thinkers, managing lean implementation, managing lean supply chain, benefits of breaking through to flow and basics of Lean in production and nonproduction areas.

The first day of the Conference concluded with a discussion with special guests. A lot of time has been paid to the connection between modern  computer systems and Lean Manufacturing.

Prof. Tomasz Koch and John O`Donnell with special guests. From the left: David Verble, Marek Piatkowski, prof. Tomasz Koch, John O`Donnell, Ian Glenday and Robert Martichenko.

The afternoon session of the second day included case studies of practical lean management implementation. Participants could select up to 2 case studies presented by different companies, each case study lasted for 60 minutes. There was a wide choice of different sectors which ranged from automotive to food industry. Following companies shared their experiences: Carlsberg, LU (Kraft Foods group), Maco Pharma, Aesculap Chifa, Klose, Faurecia.
Case study session ended with a presentation of Philips Lighting Bielsko which was held in the main room for all attendees.

On the third day of the Conference, the participants had a choice between a plant visit and attending a workshop. As usual, the plants visited were very advanced in lean implementation. This year, the hosting plants were: Toyota Motor Manufacturing Poland and Faurecia in Wałbrzych and Toyota Peugeot Citroën Automobile in Kolin (Czech Republic).
A true attraction of this year’s Conference were whole day workshops held by special guests speakers. Workshop held by Marek Piątkowski at the premises of Electrolux in Oława enabled participants to learn what standardized work is and how its implementation should proceed. The workshop was conducted according “learning by doing” rule. Individual groups of participants of this workshop not only analyzed a number of work cells from the washing machine assembly line but also developed practical improvements which were with appreciation welcomed by the Director of Electrolux plant in Oława. He also announced that, similarly to last year, suggested improvements will be implemented into practice.
David Verble held all-day Managing to learn workshop concerning A3 processes and Robert Martichenko discussed in his workshop lean logistics, not only in the context of internal logistics but also from the perspective of a logistics manager and a person responsible for operational change.

This year’s Conference gathered more than 200 participants from over 80 companies. Like every year, the automotive industry was the most represented sector (16%). A rising interest in lean implementation has been observed among furniture sector (14%). Rising diversity of industries arriving at the Conference is a very positive occurrence. The highly represented industries were: electric and electronic industry (13%), logistics (8%). Rising interest in lean manufacturing could be observed among food industry (8%) and Fast Moving Customer Goods (7%) where production is based on batch processes. Substantial emphasis has been placed on developing coaching skills which resulted in 4% of participants coming from training and consulting companies.

Percentage of representatives from different industries among participants in the 9th Lean Manufacturing Conference.