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Educational & Training Resources

Like Lean, Six Sigma, TOC, Operational Excellence, etc., JobshopLean is a strategy that is neither a panacea nor a cure-all for the problems and challenges faced by jobshops.  But, it works and it easily ensures that a jobshop does not make the mistake of becoming Lean by sacrificing Flexibility and Agility.  The core concept underlying JobshopLean is that of “flexibility through focus” by first and foremost re-organizing (or at least trying to re-organize) the layout of any jobshop into flexible cells that will each produce a part family that exists in the jobshop’s product mix.

Current Offering of Workshops on Lean/JobshopLean

Please click here to see the list of workshops that can be immediately taught onsite at your facility.

Lean Assessment and Training Event

Please click here to see the agenda for a standard 5-day kaizen event to kick-off the implementation of JobshopLean in your facility.

DVDs

Previously, a set of 5 DVDs had been created to disseminate information on JobshopLean.  Today, most of this content has been absorbed into my book Adapting Lean for Small and Medium High-Mix Low-Volume Manufacturers. A brief description of the contents of each disc follows:

(Disc #1) Introductory Lectures on JobshopLean

For each lecture, there is a folder containing (i) the video recording for that lecture, (ii) the Powerpoint presentation that I used for the lecture, (iii) additional files that I may have referenced during the lecture and, in some cases, (iv) supplemental reading for that lecture.  This is what each of these introductory lectures on JobshopLean discusses:

  • Overview of Lean Manufacturing: In this lecture, I talk about Lean in general, discuss the 5-step process for implementing Lean that James Womack and Daniel Jones describe in their bestseller book (Lean Thinking) and lay the foundations for the next lecture.
  • What is JobshopLean? In this lecture, I present the numerous reasons why I believe that JobshopLean is different from Lean. Also, I describe a framework for implementing JobshopLean by adapting the 5-step process for implementing Lean that was originally proposed by James Womack and Daniel Jones.
  • Essential Foundation for JobshopLean: In this lecture, I explain the “pillars” that support the “House of JobshopLean”: (i) a facility layout designed using Production Flow Analysis, (ii) Manufacturing Cells and (ii) Group Technology.
  • Quick-Start Approach for JobshopLean: In this lecture, I describe in detail an approach that any jobshop can use to do a pilot JobshopLean project.
  • Tutorial on PFAST: In this lecture, I present an overview of how the PFAST (Production Flow Analysis and Simplification Toolkit) software works and the format requirements for the Excel spreadsheets in a PFAST Input File. Since 2001, we have been using the outputs from PFAST to implement JobshopLean in manufacturing facilities across the US!
  • Patient Flow Analysis to Design a Lean Hospital: Isn’t a hospital essentially a healthcare jobshop? In this lecture, I describe how we used Production Flow Analysis to design a “Lean” hospital layout.
  • Value Network Mapping: In this lecture, I teach a method that we developed to replace Value Stream Mapping (VSM). VSM has numerous limitations when used to implement Lean in high-mix low-volume non-assembly manufacturing facilities.
  • Setup Reduction on a Forging Press: In this lecture, I describe how we used Production Flow Analysis to design the workspace around a single forging press as part of a SMED (Setup Reduction) project.

This disc also has a folder named “Success Stories” containing presentations that describe a variety of JobshopLean projects that we have done over the years.

(Disc #2) A Program to Initiate JobshopLean at Bula Forge & Machine Inc.

This disc should be used after you have heard my lecture on the Quick-Start Approach for JobshopLean.  It contains a video based on a 3-month graduate internship that was done to implement the Quick-Start Approach to JobshopLeanin a custom forge shop.

(Disc #3) How a Jobshop developed their In-House Training Video on Waste Elimination

Like Disc #2, this disc should be used after you have heard my lecture on the Quick-Start Approach for JobshopLean.  It offers a step-by-step tutorial on how a jobshop could incorporate a “gemba walk” into their curriculum to teach JobshopLean to employees and managers.

(Disc #4) Jobshop Lean Simulation/Game

Are you frustrated with all the Lean simulations that teach how to implement Lean in assembly facilities?  The JobshopLean Simulation teaches strategies and tools to implement Lean in a jobshop.  This disc contains (i) all the game materials that you will need to run the simulation and (ii) two video recordings that show a pre-JobshopLean and a post-JobshopLean session of this simulation/game.

(Disc #5) Books

This disc contains electronic versions of three books I have written to show how Industrial Engineering concepts and tools can enrich and enhance the use of Lean, Six Sigma and TOC.  The titles of these books are:

  1. Hybrid Cellular Layouts: New Ideas for Design of Flexible and Lean Layouts for Jobshops
  2. Value Network Mapping: Extending Value Stream Mapping to enable Lean Manufacturing in Jobshop-type Custom Manufacturing Facilities.
  3. An IE Student’s Study Guide for Bottleneck Scheduling using Theory Of Constraints

Additional Reading

Educating the workforce and management about FLEAN (Flexible and Lean) manufacturing cellsGear Technology, 2013 (November/December), 82-92.