December 31
2020
LEAN VISITS IN EUROPE
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To help raise EU industrial competitiveness, the EU-Japan Centre organises in-depth visits to European plants to discuss best practice and facilitate the sharing of ideas and networking. |
In light of uncertainties and disruption caused by the global outbreak of coronavirus, the Lean in Europe activity has been suspended for the foreseeable future. Instead, we would like to invite you to join us at our virtual Lean Café for monthly Zoom discussions of lean and operational excellence. If you would like to be sent details of rescheduled and future Lean in Europe visits once they restart, please email us.
The 'Lean in Europe' best practice visits were designed to inspire the participants along their companies' lean journeys and provide valuable feedback to the host companies. Participants learnt about the host company's 'lean journey' in its relentless drive to be competitive, and use process optimisation, lean management tools and - where relevant - AI/IoT to drive its business forward. During the 'Gemba' visit, participants saw the lean tools, used by the host company, in operation.
Previous Lean in Europe visits
Two visits were scheduled but were cancelled because of the covid crisis - to Tetra Pak (Sweden) and to SkiBeat at La Plagne (France). The last eight visits to actually take place were visits to BMW Group Plant Berlin; a double visit to Pneu Laurent and SKF Slewing Bearings (France); Applus+ IDIADA (Spain); a double visit to the Škoda Lean Center and to LEGO Production s.r.o. (Czech Republic); and single visits to Amorim & Irmãos (Portugal), Toyota's Deeside Engine Plant (UK), GKN Driveline Zumaia (Spain) and TRUMPF (Germany). Click here for details of all past (and postponed) visits.
Other resources to help you on your lean journey
- The Lean Café - occasional online discussions of lean issues and the sharing of ideas and best practice.
- Our Lean Masterclass - a series of 8 video lectures by Richard Keegan, recorded in 2016 and focus on "Getting things done". In addition to watching/downloading the lectures you can also request copies of the presentation material and various publications written by Richard.
- Our World-Class Manufacturing course in Japan - week-long training missions, in June and in November, providing an in-depth analysis of Japanese manufacturing methodology, consisting of lectures, workshops and visits to some of the world’s most advanced Japanese factories in order to understand the real "Gemba" (production site), talk directly with their production managers and observe the effective implementation of manufacturing methods.
Europe