Happy New Year! Welcome to the January 2008 edition of our monthly newsletter, Learning to Lean. In this month's edition, we focus on combining lean and six sigma.

Announcements

Dates for our 2008 Lean Certification Training Program are below. All classes will take place at the Doubletree Club Hotel Orange County Airport in Santa Ana, CA. You may register for individual workshops or the entire certificate program for the best value. Click on the dates for more information or to register.

Course (click on date to register/read more)	Date
Lean Certification Program	Feb 6, 2008 - May 8, 2008
Introduction to Implementing Lean	Feb 6, 2008
Value Stream Mapping	Feb 7, 2008
Kaizen Events: 5S, Visual Controls, and Mistake Proofing	Mar 5, 2008
Quick Changeover and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)	Mar 6, 2008
Creating Continuous Flow Manufacturing Cells	Apr 9, 2008
Material Flow and Kanban	Apr 10, 2008
Lean Production Control and Inventory Mgmt.	May 7, 2008

Any of the above courses (plus many others) can be brought to your facility and customized to meet your requirements.

We have recently updated our 2008 Lean Training Guide which includes descriptions of many of our on-site and public courses, click here to read or download the guide.

Click here for details on all of our training offerings, both on-site at your facility and public.

Lean and Six Sigma

Given Toyota's rise to the #1 spot among auto manufacturers in 2007 (in sales), Lean is continuing to gain momentum as we enter 2008. Six Sigma is also gaining momentum. We thought it would make sense to discuss the relationship between lean and six sigma.

This month we feature three articles that should help you understand how both methodologies are actually complimentary. Firstly, we give you an overview of how both lean and six sigma can work together. Our second article defines lean and its key principles. Finally, in our third article, we talk about some of the tools of six sigma.

The materials referenced in this newsletter will teach you more about lean. If you would like to learn more, feel free to call us at 866-559-5598 or visit our website and click on "Contact Us."

To subscribe to this newsletter, visit http://www.emsstrategies.com/newslettersignup.htm Please feel free to forward Learning to Lean to colleagues or use it in your publication. We only ask that you do so in its entirety.