Welcome to the February edition of our monthly newsletter, Learning to Lean. In this month's edition, we focus on continuous flow manufacturing cells.

Announcements

Since our last newsletter release, we have added additional training workshops and seminars. Our "Implementing Lean: An Action Plan" seminar will give you an overview of lean manufacturing plus a specific sequence of steps and initiatives comprising an action plan to implement lean. More advanced training workshops such as Value Stream Mapping, Creating Continuous Flow Manufacturing Cells, Material Flow and Kanban, and Design for Manufacturability will also be presented in the San Diego and L.A./Orange County areas. We are offering early registration and multiple event discounts. Click here for details.

Additionally, we will be speaking at the following events this month:

	Wed. February 11: "Design for Manufacturability," ASQ, Palomar Chapter, Escondido, CA
	Mon. February 23: "Outsourcing and The Extended Value Stream," Outsourcing World Summit 2004, Orlando, FL

Manufacturing Cells

Extreme popularity of cellular manufacturing in the '90's has led to a great many misapplications of the concept. Almost every factory has some form of a cell or cells; however, many of them are not experiencing the benefits of continuous flow manufacturing cells such as productivity improvement, inventory reduction, floorspace reduction, and quality improvement. And many of those that are experiencing these benefits are not experiencing them at the levels that they could be.

In this issue, we feature three articles. The first article is an overview of manufacturing cells. The second article talks about different types of cells and how they fit into (or don't fit into) a lean manufacturing environment. The final article gives you a step by step implementation plan for implementing continuous flow manufacturing cells.

The materials referenced in this newsletter will teach you more about the techniques and benefits of manufacturing cells. If the articles, links, and books to the left have piqued your interest and you would like to learn more, feel free to call us at 866-559-5598 or visit our website and click on "Contact Us."

Best Regards,

Darren Dolcemascolo

darrend@emsstrategies.com

David McBride

davidm@emsstrategies.com

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