Seasons Greetings! Welcome to the December edition of our monthly newsletter, Learning to Lean. In this month's edition, we focus on taking lean to the next level by creating a lean extended value stream.

Announcements

We are offering a public lean certification program in January 2005. Click here for details. The following individual public courses may be taken separately or as part of a certificate program. We can also bring any of these courses to your facility.

Course (click on date to register/read more)	Date
Introduction to Implementing Lean	Jan 27, 2005
Value Stream Mapping	Feb 17, 2005
Creating Continuous Flow Manufacturing Cells	Mar 10, 2005
Creating Level Pull / Kanban Systems	Mar 31, 2005
Material Flow and Kanban (purchased parts)	Apr 14, 2005
Kaizen Events: 5S, Visual Controls, and Mistake Proofing	May 5, 2005

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

We have created a survey in which you can tell us what types of public workshops you would like to see us offer. Click here to take our anonymous survey.

Lean Extended Value Stream

Many organizations have created lean internal value streams; that is, they have systematically eliminated waste, reduced inventory and lead time, and increased profitability by analyzing and improving their internal value streams. Many of them are now demanding better performance from their suppliers to support their lean value streams. However, they haven't analyzed and improved the extended value stream; this is the value stream that flows from raw material through to the end user (including suppliers and customers). It is through improving this value stream that manufacturing organizations can take lean to the next level and create an extended lean enterprise.

This month we feature four articles that should help you understand more about the lean extended value stream. Firstly, we give you an overview of the steps it takes to create a lean extended value stream. Our second article talks about the seven wastes of the extended value stream. In our third article, we talk about key metrics of an extended value stream. Finally, we talk about Toyota's extended lean enterprise.

The materials referenced in this newsletter will teach you more about creating a lean extended value stream. 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."

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