Season's Greetings! Welcome to the December 2009 edition of our monthly newsletter, Learning to Lean. In this month's edition, we will talk about implementation of lean in 2010.

Announcements

We have announced dates for our 2010 Lean Manufacturing and Lean Office Certification programs in Orange County, CA. The schedule is below; click here for details.

For those of you for which classroom training in Southern California is inconvenient, we continue to offer our online lean certification and training programs. To learn more about online lean training including pricing, click here.

Course (Click course name to download description, click date to register)	Date
Lean Certification Program - Spring 2010	Feb 10-11; Mar 10-11; Apr 7-8; May 5-6
Lean Office Certificate Program- Spring 2010	Feb 10; Mar 10-11; May 6
Introduction to Implementing Lean	Feb 10, 2010
Value Stream Mapping	Feb 11, 2010
Lean and Value Stream Mapping for Business Processes	Mar 10, 2010
Kaizen Events: 5S, Visual Controls, and Mistake Proofing	Mar 11, 2010
Quick Changeover and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)	Apr 7, 2010
Creating Continuous Flow Manufacturing Cells	Apr 8, 2010
Lean Production Control and Inventory Mgmt.	May 5, 2010

Any of our courses can be brought to your facility and customized to meet your requirements.

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

Implementing Lean in 2010

In late 2008 and early 2009, we wrote about the financial crisis, its effects, and how lean principles can help companies alleviate the need to borrow by freeing up cash. In late 2009, we find the state of the economy largely unchanged (with the exception of run-up in the stock market). In fact, the unemployment picture is much worse. Why is this down market a perfect time to begin a lean transformation? That is the question we will answer in this month's newsletter.

This month we feature three articles about lean transformation in 2010. First, we make the case for lean in 2010. Next, we talk about an action plan for lean transformation. Finally, we talk about planning and preparation for lean transformation.

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.

EMS Consulting Group, Inc. - 7040 Avenida Encinas, Suite 104-189 - Carlsbad, CA 92011