About the Book
Although there are many organizations that have implemented Lean production systems and become more profitable as a result, there can be a gap between what those organizations currently do and how they should plan for and profit from new business. Capitalizing on Lean Production Systems to Win New Business: Creating a Lean and Profitable New Product Portfolio explains how to create a Lean product portfolio to fill that gap so you can become more profitable from that new business.
Providing a fundamental understanding of the Lean enterprise production system, this book can help an organization take its current Lean knowledge and translate that knowledge into a step-by-step methodology to win and launch new business. Lean topics covered include:
- Value Stream Mapping
- Plan for Every Part
- Process Design and Standard Work
- Scheduling and Material Flow
- Machine Changeover
- Quality and Continuous Improvement
By developing the New Product Acquisition and Launch Portfolio presented in this book, you can dramatically improve your ability to produce the products customers desire and deliver them on time. Focusing on the concepts that are critical to the longevity of your Lean enterprise system, this book will help you understand how to deliver a product that meets the quality and delivery standards of your customer. It will also help you understand how this new product fits into your Lean enterprise system.
Detailing how to achieve a successful new product launch through upfront planning, this book provides you with the tools to enhance efficiencies throughout your supply chain.
About the Author:
Dr. Chris Harris is an associate professor of supply chain management in the University of Indianapolis School of Business. Dr. Harris holds an MBA and a DBA with a major in management from Anderson University in Indiana as well as a master's of science degree in youth development leadership from Clemson University. Dr. Harris is the author of numerous articles and several books on Lean production, including Lean Supplier Development, Lean Connections--Making Information Flow Efficiently and Effectively, and Developing a Lean Workforce, all published by Productivity Press, and Making Materials Flow, published by the Lean Enterprise Institute, which won the Shingo Research Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing Research in 2005.
Dr. Harris has worked in a number of professional positions, including as a corporate buyer, an account representative at Toyota Tsusho, a production supervisor, and a team member on the assembly line at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky (TMMK). His research and teaching interests focus on Lean supply chain production systems. Dr. Harris has taught seminars on Lean production principles and assists companies in implementing Lean production systems throughout the world.
Rick Harris has been helping companies become Lean for the past 15 years. He has had great success helping large and small companies, union and nonunion, to implement their own Lean manufacturing system. HLS, Incorporated, has been instrumental in assisting companies worldwide with major financial improvements (a plant in New York $42 million in 4 years, a plant in Indiana $32 million in 3 years). He helps to educate executives, plant managers, and plant staff in the principles of Lean manufacturing. Rick helps with the actual implementation on the shop floor and the education of the workforce. He has pioneered the reverse-flow process to achieve an increase in efficiency of 25 percent.
Rick has extensive experience developing new manufacturing layouts that facilitate one-piece flow, operator flexibility, operator engagement, first time through quality, optimum uptime, and reduced capital investment. Rick has also coauthored two Shingo Prize Award-winning books
Creating Continuous Flow and Making Materials Flow, published by James Womack and the Lean Enterprise Institute. Rick has also coauthored three other books:
Developing a Lean Workforce, Lean Connections Making Information Flow, and Lean Supplier Development, published by Productivity Press. Rick is one of the featured speakers at the Lean Enterprise Institute's monthly Lean conference. Rick has been a speaker at the University of Michigan Lean Manufacturing Conference for the past 7 years, the Lean Enterprise Institute Summit for the past 3 years, the European Lean Enterprise Institute Summit, the Maynard Forum, the PERA Conference, the Mississippi State Annual Lean Conference the past 2 years, European AME Conference, the AME Conference in Chicago in 2002, the University of Kentucky Lean Leadership Forum the past 3 years, and the Lean Summit Brazil in 2004.
