Shingo Study Tour to the USA

The Shingo Study Tour to the USA, scheduled for January 2013, is designed to help participants understand the Shingo model and the underlying principles behind The Shingo Prize philosophy and approach. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of how to define principle-behavior and what to look for as we tour various facilities across the United States. Participants will also understand the key elements of behavior as we further discuss and look at what drives the behavior, the system in place. This tour, in the end, creates a new lens for many to truly see beyond the tools and discover what are at the roots of great continuous improvement cultures.

What you will gain from the tour?

INSPIRATION from the many companies that are becoming successful at applying lean principles to achieve excellence.

INSIGHT into how to identify key behaviors and the systems involved that impact the global competitiveness.

UNDERSTANDING of how the Shingo approach to integrating the principles, systems, tools and techniques of operational excellence can be transformational.

SOLUTIONS that you can apply directly to your current operations or to assist you in planning for your future.

 

 

Price: $9,200

Register three or more and receive a 10 percent discount.

 

REGISTRATION CLOSED. Please check back soon for the next scheduled tour.

 

Visit some of the USA’s best operational excellence sites

            

      US Sythetic

With more than 600 employees and customers around the world, US Synthetic is the leading provider of polycrystalline diamond cutters (PDC’s) for oil and gas exploration. Voted one of the best places to work in Utah, the company was also recently awarded The 2011 Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence. By aggressively utilizing the PDCA method across both manufacturing and support organizations, US Synthetic has been able to expand capacity on current equipment by 75 percent, increase productivity by 50 percent, maintain the industry’s best lead time while increasing sales 350 percent, and increasing implemented employee suggestions by a factor of over 1,000. Participants will learn how the company has implemented an aligned strategy deployment process, cellular manufacturing, TWI job instruction and a world class recognition system to achieve its breakthrough results.

 

 

         OC Tanner

OC Tanner is the world’s premier provider of strategic employee recognition solutions, providing award programs to some of the world’s most successful companies. Founded in 1927 in Salt Lake City, the company has grown to over $330 million in annual sales, with more than 2,500 products and 1,650 employees. As a leader in employee recognition systems and a multiple award winner for its people and processes, OC Tanner is committed to achieving organizational success through the development of its people. A winner of The Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence in 1999, the company continues to improve operational efficiency and quality through the engagement of its people in the process of daily kaizen.

Participants will be taken on a tour of the company’s manufacturing process, which has enabled the company to go from receipt of order to shipment in less than four hours on a mixed-model basis. Even more impressive is the company’s ability to achieve true one-piece-flow and track takt and cycle time for each product in real time throughout the facility. In addition to manufacturing, participants will see OC Tanner’s strategy deployment process and how the company cascades goals and objectives down to the team level through a series of daily huddles, weekly improvement meetings, and monthly strategy deployment sessions. In addition, participants will spend time with a production team, learning about the results of the new coaching camp implemented in 2010. Based on the latest research in neuroscience and the art of creating employee engagement, the coaching camp has been deployed throughout manufacturing and has led to a dramatic increase in employee participation, idea generation and team
problem solving.

 

 

 

 

 

                         Denso

DENSO Corporation, headquartered in Kariya, Japan, is one of the world’s largest producers of advanced technology components and systems for all major automakers. With over 105,000 associates in 32 nations, Denso International America is headquartered in Southfield, Michigan, and employs over 15,000 people across North America. DENSO Manufuring Tennessee is one of the largest companies outside of Japan, with 1.5 million square feet of manufacturing, with four manufacturing divisions on 154 acres of land. With over 90 major customer awards for quality, delivery and cost in its first 16 years of operation, the state of the art facilities in Maryville, Tennessee, employ more than 2,500 associates.

Tour participants will see the Instrument Cluster Division, which has won multiple awards for its environmental programs as well as its manufacturing system. A Shingo Prize recipient in 2007, participants will learn how the division has driven significant productivity and quality improvements year-over-year through its use of kaizen circles and employee IDEA suggestion system. A multiple World Team Excellence Competition Finalist and four-time winner of the #1 IDEA Suggestors of the Year, the IC Division is a leader in employee engagement. In addition to seeing how the IC Division engages its employees, participants will spent time on the floor learning how the DENSO production system consistently produces excellence in quality, cost and delivery.

 

     John Deere

John Deere is a world leader in providing advanced products to those people who are “linked to the land;” farmers, ranchers, landowners, builders and loggers. For over 175 years, John Deere has grown into one of the world’s most admired companies by sticking to its core values of integrity, quality, commitment and innovation. The company operates and sells globally, with a focus on the United States, Canada, Europe, Brazil, Russia, India and China. With $26 billion in annual revenue, the company is segmented into three divisions - Agriculture & Turf, Construction & Forestry, and John Deere Financial. John Deere Power Products (JDPP) is one of 38 factories that make up the Agriculture & Turf Division and located in Greeneville, Tennessee. JDPP was established in 1987 and produces the 100 Series Lawn Tractor. Sold through John Deere dealers, Home Depot and Lowe’s, the 100 Series was introduced in 2003 and has been rated a best buy for more than eight years. The JDPP factory includes welding, assembly, purchasing, shipping/receiving and technical supports and was founded with a teambased continuous improvement philosophy.

 

Tour participants will see how the company has achieved record safety levels as well as the highest first pass yield quality levels in the company. In addition, participants will learn how the implementation of the Deere Production System has led to a 32 percent reduction in cycle time, a 52 percent improvement in productivity, and a 50 percent improvement in inventory turns.

 

 

Baxter Healthcare

Baxter International, founded in 1931, develops, manufacturers and markets products that save and sustain lives of people with hemophilia, immune disorders, infectious diseases, kidney disease, trauma, and other chronic and acute medical conditions. With over $12.8 billion in annual sales and 47,600 employees around the globe, Baxter is composed of three business units; BioScience, Medication Delivery, and Renal. Baxter’s North Cove Plant is part of the Medication Delivery division and manufacturers and distributes Large Volume Parenteral (LVP) and Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) solutions in flexible containers that range in size from 50ml to 6000ml. The first two-time winner of The Shingo Prize, the plant provides over 250 unique customer products domestically and supplies components to sister plants in 27 countries and finished goods to 59 countries.

 

Tour participants will see first hand how North Cove drives employee engagement through participation in team-based quality improvement teams. In addition, the tour will include an introduction to Baxter’s proprietary Quality Leadership Process (QLP). First introduced in 1985, QLP is the leadership model for driving continuous improvement across the enterprise and has enabled the plant to remain the market leader by reducing product cost year-over-year while improving product quality and delivery. Finally, participants will see how North Cove has evolved its lean transformation from a manufacturing system to span across the nine product value streams and integrate every support organization in the pursuit of identifying business problems and recognizing and eliminating waste.

 

 

Your Tour Leaders

Mike Martyn, Founder, SISU Consulting Group
Mike Martyn is the founder of SISU Consulting Group and a member of the Board of Governors for The Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence. As a former turnaround specialist, Mr. Martyn held numerous senior executive positions and first learned lean in the trenches, rapidly driving business results in both service and manufacturing environments. Since founding SISU, Mr. Martyn has coached many world-class organizations, including Baxter Healthcare, Boeing, Raytheon, La-Z-Boy, OC Tanner, Bacardi, Daimler, and Old Mutual Financial.

 

 

 

Jacob Raymer, Director of Education, The Shingo Prize Jacob Raymer oversees the development of the framework and architecture of The Shingo Prize learning management system and is deeply involved in the creation of lean coursework, simulations, and workshops. Mr. Raymer is part of the development team that refines The Shingo Model and continues research and application of the model for continuous improvement. Mr. Raymer has trained numerous individuals and various companies about the lean transformation that occurs by applying The Shingo Model and its principles. He has taught in various industries, including defense, automotive, food/chemical processing, healthcare, and others.