A Lean 5S Duo for the Office

If you have never thought of the front end of your business - your office, as a prime area for lead time, cost, and quality improvements – that time is now! Lean is a waste-elimination mindset which applies to sales and marketing, order entry, accounting, engineering, materials control, purchasing, and other front office functions providing many opportunities to identify and eliminate waste.

Businesses have spent a lot of their efforts in implementing lean and 5S in their manufacturing processes and not the office. Office waste can be defined in the same lean terms as the factory and provide significant opportunities to improver performance and productivity in your organization.

The benefits of office lean are many and include increased customer satisfaction, improved lead times, reduced paperwork, increased productivity and quality, improved communication, and information flow.

If waste exists in your office, this workshop will help you find it. We will identify the seven wastes in the office and demonstrate using lean principles and 5S tools how to eliminate waste with examples from real world applications.

We will discuss 5S workplace organization and housekeeping elements and demonstrate its role as the foundation of lean office and the first step in the lean office journey for getting people involved and taking ownership for identifying and eliminating waste in their work and work processes.

This workshop will provide the knowledge, tools, and know-how to discover the 7 office wastes, the 5S process, lean principles, importance of leadership in creating a visual workplace, people involvement and teamwork, starting a pilot project, implementation and review.

Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to:

• Identify the wastes in their office
• Discuss the benefits of working in a clutter-free environmentn
• Recognize the usefulness of signage, colour and location
• Develop a program to eliminate waste and implement a continuous improvement review process

Dennis Lord is an internationally known educator and management consultant with over 25 years of practical experience in inventory and supply chain management, lean manufacturing, 5S, and manufacturing resource planning (MRP/ERP).

He is Executive Director of Inventory Management Solutions, a firm he founded in 1985 with the mission to be the best at educating, training, motivating, and coaching people to improve their knowledge and skills in inventory management.

Dennis has been providing education and know-how for over 25 years to manufacturing and distribution companies assisting them in achieving excellence in all aspects of inventory management in their supply chain in Canada, England, United States, Hungary, Romania, Trinidad and Guyana.

A graduate in business from the University of Toronto, Dennis is APICS certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM). He is a popular speaker at APICS professional development meetings on supply chain management issues and has presented at the APICS International Conference and APICS Small Manufacturing d Symposium.

His volunteer activities with APICS (The Association for Operations Management) included holding the following positions: President of the APICS Toronto Chapter, Chair of APICS Small Manufacturing SIG (Specific Industry Group), VP Education for the APICS Peel Chapter, Director on the Board of The Operations Management Education and Research Institute of Canada (OMERIC) and APICS Region 8 VP of Marketing 2005.

Sheree Jamieson

Sheree Jamieson brings 18+ years of experience leading and facilitating workshops within the college community, and as an independent consultant. Her sessions are well known as fun and energetic learning experiences that provide tools and skills that can be implemented immediately.

The Training Director for I M S Consulting/Inventory Management Solutions based in Toronto Ontario, her responsibilities include client contact to assess training needs and preparation and delivery of education and training workshops. The Lead instructor for a number of college programs, she has developed, managed and presented programs and courses in Leadership Development and Problem Solving Skills.

Ms. Jamieson's education and certificates include: APICS -The Educational Society for Resource Management: Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM); Ryerson Polytechnic University, Certificate, Teaching and Training Adults; Ontario Tourism Education Council, Certificate: SuperHost Leader Training; Georgian College, Certificate, Teaching and Training Adults.

Volunteer activities with APICS (The Association for Operations Management) included holding the following positions: President of the APICS Simcoe Chapter, Director on the Board of The Operations Management Education and Research Institute of Canada (OMERIC) and APICS Region 8 VP of Events 2005.