“Lean Management” is one of the hottest new ideas to hit the green industry. Although not new to the business world, the process and application is new to the green industry and is demonstrating astonishing results.
PLANET member Dan Ariens writes in the introduction of the new Crystal Ball #26, Lean Management for the Green Industry: An Operational Strategy That Delivers Value to Customers and Eliminates Waste: “In this short introduction, I cannot explain the burning question, ‘What is lean?’ At Ariens Co., we constantly are asked to explain our wonderful transformation. I can only offer this simple explanation: Lean is a journey toward the constant pursuit of perfection. Typically, the next burning question is ‘Can perfection be achieved?’ This answer lies inside the journey.”
Not just a philosophy, lean management is a new way of operating. The business owners and industry leaders who contributed to the Crystal Ball Report have seen first-hand operating examples of how companies can reduce labor by 50 percent or more while improving quality, service, and pricing for their customers.
The Crystal Ball Report explains how it can be done with companies of all sizes, although the report states that “this report could have the fastest impact on the youngest and smallest of our (PLANET) member companies because if these companies adopted the lean management operational strategy early on in their businesses, they would benefit greatly during their periods of rapid growth by having all of the lean management disciplines and documentations in place.”
The report explains that, “The foundation for lean management’s success is the relentless elimination of any and all of seven distinct types of waste that prevent companies from providing optimum value to their customers. The seven types of waste are inventory, transportation, processing, waiting, motion, overproduction, and defect.” Each of these is further explained in the report with specific examples.
PLANET will present a learning experience on lean management at its upcoming Executive Forum, Feb. 15–18, 2007, in Bonita Springs, Fla. The three-day event is designed for green industry company owners and managers and offers the unique opportunity to learn the principles of lean management through hands-on exercises, while collaborating with green industry executive peers.
Featuring Elliott N. Weiss, Ph.D., of the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, this year’s forum will bring together academia, industry experts, and green industry peers. As part of the event, attendees also will learn from Jim Paluch how Ariens Co. and JP Horizons have teamed up to bring the next steps to lean management. The 52-week “Working Smarter Training Challenge” introduces organizations to lean management through weekly step-by-step online training.
“This really is an unprecedented approach for this industry,” states PLANET’s 2007 president, Jim Martin, CLP. “And this goes beyond the usual business theory. This is an approach that when practiced and implemented, achieves solid and measurable results.”
Sponsors of the event include: Ariens/Gravely/Stens (Platinum Sponsor), Caterpillar (Gold Sponsor), and Vermeer (Silver Sponsor).
For more information about the Executive Forum and Crystal Ball Report #26, visit landcarenetwork.org or call the PLANET office at 800/395-2522.