When you are as passionate about Lean as Clarity are, an event that promises to bring together Lean leaders from some of the most respected companies in the world is hard to miss. When you are also asked to present on a subject which you are completely passionate about, it is even more difficult to say no, and when you are offered a tour of the Jaguar Land Rover factory to see the amazing Jaguar F5 being built as part of the deal, we said ‘yes’!
Two of Clarity’s visual management advisor and our Key Account Manager were offered this opportunity at the Journey to Excellence event, and all agreed that it delivered on all these promises superbly. The combination of the keynote speeches, the practical workshop presentations, the opportunity to share the experience with like-minded Lean thinkers all added up to a fascinating and extremely informative event, and the factory tour of JLR where we could see it all put into practice was ‘the icing on the cake’.
The two-day event began with an excellent keynote speech from Jim Crosbie, the Deputy Managing Director of Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK in which Clarity was honoured to be recognised for the part they played in reducing Toyota’s Takt time for the build of the hybrid engine. It was a real boost to hear Jim talk about the wider picture and the jobs that were saved by Toyota’s reaction to the challenge to keep this manufacturing in the UK and to understand that our visual management had all played a part in this. We were impressed, but not surprised, to hear more about how respect for its people is central to Toyota’s is so central to work ethic and the importance of the role of leaders to sustain this.
On a somewhat similar theme from a very different type of manufacturer, there followed a very engaging presentation from Dr Alan McLenaghan of Saint Gobain Glass USA. It was interesting that in such different manufacturing environments, the theme of respect for people and the importance of leadership in this regard were so central to their success.
This was only the beginning, and over the two days we enjoyed hearing how Bosch Power Train Solutions have faced the challenges of a business with over 50 plants and 88,00 employees to evolve a powerful, very effective global improvement programme with Kaizen Events at its heart, were challenged by Professor Nick Rich whether our Lean systems were as Lean as we think they are, getting an understanding of the value of a Culture of Continuous Improvement from Steven Boyd of Tokheim Global and Adam Buckley, the Consultant who has guided them through this journey, and much, much more.
It was great to see the huge interest in our workshop, ‘Making Lean Work’ through Visual Management, and encouraging to see so many Lean leaders were recognising the power of visual management to drive the results they are looking for from their Lean programmes. Matt Thomas, Clarity’s Senior Visual Management Advisor, went over some fascinating insights into the way that the human brain remembers information (only 10% of what we hear, but over 80% of what we see and do!), and how we can use these facts to produce visual tools that really make a difference to our performance.
One very enjoyable aspect of these events is the willingness to share experience, both positive and negative, we always find amongst the attendees. It provides such a great opportunity to learn and here are a few golden nuggets we picked up and felt we could learn from, and share with you today:
Here at Clarity Visual Management, we consult with clients both far and wide about how they can use visual management to achieve their goals, exceed their targets and make financial savings which would otherwise be lost to waste. We work with our clients to create a bespoke strategy that ensures visual management is set up for success before providing specific, high-quality Lean products to sustain the visual management programme and make Lean work in the organisation long-term.
You can read more about the work we’ve undertaken with our clients by browsing through our Visual Management Case Studies.
Download our ‘Introduction to Clarity Visual Management’ if you’re unfamiliar with Clarity and want to learn a little more about our products and services.
Get in touch and speak with a Visual Management Specialist to answer any questions you may have on our products, consultancy or business.
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