Whether you’re a homeowner, manufacturer, service provider, independent contractor, non-profit, for-profit, government, or school, lean thinking will help you do more with less.

In this lean workshop we’ll address:

• History of Lean
• What is value added work

• What are the 8 wastes of lean
• Non-traditional applications of Lean

We will discuss the following concepts:

• Value
• 8 forms of waste

• 5 Lean Principles
• Single piece flow vs batching
• 5S Workplace Organization
• Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
• Visual Management
• Error Proofing

Join Amanda Zimmerman from Beautiful Opportunities and Brittany Sale from Lean Portland to better understand how to develop and introduce lean in your organization and your personal workflow.

Roots of Lean

In the 1950’s Taiichi Ohno, the father of lean manufacturing, created what became known as the Toyota Production System and subsequently as Lean. In the words of Mr. Ohno himself, if we “are not given the opportunity to serve the company by working effectively, there can be no joy. For the company to deny that opportunity is to be against the principle of respect for humanity.”

According to lean, anything that doesn’t increase value in the eye of the customer is considered waste, and every effort should be made to eliminate that waste as it is taking time away from working on more meaningful tasks. By the early 2000s, a connection was being made between waste and the impact it had on the environment (energy, water, landfill, pollution and carbon emissions), and the idea of “lean and green” and "lean and sustainability" was born.

What do others think of this class?

"Good information and break down of concepts for people who don't know much about these concepts before hand!"

"Definitely a great example of applying the mindset as well as the process tools. Presented well!"

"Great intro to lean principles. Enjoyed history of Toyota, Deming and background"

"Fun, interactive, super informative!"

"I loved the level of detail we were able to get into"

"Activity was great & the visual showing smaller batch efficiency was cool too"