Session 203 - The State of Lean Manufacturing in 2008: Separating Myths from Reality

Moderator: Kenneth Brant, Manufacturing Research Director, Gartner Research
Panelists: Jean Cunningham, Principal of Jean Cunningham Consulting and author of Real Numbers and Easier, Simpler, Faster; Robert Martichenko, Lean Enterprise Institute, Principal of LeanCor and author of Lean Logistics and Building the Lean Fulfillment Stream; William Kastle, Senior VP, Accenture/George Group and author of What is Lean/Six Sigma?; Narayan Laksham, Founder & President, Ultriva, Inc.

This session features several prominent thought leaders and Lean practitioners who will address critical issues in Lean thinking and deployments today:

• Is Lean more or less relevant in today's business environment?
• What are the gaps between Lean in theory and common practices?
• What has often gone wrong in Lean transformations and what are the lessons learned?
• Important differences and the complementary nature of Lean, Six Sigma and the "Toyota Way"
• Kaizen is at the heart of Lean thinking; how can it be implemented in IT Systems? Should it be?
• Is Lean "hostile" to IT? If not, where has IT contributed to successful efforts?
• Is the ERP paradigm too rigid for Lean's change-oriented production system?
• How do MRP II, and traditional approaches to accounting and HR functions, help or hurt Lean implementations?

The session will include a panel discussion plus several case studies that exemplify the real-life challenges and solutions - from many different perspectives of a manufacturing enterprise – when implementing Lean.