“We don’t make cars, we manufacture specialty products in low volume, therefore lean will not work here.” Nothing could be further from the truth, Toyota actually started developing their lean methods in a high mix machine shop. Unfortunately the high volume conveyor line is what has become famous and synonymous with lean.

Most find it difficult to imagine the lean tools working when you have thousands of products being produced to customer demand. Instead of trying to force the high volume tools into these environments, we must go back to what is the principal, trying to infer and create different methods for these high mix situations based on lean thinking.

This webinar will explore a few of the methodologies that have been adapted to profitably deploy lean when you have thousands of parts or services provided in low volume.

Presenter: Greg Lane, founder of the Low Volume Lean Center, utilized his specialized Toyota training to purchase and transform a high mix/low volume manufacturing company. His 25 years of experience helping implement continuous improvement in more than 100 organizations in 32 countries has focused in high mix and low volume. He has worked in diverse industries and service sectors, in areas including make to order, job shops, engineer to order and service to order.

He has published three mainstream books and co-authored another. The focus is always on how to pragmatically implement cultural and methods improvements.

His books include:

“Culturally On Plan” – A pragmatic guide to align organizational behaviors with strategic objectives
“Made to Order Lean” – Excelling in a high mix low volume environment
“Mr. Lean Buys & Transforms a Manufacturing Company” – The true story of profitably growing a business with lean principles

He is a faculty member of the Lean Enterprise Institute in the USA and Spain, and a lecturer of post graduate studies at University Polytechnic Barcelona.