12 Denver Workshops Help Companies Compete Using Lean Management.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Denver is the site for 12 workshops on lean management and lean production that will help service and manufacturing companies defend jobs, improve profits, and cut costs, according to the nonprofit Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI), which will run the workshops.

The workshops will run May 6-8, 2008, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Doubletree Denver, Denver, CO. Registration information, workshop details, and faculty descriptions are at the Education page of the LEI web site at http://www.lean.org/Workshops/ by calling [phone], or by emailing [e-mail]. The workshops, which cost $800 per day, are:

Tues., May 6

- Developing People and Capability for Lean

- Lean Warehousing Introduction

- Standardized Work, the Foundation for Kaizen

- Supporting Leader Standard Work with Visual Management Tools

- Value-Stream Mapping for Manufacturing

Wed., May 7

- Coaching Skills for Lean Implementation Leaders

- Creating Continuous Flow

- Lean Warehousing Implementation (2 days)

- Managing Value-Stream Improvement Projects (2 days)

- Value-Stream Mapping for Offices and Services

Thurs., May 8

- Lean Problem Solving

- Making Materials Flow

LEI runs basic and more advanced workshops and management seminars in a different region of North America every month on how to implement lean principles in manufacturing and non-manufacturing processes. Registration is open now for training in these cities:

* Denver, CO, May 6-8

* Boston, MA, Senior Executive Forum, May 14-15

* Boston, MA, May 21-22

* Lincolnshire (outside Chicago), IL, June 9-12

* Boston, MA, Lean Management Seminar, June 24-26

* Montreal (Canada), July 29 - 31

What is Lean?

http://www.lean.org/WhatsLean/

The term "lean production" or more correctly "lean management" refers to a complete business system for organizing and managing product development, operations, suppliers, customer relations, and the overall enterprise that requires less human effort, less space, less capital, less material, and less time to make products with fewer defects to precise customer desires, compared with traditional management.

Toyota pioneered lean management as a complete business system after World War II. During the late 1980s, a research team headed by LEI Founder James Womack, Ph.D., at MIT's International Motor Vehicle Program coined the term "lean" to describe Toyota's system.

Lean management principles cuts costs and inventories rapidly to free cash and resources, which is critical in a competitive world economy. More importantly, lean management supports profitable growth by improving productivity and quality, reducing lead times, and freeing resources. For example, it frees office and plant space and increases capacity so companies can add product lines, in-source component production, and increase output of existing products. Companies implementing lean can take advantage of economic growth by increasing sales while controlling costs.

About the Lean Enterprise Institute http://www.lean.org/

Based in Cambridge, MA, the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit education, publishing, conferencing, and management research center founded in September 1997 by management expert James P. Womack, PhD. LEI helps organizations transform themselves into lean enterprises. Its workshops and workbooks teach lean techniques like value-stream mapping, lean manufacturing, supply chain and logistics management, and strategy deployment. Its management seminars and books help managers and executives develop the leadership behaviors that sustain lean enterprises. Its conferences showcase firms making lean breakthroughs. The Lean Global Network, organized by LEI, has 14 nonprofit global affiliates in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. For more information visit LEI at http://www.lean.org.