Reliable Plant magazine announced the content of the two panel discussions that will take place at its “Lean Tools for Maintenance & Reliability” conference, which will be held September 18-20 at the Flamingo Hotel in
The panel discussions are:
Tuesday, September 19, 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Muda-busters: A partnered approach to eliminating waste
Synopsis: The underlying goal of the Toyota Production System (a.k.a. lean manufacturing) is the aggressive identification and removal of muda, a Japanese word that means waste. Processes, activities, steps, objects, etc. that are deemed as muda do not add value. In TPS, the seven categories of muda are overproduction, waiting, conveyance, processing, inventory, motion and correction. But how do you know what is muda and what is not? It might not be as easy as it seems. As a plant-floor manager, you can sometimes be too close to the action to separate what is necessary and important from what is wasteful and clutter. Think about your garage, basement or den at home, and you can begin to understand how difficult this separating task can be. This is when it can be extremely useful to partner with someone from outside your organization. Providing a fresh set of eyes, a five-whys outlook and a world of experience, such experts can be the driving force to achieving lean results. In this panel discussion, we have assembled four experts who will share their experiences in helping clients reassess plant systems and status, improve reliability and uptime, and eliminate waste in a multitude of shapes and forms.
Wednesday, September 20, 11 a.m. to noon
Proactive solutions: On the cutting edge of lean
Synopsis: The kaizen culture is focused on continuous improvement. How can we improve what we are doing today? What changes or improvements can we make to our processes or our key production assets in order to raise reliability, uptime and overall equipment effectiveness? What can we do to turn the maintenance department into a high-tech, proactive solutions provider? You can embrace kaizen through the utilization and maximization of predictive, preventive and corrective maintenance products and technologies. These are cost-effective steps that can continuously improve your performance. In this panel discussion, we have assembled four experts who will give you an overview of some of the cutting-edge products, technologies and solutions that can raise the level of your organization and help you realize the fruits of that kaizen culture. If you want to be lean, you’ll need to be proactive.