As North American manufacturing professionals search for innovative ways to rebuild their industry, the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) is offering the resources many are proactively seeking. In addition to the constant flow of continuous improvement- and lean-focused events and networking opportunities, AME has recently expanded through partnerships with other industry organizations.
AME’s most recent partnership with the American Society for Quality (ASQ) will allow AME and its members to access many more like-minded individuals in their quest for enterprise excellence.
“The mutually beneficial affiliation between AME and ASQ will open more doors during this challenging economic time,” says Phil Roether, president of AME. “Our organizations and members can exchange best practices, fresh ideas and new tools and technologies that may improve everyone’s bottom lines.”
This new partnership will also offer more opportunities for the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and Shingo Prize, as all four organizations together will offer Lean certification programs that demonstrate one’s level of lean knowledge and practice.
“Our lean certification program consists of three levels – bronze, silver and gold,” says Bill Baker, AME’s vice president of affiliations and an ASQ member. “It is not just a certificate; rather, professionals must dedicate time and effort into exhibiting industry-standard lean expertise.”
The partnership will allow all organizations to align to a universally recognized, single lean certification standard, offer maintenance and strategic oversight, mutually promote and endorse the certification, provide the program to members at a discounted rate, create training and development efforts supporting the certification, and co-sponsor lean certification-related events and materials.
The addition of ASQ to the partnership’s intensive lean certification program ensures new advantages for all of the involved organizations, as well as their members.
About the Association for Manufacturing Excellence
The Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) is the premier not-for-profit organization dedicated to the journey of continuous improvement and enterprise excellence. AME’s membership is composed of a trusted network of individuals who are committed to leveraging the practitioner-to-practitioner and company-to-company shared-learning experience. Through engaging workshops, seminars, plant tours and industry-leading conferences, AME members are continually discovering and implementing new continuous improvement strategies and best practices. AME offers its members a multitude of valuable resources to help them stay abreast of current industry developments, and improve the skills, competitiveness and overall success of their organizations. For more information, visit www.ame.org or e-mail info@ame.org.
