Jobshop Lean 2010 Conference scheduled for Sept. 7-9 at The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

The JobshopLean2010 Conference will be held Sept. 7-9, 2010 at The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. This niche conference is focused on adapting and extending Lean as an overarching strategy specifically targeting high-mix, low-volume, small-to-medium manufacturers. "JobshopLean" recognizes that, while waste elimination must serve as a foundation, a successful manufacturing strategy for a jobshop requires a different mindset, new methods, and computer-aided tools to design a production system that is flexible, agile, reconfigurable, and adaptable to business and operational conditions that an OEM like Toyota never has to deal with.

According to the conference organizers, attendees will:

• Observe (maybe participate in) a unique interactive JobshopLean simulation that teaches the nuts-and-bolts of various JobshopLean strategies that have been successfully implemented in jobshops by students and faculty at The Ohio State University.
• Network with like-minded peers from academia and industry who have experiences to share, advice to give, and questions that you may also want to have answered.
• Hear from speakers who are themselves owners of jobshops and have successfully implemented "Lean to Thrive" during the recession.
• Learn from fellow high-mix, low-volume manufacturers about successful strategies, pitfalls, and surprises that they encountered on their companies’ Lean journeys.
• Attend a special presentation that describes an ongoing project to identify part families in the product mix of a jobshop, and then leverage that knowledge to "see the whole" and determine system-wide, not local, improvement opportunities.
• Attend a session featuring presentations on "Technology Enablers for Jobshop Management."
• Attend a session devoted to "Leadership and Workforce Development in Small and Medium Enterprises."
• Attend a special presentation on "Scientific Management of a Jobshop" by a jobshop owner.
• Watch the Toast Kaizen video and learn how to integrate "Lean Tools" with the powerful diagnostic charts and scheduling techniques that industrial engineers use for process improvement through waste elimination.
• Participate in a closing two-hour open forum discussion involving the entire group of conference attendees.

More information about the conference can be found here